So he whipped it all together in an omelet and the rest is history.

Ok. So I made that up, but I imagine that’s how the Denver omelet probably started. In reality I have no idea who came up with it or why it’s named after The Mile High City. Whatever. I know it’s delicious and what else do you need to know?!

I have no idea what this has to do with Denver.

If there’s one thing that an aspiring home cook should learn how to make, it’s an omelet. They are very versatile and once you get the hang of them, you can feed a crowd very quickly. I’ve made a griddle omelet before on Macheesmo which is a bit of a different creature. This is a more traditional omelet and has some of my favorite fillings.

The Denver Omelet

Yield: 2 large omelets.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large eggs, mixed with a dash of milk. Keep them separate (2 and 2) so you end up with even omelets
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 ounces thick cut ham, diced
1/4 white onion, diced
A few button mushrooms, diced
4 ounces cheddar cheese
Butter or clarified butter for cooking

Helpful Equipment:
8 inch omelet pan (This is the one I have and love but you can use any nonstick pan really.)

Directions:

1) Prepare and chop all your veggies and ham. Grate the cheese.

2) Add the diced ham to a pan with a drizzle of oil and cook until it's lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat.

3) Add the other veggies for the filling and cook for another 1-2 minutes just to get them slightly soft and warm.

4) Add a teaspoon of butter or clarified butter to your omelet pan over medium-high heat. Once it's melted add your eggs (2 per omelet).

5) The eggs will start cooking quickly. Use a flat spatula to gently move the cooked eggs to the center of the pan and tilt the pan to let the uncooked eggs run outside and cook. It won't take long to have your eggs mostly cooked.

6) Add filling and grated cheese to one half of your omelet and gently fold the eggs over.

7) Add a few drops of water to your pan and slide a large plate over the top of the omelet pan. This will steam your omelet which will finish cooking it and also melt the cheese perfectly. Let it steam for 30-45 seconds.

8) Slide the omelet onto a plate and serve immediately.

Making the omelet

I’m going to do my best to describe this in photos in case you’ve never made an omelet before, but this is reason number 47 why I think I need to start incorporating the occasional video on Macheesmo. There’s some subtle things that happen during the omelet making that are tough to describe with photos.

Basic stuff.

Before we get there though, the filling is pretty straightforward. And yes, I stuff all of this into two omelets, but I like mine really stuffed. Basically, I just shoot for equal parts ham, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms.

Roughly even amounts

I’m a big fan of pre-cooking my filling for just a few minutes to get it softened just a tiny bit. You don’t want the veggies soggy, but you don’t want them raw either.

Start with a tablespoon of neutral oil in a pan over medium-high heat and add your diced ham. Cook that for a few minutes until it is starting to brown nicely.

Crispy ham is better than soft ham.

Then add all your other veggies. Since everything should be roughly diced the same size it will cook more or less the same. Add a cook pinch of salt and pepper and let your filling cook for another minute or two. Again, don’t over cook these guys.

This is about perfect.

Very flavorful.

Coffee Break

There’s nothing better than a nice cup of French Press coffee on a weekend while making a good hearty breakfast. Betsy and I have gotten so used to using our French Press I’m not even sure where our drip coffee maker actually is. If you’re in the market for some good coffee, The Bodum French Press is my favorite. I’ve used mine for years now.

Click the photo to buy the French Press I use!

Back to Omelets

Ok. Sorry for the detour. Coffee is important though.

If you happen to have some clarified butter around, it’s perfect for omelets. This is the same clarified butter I made months ago. It keeps for a very long time in the fridge once it’s clarified.

It’s probably not worth making clarified butter for just this dish though so use normal butter if you don’t have some.

You could of course use normal butter.

Add about 1 Teaspoon of butter or clarified butter to your non-stick omelet pan and put it over medium-high heat. Once the butter is hot, add your whisked eggs! They should start cooking immediately. Using a small spatula, start pushing the cooked eggs to the center and letting the uncooked eggs leak out to the outside of the pan.

You’ll have to tilt the pan as you go to get the liquid egg to move to the outside of the pan.

Get it?

I need to start doing videos...

After about 45 seconds, most of your egg should be cooked. There might be a very thin layer of uncooked egg right on top, but that’s good actually. Just leave it for now. It’ll cook as we finish our omelet.

Next, pile on your fillings and cheese! I like to do a layer of cheese, then filling, then more cheese.

A mile high!

Then attempt to fold the omelet over. It probably won’t cover all the filling. That’s cool though. Just get it as close as you can. Work quickly people.

It's possible I slightly overfilled.

The Trick

The trick to being able to really stuff an omelet is at the very end you steam it for a few seconds to seal everything together.

I just add a few drops of water to the pan and then cover the pan with a plate that fits. I happen to have one that fits my omelet pan perfectly. (This has the bonus benefit of heating up your plate!)

Dual purpose!

After about 15-20 seconds of steaming your omelet will be cooked and the cheese will be melted and everything will be happy.

To get the omelet out of the pan, don’t try to pick it up. Just move the pan to the plate and gently slide it off the pan and onto the plate. If you’re really good, you can slightly roll the omelet so that the filling is completely covered. Again, this is where video would rock.

I like to garnish mine with some chives, salt, pepper, and sometimes a dash of hot sauce.

I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

I have no idea who invented this omelet or how it got its name, but I do know that it’s one of my favorite omelet fillings of all time.

What I really want to know is… Did that make sense?? Video??

This year I changed up my normal recipe a bit by adding pearled onions and scallions:

Good luck for a whole year!

This dish is very easy but it does require just a bit of planning because you have to soak the beans overnight.

Good Luck Pea Soup
(makes like 40 servings)

- 1 pound black-eyed peas (1 bag)
- 1 pound ham steak, cubed
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bunch scallions, chop whites and use greens for garnish
- 1 pound pearl onions
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- Salt/pepper

The first step is to soak your beans overnight and then rinse them in a colander.

Most under-rated legume ever.

Set those aside and chop up your ham, garlic and scallions. Chop up the white part of the onions for the stew and then we will use the greens for a garnish.

The additions are simple but delicious.

In a large pot, I used a 7 qt. pot, get your olive oil hot on medium heat and then throw in your scallions and garlic. Let those sautée for 2 or 3 minutes.

Let your onions and garlic get to know each other.

Then add in your ham. This should cook for ten minutes. You want your ham to just start to brown a bit.

Add the ham to the mix.

Then throw in all your beans. You want to stir well to make sure all your flavors are incorporated.

This smells really good right now.

Next add six cups of water and bring to a boil. Once the stew is boiling, turn down to low and let your soup simmer for one hour.

After that hour, toss in your pearl onions. I also tasted my soup here and added salt and pepper until I liked the flavor. You could add lots of other spices like oregano, red pepper flake, etc. I wanted to keep mine pretty simple though.

The onions give a good texture to the dish.

Let this simmer for another 30 minutes and your beans should be tender and perfect. If they aren’t then let them cook for another thirty. Very simple. Very delicious.

Good luck!

I like to leave this pot on low all day and if you are having people over they can help themselves throughout the day. It’s a very warming dish and who knows… maybe you’ll have some good luck in 2009.

If you want even extra good luck you can use the below buttons to share this with your friends…

So I made these for breakfast:

You can just barely see the figginess.

There are only two real steps to this recipe that make it unique: making the fig jam and making the biscuits. In my opinion you have to make the biscuits from scratch. They aren’t that hard and they really make the sandwich.

The fig jam you could buy. But I’ve never really made jam before so I took this as an opportunity.

Black Mission Fig Jam (from BA)
(45 minutes)
- 1/2 pound mission figs (like six)
- 1.5 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons light molasses (this is very important. The LIGHT part I mean. I used dark and it was a bit too molassesy. I couldn’t find light molasses though. Maybe honey? Or maybe use just 1 Tablespoon of dark molasses)
- 3/4 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 3/4 Teaspoon sugar
- Fresh ground pepper
- Pinch of salt

You literally put all this stuff in a pot and let it reduce down for 45 minutes.

Start and finish:

45 minutes and a few simple ingredients.

Now let’s talk biscuits. These biscuits are a bit heartier than you might be used to. You want that though because they have to hold up to ham, cheese, and fig preserve. A lame store bought biscuit would fall apart.

Buttermilk Biscuits (also form BA)
(Makes 8 if you are me. 12 if you are Bon Appétit.
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1.5 Teaspoons salt (kosher is best)
- 1.5 Teaspoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons shortening
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 3 Tablespoons very thinly sliced, and frozen, butter

Start with your first four ingredients and mix them up well. Then use your hands to pinch in the shortening. You want it evenly distributed in small pea-sized globs.

The dry stuff.

The next step is the tricky part and the part I had never done before. The recipe calls for using a French preparation (so they claim, but I’m not French so who knows). You roll the dough out in a rectangle until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

Then place the chilled butter all over the dough, and fold it over in thirds. So you want a layer of dough, a layer of butter, a layer of dough, a layer of butter, and then a layer of dough.

Don’t press down on this dough too much. You want it thick and light.

Does this make sense?

Once you have this part done you need to actually make the biscuits. This is easy if you have a biscuit cutter or even a freakin’ cookie cutter. I had none of these.

I got a small, sharp paring knife and made biscuits. Easy breezy. Then brush them with a bit of buttermilk.

Ready to be baked.

Bake these for 20 minutes at 425. You’ll end up with these beauties.

DUDE.

Now this gets easy. Cut a few of these in half. Spread some butter on one half and some fig jam on the other. Pile on some ham and cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.

Overboard on cheese? Impossible

Stick them under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the biscuits browned.

Taste tester had one. I had two because I'm a fatty.

These are a great way to start the day. You just can’t go wrong. You could change up the cheeses and ham with tons of stuff I’m sure. These are like a McMuffin on a strong dose of awesome.

If you liked this post, leave a comment! Or use the below links to share it with your people.

Mr. Crunchy indeed.

Only the French could think of this amazingly rich creation: A grilled ham and cheese topped with a rich buttery cheese sauce and broiled. In fact there is even a version called the Croque Madame which has a fried egg on top. I’m sure that is yummy but it seemed like overkill to me. A 1,000 calorie sandwich – excellent. A 1,200 calorie sandwich – CRAZY.

So let’s get started. I adapted a version I saw on Ina Garten’s site. The problem is that Ina’s recipe makes enough for like 8 sandwiches. Maybe Ina can eat more than one of these, but I definitely can’t. (Joke Ina. You know I love you.) You will need:

- 8 ounces deli ham
- 2 cup (apprx.) grated Gruyere or good Swiss cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parm
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 Tablespoon Flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- Sandwich or French bread
- Salt and Pepper
- Mustard (optional)
- Nutmeg? (She includes this. I didn’t because it sounded like crazy talk.

The basics.

I cut pretty thick pieces of bread and toasted them for a few minutes in the oven at 500 degrees. You want them pretty crispy. This is Mr. Crunchy. Not Mr. Schmooshy.

After the toasting, assemble the sandwich. I put mustard on mine, but Betsy doesn’t like mustard and it was good without as well. I put mustard on anything I can because I consider it the dream condiment. You want to use about 1/2 cup of your Swiss inside the sandwich. It acts as a glue.

The start of a beautiful friendship.

While I worked on my sauce, I let these bake just for a few minutes at 300 degrees just to melt the cheese inside and heat up the ham.

Now let’s talk cheese sauce or as the French call it a Bechamel sauce. First thing you need to do for this (and the hardest part) is make a Roux. Basically, it is butter and flour which cooks down a bit and thickens anything you put in it. Good stuff.

Butter in a pan.

After your Tablespoon of butter melts, slowly whisk in your flour a teaspoon at a time. It should resemble a paste and start to brown a bit. Don’t go watch a movie or anything while this is cooking, it can very easily burn. In fact, guess what. I burned mine which is why the above pot is different from the below pot. It’s like 10 cents worth of ingredients. Just do it over if you break it.

A Roux. Round two.

This Roux is almost done. Probably another thirty seconds. Then you slowly whisk in your milk. If you pour all your milk in at once, the flour will clump up and you will have milk dumplings. NOT good on a sandwich. So pour slow and you will eventually get a creamy sauce which you should let cook and bubble a bit on low heat for a few minutes. You want it to be pretty thick. Then add in all of your cheeses and salt and pepper and Nutmeg if you are being a rebel.

This will be a familiar process to you if you’ve ever made serious baked macaroni and cheese. It is almost the exact same process.

A serious cheese sauce.

Then it is as simple as spooning this amazing sauce over your sandwich and broiling it for about 5 minutes until it is brown and bubbly.

The sandwich is assembled.

This was a pretty good sandwich. It’s possible that I could make it better I think. The bread was a bit thick, but I’m being pretty critical. It was damn good. Let’s judge it on the same qualities as the first sandwich:

Cheesiness: 9. It is tough to imagine a cheesier sandwich. I won’t give it a 10 just so I have room for improvement.

Bread: 7. I think it was a good bread, but I think I cut it a bit too thick. It was also a bit soft. Something with more heft might have worked better.

Fillings: 7. The ham is a good choice. But that is really all that is in it. Not that it needs anything else. The egg might be a good addition.

Overall: 8. An absolutely fantastic, rich sandwich. Great for a Fall afternoon.

Mr. Crunchy

Got an idea for a sandwich to put on the Grilled Cheese Trials? Email it to me or leave it in a comment.