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Ok, ok, if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll know I hate eggs. However, I’m determined to turn a new leaf. Just two months ago I ate a boiled egg that was in some soup my mom made. I was very proud of myself. When a commenter asked me to make the Soufflé Omelette from Food Wars!, I thought I would give it a try because it just looks so fluffy and yummy.
Luckily for all of us, this omelette really isn’t all the hard to make, as long as you don’t mind taking a few extra steps over what a typical omelette requires. And, bonus, the extra effort really pays off. I’ll go ahead and say that I took a bite of this omelette (only one bite- this is a big improvement for me) and was really shocked at how good it was. It’s fluffy and bouncy, and reminded me a lot of the texture of my grandma’s pancakes (ultra fluffy). She leavened her cakes with whipped egg white, so that would account for the texture and taste, but while I wasn’t a fan of my grandmother’s pancakes, I like the texture and taste in the omelette. It’s contrasted greatly be a fantastic tomato sauce which grounds the eggy flavor and provides a complexity the texture of the omelette lacks.
I was hesitant to make this, forgetting for a moment my hatred of eggs, because I know a lot of people online have done it. However, I couldn’t find a video version that faithfully recreated the recipe or showed all the steps, so what you’ll find in my tutorial below is a complete how-to, from start to finish. I have to say, watching a bunch of other people make it online made me worried- they made it look so easy!! We all know how that goes- the easier it looks online, the harder it’s sure to be when you try it in person, right? Shockingly, this was not the case with this omelette. The thing that is going to trip most people up is the egg white/ egg yolk scenario, so I’ll explain a little why you should do what I show you in the video below.
The key to making this omelette like a soufflé is all in the airiness of the omelette. To get air into something, you have to beat it (into submission) until the egg whites stiffen up and hold shape- they shouldn’t slide out if you tip the bowl upside down. However, you can’t just throw an egg in a bowl and blend it up. The first obstacle would be the shell- no one wants to eat that! (Haha) Even if you remove the shell, and don’t seperate the white and the yolk, you’ll run into a problem. Egg yolk doesn’t hold air in the same way whites do (it has to do with protein structure of the yolk), so you’ll get more air into the overall batter if you seperate the two, prepare them seperately, and then fold them together in the end. Then comes the problem of keeping the air in. Once you add the yolk, you’re on a timer. You’ve got to get that mixture in the pan as soon as possible, or the bubbles will start to break and it will devolve into a regular, un-whipped egg mixture. It’ll still make a nice omelette, but it won’t be fluffy. Once you lose the fluff, you can’t get it back without starting over so I’d caution you to work in small batches! No more than four eggs at a time. I made a batter with 6 eggs and found it started to seperate too quickly.
Finally, whenever I do something from Food Wars! I like to question whether or not it would actually be possible to make this recipe on the scale Soma did, while staying true to the recipe. Soma had to serve up 200 plates and based on my experience with this recipe, this might just be BARELY possible… if he’s a super human. Soma has to make 28 batches of omelettes, at around 7 omelettes per batch, all in thirty minutes. This means he has to whip the eggs, fold in the yolk mixture, pouring in the batter, and flip and serve the omelettes at a rate of ~7 per minute.
Now, Soma has tons of experience in a diner, where omelettes are pretty typical faire- so he’s got experience there. His sauce was already prepared, taking out an extra step. Egg whites take a bit of time to whip up, but if he did a lot at once and just mixed the yolk with it when he was ready, I can see that working out. Flipping the omelette into the air and catching it, perfectly folded on a plate??? I don’t know about that, but I’ll chalk it up to main character powers. And his aforementioned skills making omelettes. He has a lot going for him, but even so….he has to dish up 7 omelettes per minute, not counting all the prep work he’s also doing. I just don’t think this is possible for one man alone in the kitchen. Only in anime.
Watch the video below for more details on how to make this dish!
Ingredients for Mini Soufflé Omelette:
2 eggs per omelette
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
2 Tbsp cream for every 2 eggs
1 can diced tomatoes
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup red wine
Fresh parsley
To Make Mini Soufflé Omelette:
1. Finely chop the parsley for a garnish. Set aside. Finely chop or grate garlic clove. Set aside.
2. Open the can of diced tomatoes. Over low heat, warm up some olive oil in a pot, and dump in the garlic, letting it just warm through, about 30 seconds (don’t let it burn!!! Too high heat will kill it right away, as will leaving it on too long.)
3. Dump in tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and let simmer away, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add in the wine, and continue to stir and simmer, another 2 minutes. Take off the heat, and set aside somewhere warm.
5. Separate egg whites from yolks. To the yolks, add cream, salt, and pepper. Whisk together. Set aside.
6. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, whip the whites until stiff peaks form, about 5-8 minutes.
7. Gently, fold in the whisked egg yolk mixture.
8. Heat a pan on medium. Grease the bottom with a little butter.
9. When ready, ladle in the egg mixture. Smooth out gently, and let cook one minute. Then, cover with a lid, reduce heat to low, and cook another two minutes.
10. To plate, scoot the omelette to the edge of the pan, and shuffle onto a plate. Flip over half of the omelette as you take it out of the pan.
11. Top with the tomato sauce, and garnish with parsley. Eat immediately!
I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! 😀