The Dish: The Perfect, Fluffy, French Omelet from Harper's Garden
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- An omelet sounds like a simple dish, right? Not so fast!
We found out how to avoid some common mistakes and make the fluffiest, loveliest omelet ever at Harper's Garden in Center City.
"Omelets take a little bit of love," says executive chef Michael Kanter. "You want it to be a little bit soft inside, and you want it very yellow outside. No brown!"
The first way to get it right is to STOP flipping your omelet.
"I'm not a believer in doing that, because you're drying out both sides," Kanter says.
They do it the slower, French way at Harper's Garden, an indoor/outdoor restaurant and bar on 18th between Market and Chestnut Streets.
Kanter says what you whisk into your eggs can make or break the consistency.
Pro tip: don't turn your nose up at water.
"The water does everything you need to do," Kanter says. "It steams it inside and gives it some raise and some lift. You don't need to put milk in there, you don't need to put cream. The eggs should be creamy enough. The eggs are the star of the show. You don't need to put other stuff in there. Just add a little bit of water so you get a little steam."
He says that's what makes it fluffy.
Now, add a little bit of butter to a hot (but not too hot) pan and add the egg mixture.
The technique? Don't move it, just pull.
"You want to pull it so that you're fluffing it." he says. "You're slightly moving it around, and you're just building it up. If you just leave it to sit there, it'll just cook on the outside and it won't be fluffy. It'll just be flat.
It'll just grow like a big blanket instead of having a nice fluffy texture. While it's still on the soft side, I like to add a little salt."
Then, add whatever you want in your omelet. We toss in spinach and cheese.
Now, you can finish cooking this in the pan, but, for a professional touch, pop it in the oven.
"Just bake it long enough so it forms a little bit," he says, "and it cooks more evenly, instead of just cooking from the bottom. We don't want it to brown."
Only leave it in the oven for two minutes - max!
"We want it a little runny on the top," he says. "We want a little jiggle."
Just give it a little foldover, plate it and serve!
