I never thought I would be able to work from home but with the announcement of the COVID-19 circuit breaker measures, I was slapped with a one-month work from home notice. Should I rejoice or what?
For an introvert, working from home is like a dream come true. Even though there is a pile of work for me to do, I could do thing at my own pace and still squeeze in sometime for some cooking experiment.
Food on trend: Omelette Soufflé
I was intrigued with this Omelette Soufflé recipe I saw on YouTube. It’s a one-ingredient recipe which turns an egg into a bouncy soufflé-like pancake. Surprisingly, it is incredibly easy to do but you do need some time to prepare it if you do have a hand mixer. Patience is required for this recipe to work. What’s waiting for you at the other end is a slice of spongy egg cloud with a golden yellow glaze.
I thought that it will just taste like an omelette. But I guess I was wrong. The whipped egg whites have a different taste and texture altogether. The omelette soufflé turns out to be really good and I strongly urge you guys to try it during this #StayAtHome period.
Here’s how I did it and I’ve included some cooking tips as well!
If you have a mixer, you can whipped this dish up in minutes. Since I do not own one, I have to rely on this hand whisk to froth up the egg whites after separating them from the egg yolk. It’s not too bad because I get to exercise my arms while whipping.
Whip air into the egg white mixture
After a few minutes, the egg whites will start to foam up, creating these soft peaks. Continue whipping till the foams stiffens. It’s pretty amazing to see egg whites evolving into this massive dense foam ball.
Add sugar to stiffen the peaks
To stiffen up the peaks further, I sprinkled some sugar into the mixture and everything together. The sugar will interact with the egg white proteins to stabilise the foam. It is very similar to the process of making meringue. But in this case, you do not want to add too much sugar into it unless you want your soufflé to taste really sweet.
Whip the egg yolks til even.
Next, beat the egg yolks with a folk. Do make it a little more runny, I added a splash of soy milk. I just wanted to ensure that there is enough egg yolk mixture to coat the whole frying pan.
Heat up the frying pan and place it over low heat
Add some oil to the pan then pour in the egg yolk mixture. Wait for the egg yolk skin to be cooked slightly before scooping the egg white foam over it.
Cooking the Egg White Foam Thoroughly
To ensure that the egg white foam is cooked through, cover the frying pan with a lid to trap the heat. Make sure you lower the heat otherwise the egg yolk layer will burn.
After a minute or so, lift the egg slightly to drizzle in some oil or sneak in a small slab of butter. This will prevent the egg yolk layer from burning. It also gives a slight crisp to the egg yolk layer.
Bonus tip!
Since I could not really lower the heat on my stove (the smallest heat setting is quite big), so I had to turn off the heat after a minute or so. Even then, the foam layer is still not cooked properly. So I thought why place the omelette on a plate, flip the pan and cover it to allow the heat from the pan to cook the foam layer?
I saw many omelette soufflé videos where the foam layer is not cooked properly and looks rather raw. While you probably wouldn’t get stomachache from eating egg white foam, but it isn’t exactly desirable to be eating the uncooked foam. But with this little trick I use here, it allows the foam to be gently cooked. Though the foam has flatten out a little, at least the egg white layer is cooked gently.
Serve it like a slice of cake
Cut the omelette into half and stack the layer on top of each other. Then slice into half again. Doesn’t it look like a slice of cake?
The Taste Test
The omelette soufflé turns out to be really fluffy, soft and delicious. It has a texture similar to sponge cake and the egg yolk layer has a slight crisp to it.
I think this would really go well with some bacon, sausages, mayonnaise and some ketchup. You can also serve it with some maple syrup and butter. This versatile dish would taste great with any sweet or savoury condiments!
I failed on my first try.
I only managed to achieve my ideal omelette soufflé on the second try. In my first attempt, I tried another version of the omelette soufflé where the egg yolk is whipped into the egg white foam.
The mixture looks pretty okay as the peaks are still firm. But I made the mistake by cooking both sides of the omelette soufflé. So the soufflé ended up looking quite flat as the heat drives the air bubbles in the foam layer out.
See how flatten is it? I guess this version will work fine too if I hadn’t flip over to cook it on both sides.
But I still prefer the first version where the egg yolk is cooked separately from the egg white foam.
Check out my other quick and easy recipes here!
