A Fourth of July Confetti Omelet Jude Wanniski July 3, 2005

Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers, Brunchers
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: My Famous Omelet

It may be too late for you to collect the ingredients to make a July 4 “confetti pancake,” a dish I discovered 25 years ago and have perfected over the years. But it is a perfect brunch recipe, practically the only one my wife Patricia will allow me into the kitchen to make. She asked me to cook one up today and had shopped for all the ingredients so it was no trouble for me to whip one up. And it was so, so good that I decided I just had to share it with you as a “memo on the margin” this holiday weekend. I actually came across the recipe way back in the 1970s in an airline magazine while I was flying home to New Jersey from somewhere. It looked so yummy that I tore out the page and not long after gave it a try on a Sunday morning after church. My three kids liked it so much that they would request it from time to time and eventually dubbed it “Dad’s Famous Omelet.”

One of the nice things about the Omelet is that you can freeze the leftovers and it is just as good as new when you microwave it. So if you live alone, you can take the trouble of making one for yourself that could easily feed four or five, with accoutrements, and pull the slices out when you have a hankering for one. In the airline recipe, it was called a “confetti pancake” because the recipe included a green pepper, a red pepper and a yellow pepper, plus flour in the batter that would produce a pancake effect. I’ve taken to using the green and red peppers, sliced and diced of course, but have added a yellow squash instead of the yellow pepper. Okay, here are the ingredients:

5 (or 6) large eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 pat of butter
1 small onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 small yellow squash, diced
¼ lb of sliced ham, diced
¼ lb of sliced turkey, diced
8 oz mozzarella, shredded or diced
ground red pepper

You begin by putting the milk, eggs and flour into a blender, in that order, and blending at the high speed for 20 or 30 seconds, then putting aside to settle.

You can use a large frying pan, but if you have a wok pan (I have a T-FAN) it seems to work best of all. Give it a quick PAM spray, or not. It usually will not stick, but PAM does work.

Saute the onion in the butter at medium-high heat and before the onion browns toss in the diced veggies. Let them cook at the same heat for several minutes, stirring now and then. Next, toss in the ham and turkey…. Or if you have leftover chicken (as I did today) you can substitute it for the turkey. If you don’t care for ham, you can use salami. If you don’t like meat, you can get a bigger squash and make a veggie omelet. Use your imagination. In the original menu, cooked shrimp was suggested, but I’ve never tried that.

When the meat has cooked with the onions and veggies for three or four minutes, take the pan from the heat and put it on another burner without heat. The mozzarella, in small cubes, should now be spread evenly over the top of the mixture.

Now retrieve the batter that had been set aside and turn the blender to “whip,” and give it a good whipping, putting some foam into the batter. When done, pour the batter over the mixture in the pan. The red pepper flakes can then be sprinkled lightly over the whole.

The oven, which you should pre-heat to 375 F, now gets the pan and mixture for baking. It will take at least 30 minutes, but at that point you should check to see if the batter has browned at the top and puffed up. If it has not, give it another 5 or 10 minutes at 400 F. It should then be just right. Take it from the oven and let it sit on the stove to cool a bit.

From my first omelet, I’ve always used Italian sweet sausages as a side dish. I microwave them to cook through and then brown them in a fry pan. It’s always traditional that I microwave some frozen bagels and have them accompany the meal, with butter or cream cheese. Now and then, when we have company for dinner and I’m called upon for my famous omelet, I also peel a few potatoes, slice them up, and make home fries in cooking oil. Today, we had some deli cole slaw with the brunch.

Try it. You’ll like it.