November 21, 2015 Brunch – Vietnamese style Ham and Mushroom and Brie Omelet, Dinner with Charlie and Susan Palmer

 November 21, 2015 Brunch – Vietnamese style Ham and Mushroom and Brie Omelet,  Dinner with Charlie and Susan Palmer

The mung bean sprouts I bought Friday a week ago and which I stored in a plastic freezer bag still looked fresh, so I decided to make a Vietnamese style omelet around 11:00.  I sliced two mushrooms from the new carton of white mushrooms I bought at Costco on Wednesday, and sliced up about three oz. of ham from the swirl cut ham we baked (reheated) and served to the Book Club members on Thursday evening.  I also sliced and minced a slice of yellow onion (about 1 oz.) and about 1 oz of red kale stalks.  I then sliced three slices of French brie that had been de-skinned and took the bean sprouts out of the fridge along with two eggs that I whisked with a fork in a metal bowl.  

I started by melting an oz. of butter in a large non-stick skillet and added the onion and kale to cook and soften for about five minutes.  There was not enough grease, so I added ½ Tbsp. of Spanish olive oil (Sprouts Market, $7.99/liter, and worth it).  Then I added the ham and mushrooms and tossed them to coat them with grease and cooked them for several minutes until the mushrooms began to take on color.  Then I added a handful of bean sprouts on top of the other vegetables and ham and cooked that for several minutes until it seemed that some of the mung beans were beginning to soften, at which point I added the whipped eggs.  I cooked the egg mixture for five to ten minutes until the edges of the egg mixture seemed to firm up, but the center was still wet.  I the lay the three slices of brie on one side of the surface and cooked the mixture another couple of minutes, until the cheese began to soften.  It it important to thoroughly remove the skin from the brie if you want it to melt and become runny.

    All the ingredients cooking just before adding the eggs 

After a couple of minutes the Brie softened and I flipped one-half of the omelet onto the other half of the omelet.  

  The finished omelet 

After another couple of minutes when I felt that the cheese had melted and the center of the omelet had firmed sufficiently, I slid the omelet onto a plate I had heated by letting it stand beside the skillet.

The resulting omelet was perfect.  The Brie was gooey and the center fairly firm.  One of the tricks I learned from the French chef who Phil Rosenthal featured on his L.A. segment of “I’ll have what Phil is having” series on PBS was to leave the center of the omelet soft and a little runny, which gives the omelet a creamy, clouted texture.

    See the cheese oozing out 

I drank water and judged this to be on of the best omelets I had eaten in a long time.  I think Phil would have liked it.  

I rode ten miles to Montano and back.

We had invited Charlie and Susan Palmer for dinner at 6:00 so at 5:30 I cut slices of ham from the swirl cut ham and Suzette heated Ham and PPI dinner rolls and slices of Fano French baguette in the new steamer oven.

 Suzette came up with a great idea to make a vinaigrette salad with the PPI steamed broccoli and cauliflower flowerets, so I made a Kirtland Balsamic vinegar and Spanish Olive oil dressing with a dash of Herbs Provence, salt and white pepper, which I put on the new counter in the TV room.

I put the guacamole on the TV room table and Suzette filled a large bowl with corn chips and potato chips and put that besides he guacamole.  I the unwrapped and filled the wooden cheese board with the chunks of Beaufort, P’tit Basque, Pont L’Eveque, Blue, the Old Windmill Dairy thyme goat cheese, and Stilton cheese. 

I then filled a bowl with mixed nuts and another bowl with Lindt Lindor chocolates to finish the food prep.

I fetched a magnum bottle of George Dubouef Patch Block French Burgundy.  Suzette laid plates, silverware, napkins and glasses on the table.  Charlie and Susan arrived at 6:00 and everything was ready.  We ate and talked until 8:00, while I stole glimpses of the Baylor v. Oklahoma football game, which Baylor won, and the TCU v. OSU game. After we seemed to have finished eating ham and cheese around 7:00 I served slices of my chocolate dessert with the thick pouring custard.

After Charlie and Susan left, I watched the rest of the TCU game which became quite exciting as TCU closed a 17 point gap in the 4th quarter and went for a 2 point conversion to win, but lost by one point instead of winning by one point when the points after conversion failed because an OSU linebacker batted the pass into the end zone away.  I was proud of TCU’s Coach Patterson for going for the win, even though it failed.

Anyone who watched the game would have admiration for TCU’s skills and gumption.  I was proud to be a TCU alumni.

Bon Appetit