I was recently asked to participate in JC100, a national campaign involving restaurants, chefs, bookstores, and bloggers, all celebrating Julia Child and her legacy. Each week from May 7th through August 15th (Julia’s 100th birthday), we’ll receive a recipe of Julia’s to cook (or adapt) and share. I couldn’t wait to participate. After all, Julia has been one of my culinary idols ever since I spied her on my parents’ grainy television screen three decades ago.
She fascinated me: A towering, warbly-voiced, grandmotherly figure who could quickly and casually whip up dishes that I’d never seen before in my mother’s Chinese kitchen. Julia was so relaxed in the kitchen – dropping food and picking it up, tasting dishes-in-progress with her fingers, adding butter when in doubt. She was so real (something I can’t say about most television chefs these days), and made even the most difficult recipes look effortless and goofily fun.
Julia inspires me to lighten up (not literally – fat rules!), chill out, and have a blast in the kitchen – regardless of the results. It’s just food, and if you make it with love, it’ll turn out wonderfully.
The inaugural JC100 recipe is Omelette Roulée or rolled omelet from Julia’s classic “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Because I’ve been crushing on Thai omelets (Kai Jeow) as of late, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to combine Julia’s omelet technique and my own Asian pantry ingredients – and ghee instead of butter to make it perfectly Whole30®-friendly. Win-win!
Here’s what to gather to feed one person:
- 2 large pastured eggs
- ½ teaspoon Red Boat Fish Sauce
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon chopped scallions
- ⅛ of a lime
- 1 tablespoon ghee
Here’s what to do:
Grab a couple of pastured eggs…
…and crack ‘em in a bowl.
Then, measure out the fish sauce…
…and add it to your eggs.
Chop the cilantro…
…scallions…
…and lime wedge. Look! There’s your mise en place!
Puncture the yolks with a pair of chopsticks (or a plain old fork if you’re not down with the Asian theme)…
…before whisking the eggs and fish sauce thoroughly.
Add the herbs…
…squeeze the juice from the lime wedge…
….and mix until blended.
Heat the ghee in a seasoned 8-inch cast iron skillet over high heat.
Swirl it around to cover the sides of the pan, and add the eggs.
Let the eggs sit undisturbed for a few seconds…
…and then start jerking the pan back towards you at a 20 degree angle so the omelet begins to roll over itself at the bottom of the pan.
Once it’s mostly cooked through, grab a plate…
…and tip the omelet out of the pan.
Garnish with additional cilantro and scallions, and dig in!
Thank you, Julia!
