Thursday 23 November 2006

Breaking a few eggs

If there is one thing that I am happy with, it is the omelettes made at Circle, a Godly little cafe in Balmain. I thought Balmain would be socialist aethiests from one end of the peninsular to the other, but tucked away in the middle is a cafe that is also a church on Sundays. Can't remember which mob - presbyterians or whatever. It's not overtly churchy at all - there is just a plaque near the door that says it is run by the Unity church or whoever they are, which of course means that they aren't open on Sundays.

That annoys me. Their food is so good, I want to eat it 7 days a week. The council should never have allowed them to run it as a church on Sundays - I am sure the hymn singing must annoy the neighbours. Surely someone can shut them down so that the cafe can open on Sundays?

I thought the least they could do would be to open up for a feed after all the praying and so on is over - surely the congregation must be hungry after a morning of kneeling and standing and clapping and whatever?

The other thing that annoys me is that I have been trying without success to replicate their omelettes at home. My favourite at the moment is ham, tomato and goats curd, which is mushy goats cheese. Without fail, my omelette always breaks into at least 2 pieces when I go to fold it over, and it never tastes quite right. I have tried adding fresh herbs - too overpowering. I have tried three eggs - one too many, doesn't cook through. I have tried deseeding the tomato in order to reduce the water content. I got rid of the spinach, which seemed to help (too much water). I tried thinly sliced wog ham - still no difference. I have also tried two types of goats cheese - a soft one and a hard one.

I finally got close yesterday - 2 big eggs, mushrooms, deseeded tomatoes and gruyere cheese. The gruyere seemed to do the trick, as it bound the whole lot together once it had melted. For the first time, I got an omelette out in one piece.

But I think I need a bigger frying pan - the egg mixture is just too thick in the small pan that I am currently using. If the egg stuff spreads out thinly, it cooks faster, so the bottom does not burn.

I also have to find out where they buy their bread - it is marvelous stuff. I have tried all the bakeries in the area, but none seem to have the particular type of sourdough looking stuff that Circle uses. I am of course not game to ask where they get it.

Anyway, to celebrate the great home cooked omelette from yesterday, we just had to dine there this morning. Didn't want to tempt fate by trying to make two good omelettes in a row.

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