board night oemlettes redux

My omelette-making technique has improved, making this a great standby meal all year. To reiterate, the best pan is one that is hot but not overly so, one where one tablespoon of butter can melt and just begin to bubble and turn golden before you add two lightly beaten eggs. (It doesn't hurt here that we now get fresh eggs from our neighbors. Fresh eggs give a better color and richer flavor than store-bought.) I've taken to using a rubber spatula to hold up the cooked portion while distributing the eggs about the pan. Otherwise, I use a lot of jerking motions to cook the eggs. Once it is virtually cooked through, but a hair runny on top, I flip the mixture. This is the only part of my technique that really needs work. It works about seventy percent of the time, and I'm missing the wrist action that makes this an easy task. Once flipped, I turn the heat off, add the filling, then ease it out of the pan.

Tonight we added one ingredient to the smoked salmon and cream cheese: chopped fresh anaheim peppers, with seeds and membrane removed. The one thing this omelette was always missing was some texture differentiation. This fills it nicely, and adds just a touch of heat to it.

Also, I always top my omelettes with a sprinkle of chopped italian parsley, which is great for both appearance and adding a little herbal flavor.

anaheim fish tacos

I need to begin using jalepenos and anaheims regularly, while I wait for the tomatoes to come in so I can begin the grand salsa experiment. Here's one idea, taken from allrecipes:

Anaheim Fish Tacos:

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 Anaheim chile pepper, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 pounds halibut fillets
• 1 lime
• 12 corn tortillas

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and saute the chile, leek, and garlic until tender and lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Mix the chicken broth and tomatoes into the skillet, and season with cumin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Place the halibut into the mixture. Sprinkle with lime juice. Cook 15 to 20 minutes until the halibut is easily flaked with a fork. Wrap in warmed corn tortillas to serve.

Garden Update

Everything in the front is growing beautifully. The jalapenos are coming along, and the anaheims I believe are pretty much ready to go. I have made gifts of them, but have yet to figure out exactly what to do with them. Salsa recipes are definitely in my future. We have already eaten one flavorburst pepper, and the red peppers have already turned green to yellow. Fairly soon we will have a good harvest of peppers.

The cucumbers are off the chain, literally. They come out one and a half inches thick and eight inches long. Bursting with water. Perfectly fresh. They store well, and make nice gifts.

The tomatoes are just coming in. Around July 4, I noticed them beginning to flower more prolifically, and to hint at a change in color. We left for Canada on July 7. When I returned on July 11, they had grown by inches, and in the front planter had begun to fall over. I immediately tied them up with some twine, and eventually dropped two cages in the planter to help hold up the new branches. In the mound (taxi, amish paste, golden nugget?), tomatoes were beginning to turn. The amish paste had produced several tomatoes that were changing from yellow to red, and the taxis are yellow. I picked an amish paste and made a cucumber and tomato sandwich. Highly tasty. I expect the real harvest to begin in a couple of weeks, and hopefully we will see production (like last year) into September.