Chanterelle Mushroom Omelet
Serves 4

Chanterelle mushrooms are in season right now and make a very tasty omelet with fresh thyme and good eggs. Mycologists are gathering Chanterelles and other wild mushrooms from the forest floor and sell them at farmer’s markets for about $10 per pound. I use these by themselves in this omelet but you can use a mixture of chopped wild mushrooms. They must be absolutely fresh, heavy, moist and clean, preferably picked that day.

Chef Willie’s Tip:  You don’t want to kill anyone by mushroom poisoning.

Don’t hunt and gather wild mushrooms from your yard, trees or the forest floor unless you are schooled by a decent guide book or a person who knows what to look for and what to avoid – a.k.a. a mycologist – a mushroom guy/gal. I am lucky to have a couple of geeky teenagers who hunt mushrooms in Glen Ellen and sell their quarry by the side of the road. When I see those dudes, I pull right over and get a few pounds. And I tip them, FYI.

Omelets are the bomb, one of the best and most elegant simple dishes in the culinary arts. It’s all about the eggs. I use eggs from my chickens - I get 4-6 eggs per day, depending on the time of year and the temperature. If my chickens aren’t laying, I get a few dozen from a local egg farm for about $4 a dozen. As Tony Bourdain would say “I am an egg slut!” The point : There is nothing like super fresh farm eggs. They taste better. They look better. They behave better. Don’t use cheap supermarket eggs that are on sale – they’re not fresh, and they tasty shitty. Use the freshest eggs from the farmer’s market or from Whole Foods, and check the date to make sure they’re fresh. I keep my eggs out on the counter, at room temperature and I never refrigerate my eggs. Good eggs will keep for about a week.  Hey look – they come in their own natural container! Bad eggs are crap.

An omelet should be blond, not brown, light and airy (air is an ingredient!) not runny. Making a perfect omelet is something every good cook should know how to do, and cooking schools still teach the proper French technique of omelet making to culinary students because it covers the basics of the proper pan, heat, sautéing, the right wrist action and control of your food. My advice: Invest in a really good egg pan.

Besides the eggs, omelets are all about the pan. I have a pan that I use exclusively for eggs – my egg pan. It is actually an 8-inch lid with a handle of an enameled Le Crusset soup pot. It is cast iron with an enamel coating on the inside (white) and outside (blue).  It is not no-stick, but my eggs never stick, because I pre-heat the pan on my AGA stove, melt the butter till it is very hot, but not brown, and I stay in control of my eggs as they cook. Tricky, yes. Doable, definitely.

Equipment

1 large sauté pan
1 small sauté pan or “egg pan”
1 big bowl
1 sharp paring knife
1 whisk
1 wooden spoon
1 rubber spatula
1 clean cutting board
2 burners on the stove

Ingredients

6 farm fresh eggs
1 pound fresh Chanterelle mushrooms
2-3 Tablespoons best-quality unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped thyme leaves
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

The Procedure
Preheat both pans on low while getting your mis-en-place together – have the butter and eggs ready, clean up the chanterelles, pick and chop the thyme, chop the chives, grind some pepper.

Roughly chop the chanterelles with your little knife. Toss 1 tablespoon unsalted butter in the large sauté pan and turn up the heat to medium-high. (The butter should melt quickly and sizzle a little.)  As soon as the butter stops sizzling and the foam subsides, add the chanterelles, the chopped thyme, and a good pinch salt and pepper. Sauté till golden brown and nicely caramelized on all sides, using your wooden spoon to stir them around. Add another tablespoon butter if they start to dry out (mushrooms tend to absorb butter) You want them perfectly seared, not mushy or limp. Set them aside in the pan, off the heat, when done. 

Crack the eggs into the big bowl. No shells please. (If you do drop some shell in the eggs, use the egg shell “cup” to get it out). Add a good pinchof salt and fresh pepper and the chopped chives. Whisk your eggs till nice and frothy, incorporating lots of air into the eggs with very fast whisking. Work fast and furiously. I hold the bowl against my thigh with one hand and whisk like hell with the other.

Turn the heat up under your egg pan to medium-high. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in the pan. It should sizzle and foam up quickly – in less than 5 seconds. (If the butter gets away from you and turns brown and burns, toss it, wipe out the pan and start over.)

Now the tricky part. As soon as the foam subsides - wait for it….wait for it…pour in the eggs. (Use your rubber spatula to get every last drop.) Turn down the heat to medium-low and let the eggs cook undisturbed for a moment – 5- 10 seconds should do it – till the bottom is set, but not brown. With the pan handle in one hand and your rubber spatula in the other, tilt the pan away from you and lift the far edge of the omelet, allowing the egg to run into the center of the pan, in effect making another bottom. Let it set and repeat once or twice or three times till almost all the egg has cooked without browning.

Add the chanterelles in a line across the middle of the eggs. (You may not want to use all of them at once. You may want to make a second omelet straight away.) Stuff it, but don’t over stuff it.

Tilt the pan away from you, tap it on the burner. It should slide away from you a little, with the far edge up on the far edge of the egg pan. (If your omelet sticks, move it off the heat and get under it ASAP to release it.) Fold the far edge over the mushroom filling, then bring the pan down level on the burner, which should be nice and low by now. (Stay in control of your heat.) Fold the bottom edge (closest to your handle) over the filling and give it a little push to seal it. Tilt the pan away from you once more, bang it on the burner (Talk to your eggs “Please don’t stick, please don’t stick!”) so the omelet goes to the far edge of your pan. Now wait! Who’s in control? You or the eggs? You are!

Flip the omelet over with a jerking/flipping/tossing motion (the essentials of sautéing, students!) so that the seam of the omelet is on the bottom. Cook for another few seconds till you’re pretty sure the inside is cooked through and slide the whole thing onto a pretty serving plate, seam side down. It should sit up nicely, plump and firm, blond, not brown, shiny with butter, not dry and flaky. It should look like the best omelet ever, flecked with chives and pepper, holding the awesome mushrooms inside.

Chef Willie’s Note

Dig in. Serve with crispy applewood-smoked bacon, brioche toast buttered with best-quality salted butter, biscuits with butter or English muffins and a small arugula salad. Remember, it’s all about the eggs. And the mushrooms. And the pan. And the butter. And the bacon. Class dismissed!