Stuffed omelettes 'n' Pear Stew

I woke up late and hungry! Not a usual thing for me. It was 8.30 am and I had half an hour to get breakfast on the table. 
I had boiled some chicken the previous evening. Chicken omelettes! I had sufficient eggs. I keep chopped onions in the fridge, so out they came along with a couple of green chillies and a bit of green coriander. There were cheese slices and black olives, so I decided to use them in the omelette. I usually have fresh fruit for breakfast, and this morning the only fruit in stock were pears. Pear stew, said my mind. So I picked out a big pear. Now I had all that I needed out of the fridge.
I would need a few things more like cinnamon, green cardamoms, cloves and sugar for the stew. I put these on the kitchen counter with all the other ingredients. Salt and pepper, mixed herbs (dry) too.

 

MENU:

Chicken stuffed cheese omelette

Pear stew

Buttered toast

Tea

Ingredients:

Eggs.....4 (makes two omelettes), Chicken.....about 4-5 tbsps boiled, diced chicken, Onions....1 finely

chopped, Green chilli.......acc to taste, Green coriander.......a handful, Olives.....acc to requirement

Cheese slices.....2, Mixed herbs.....sprinkled on top, salt, pepper.....to taste, Pear....one large

Sugar.....about 1/2 a cup Apprx, Green cardamoms....3, Cinnamon.....1 or 2 sticks, Cloves....3-4

Olive oil, Butter

Time saver: Chopped onions, boiled chicken

Options: You can make the stuffing, in the same way with salami, sausages, mince, seekh kebab or veggies or you can put the cheese with or without olives inside the omelette. If you’re running short of time and/or you aren’t a fast worker you don’t have to sauté the stuffing. I do that often to change the flavour.

Tip: Good to have chopped onions, peeled garlic, ginger ready in the fridge. Keep enough for two to three days to retain freshness and flavour. Replenish mid-week. Do not freeze, it alters the flavour.

Fruit stews like pear, guava can be prepared and refrigerated. They make good desserts. Stewed fruit without the syrup is good with custard too!

Start with peeling and slicing the pears. Then put them to boil with some water (slightly above the cut fruit) and add cloves, green cardamom and cinnamon.

Do not put sugar at this stage. It will take longer to cook the pears. Allow to cook on high flame till water begins to boil, then reduce to medium. In the meantime, proceed with the omelette

Sprinkle slices of olives, a dash of mixed dry herbs too. Slide off onto a platter and cover immediately. This keeps the heat inside and allows the cheese to melt.

With the stew on the boil, whip up the eggs and add salt and pepper to it; slice the olives and remove the wrappers from the cheese slices. Heat a bit of olive oil in a non-stick fry pan, and add some chopped onions. Lower the flame to medium and with one eye on the onions, chop the boiled chicken, wash the coriander and green chillies and chop them up too (De-seed the chillies before chopping) The onions should be done (translucent and brown around the edges) so drop in the chopped chicken and green chillies; add a bit of salt and pepper. Stir-fry for a minute or two on high flame; add the coriander before taking off the fire.

The pears were happily cooking on a medium heat and the pears were a little more than half done. It had a mild crunch in the centre when I tested it by piercing a slice with a knife. I raised the heat and added the sugar, it should be sweet but not syrupy sweet, and left it to boil and reduce. Now for the omelettes!

Wipe the same fry pan and add a bit of butter. Lower heat to medium or low, according to your stove/burner levels. (High flame/heat won’t work, it’ll only burn the omelette) Pour in the egg and spread it in the pan. When it coagulates flip it over. It shouldn’t be raw on this side nor over cooked; Just enough to flip over without breaking it. Spread the chicken mixture on the lower half of the omelette and fold over. Now place a cheese slice on the folded omelette.

(Before I started the second omelette, I took off the stew. It had reduced to the desired level of syrup and the pears were done perfectly. Not mushy and not crunchy. I placed the open container in a tray of cold water, so it would cool. I put on water for tea and started the next omelette)

Bread was in the toaster while all this was happening...it’s an automatic pop-up. So no hassles there. The stew was luke-warm so I popped it into the fridge. It would be just right by the time we ate through the rest of our breakfast!