Long story short, my boyfriend had a very bad hangover this morning, and regardless of the fact that I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic (amongst other unimpressive acts, he'd left our front door unlocked), I did feel as if I wanted to cook something that would help bring him back from 'Zombieland'. So I turned to Ravinder Bhogal's "Cook in Boots" to see if I could find some inspiration. After about half an hour drooling over recipes I didn't have the ingredients or energy to cook, I decided to combine two recipes from her 'Hangover Food' chapter.
The Masala Omelette I've cooked on several occasions but I'd never tried the hash browns before, and I thought since Tom really likes hash browns it would be pretty good hangover food. It turned out really tasty in the end and definitely filled us both up, and Tom did indeed seem a lot more alive after eating it (and was able to keep it all down, which is a definite plus!!). Now I can't say it cured him completely, but then again I haven't seen him as drunk as he was last night in about 2 years so the fact that he's up and about at all is a miracle.
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| Omelette might be a bit flat but probably due to being in the oven for too long |
Again, as with most of my posts I didn't follow the recipes exactly and I changed/added ingredients according to what I had in the fridge so this is what I used and what I did.
Ingredients
Masala Omelette (serves 2)
1tbsp vegetable oil
1 leek, sliced
1 handful closed cup mushrooms, stalks removed and quartered
1 v. small shake of crushed chillies (less than 1/4 tsp, original asked for 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped)
1 small tomato, seeds removed and chopped
5 eggs
1 splash milk (optional)
1 tsp garam masala
1 shake ground coriander (the recipe asked for 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, but I'm not much of a fan, so never have it in the house)
sea salt and black pepper to season
Onion hash browns (makes 12, so there were a few left over!)
NB. Original recipe used cumin, but again I'm not a big fan so I left it out
500g peeled and grated potatoes
1 small onion, grated (or whizzed through a mini-chopper if you've got one :p )
2 shakes ground coriander (original recipe asked for 4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander)
1 shake crushed chillies (approx 1/4 tsp)
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
vegetable oil for frying (original asked for olive oil)
Method
1. Soak the grated potatoes in cold water for extra crunch. At this point I set it aside and left it while I started preparing the omelette. I'll comment at the end on how I would improve the methodology.
2. Preheat the grill to hot. Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan and add the leeks, the chilli, and a tbsp of the chopped onion from the hash brown ingredients. Fry until soft, and then add the tomato and the chopped mushrooms and fry for another minute.
3. Meanwhile, beat the eggs (they need to be quite fluffy or it might end up a bit flat like mine) and season with the garam masala (it will turn the eggs a browny-green colour but don't be put off!), salt and pepper. Add the splash of milk at this point if you like and whisk in along with the ground coriander.
4. Pour the beaten eggs into the frying pan and tilt the pan so the egg sets evenly. Once it has set underneath (silicon spatulas are great for lifting up the omelette and taking a peek), slide it under the grill and leave until it's just set on top. (After this point I had to keep my omelette warm in the oven at a low heat)
5. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes then squeeze out as much excess water as possible.
6. Put the potatoes into a large bowl with the rest of the chopped onion, crushed chillies, ground coriander and mix well. Fold in the flour and mix in the egg.
7. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan (I used a griddle pan and it worked just fine as long as you tilt the pan to make sure the whole surface is covered).
8. With wet hands, shape roughly 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture into a flat fritter and carefully slide into the frying pan. Cook the hash browns for about 3 minutes on each side until nice and golden brown and crispy-looking (again silicon spatulas are great for peeking underneath to see how they're getting on). Be gentle when turning them as if they're not brown enough underneath then they can fall apart pretty easily.
9. Drain on kitchen paper, and repeat with the rest of the mixture, adding more oil as necessary (be careful how much you put in as it can spit!). My pan could fit about 4 fritters at one time so I cooked them in 3 batches, although depending on how quickly you can shape and add the fritters you may have to turn some of them sooner than the rest of the batch.
10. Once they've all been cooked, remove the omelette from oven, divide in two and serve with as many hash browns as you can handle!
Notes for next time
Since it actually takes a little while to shape and fry the hash browns, next time I would probably try doing it the other way round, i.e. preparing and frying the fritters first and then popping them in the oven to keep warm while you cook the omelette, as this didn't actually take very long at all. I might also try halving the recipe for hash browns as it was quite a lot of food with the omelette as well, so this would reduce the frying time as well. I think they'd also be really nice served with tomato and onion chutney as well, so shall remember to add that next time.
I'll let you know how it goes next time I try this particular combo!
PS. Admittedly the colour of the omelette might not be very appealing to some of you, but I promise it was really really nice. And if that doesn't convince you, Tom just commented that the photo I just added makes it look a bit like doner meat. Next time I might just let him suffer...
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