Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Sweet Basil Omelette

This is a very simple omelette recipe with sweet basil. You can also use any basil available locally in you own country. This recipe has been in my family as long as I could remember. I love eating it with rice and some soya sauce ( I know I like to use soy sauce :-) but it's a versatile liquid and important ingredient in Asian region) which made me happy and content eating that way. The smell of Basil lifts my appetite anytime... :-) 

My Sweet Basil had been growing very happily (actually too happy!) in their pots that I had to trim and use the leaves fast before they turned yellow. The tallest of the bunch was about 2 feet tall now and nearly bent over due to the weight. I had to cut some branches off and replanted again in new pots. I had given away several pots to my neighbours as well. I hope they have good fertile homes...


Sweet Basil Omelette

2 cups Sweet Basil or any of your choice - fully packed
4 nos Eggs ( I used Large Eggs)
1 tbl Fish Sauce (optional)
2 tbl Soya Sauce
White Pepper
Sesame Oil
Oil for cooking

Method:

1. Wash the sweet basil throughly. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large bowl; break the eggs and whisk lightly
3. Add in the fish sauce and soya sauce to taste. If you don't have fish sauce you can use soya sauce through out and adjust the saltiness to your taste. Mix well the mixture.
4. In a medium size pan, heat enough oil to cook the amount of the egg mixture. When the pan is hot, pour the egg mixture in. Before the mixture sets, quickly add in the sweet basil leaves and distribute the leaves evenly around the omelette. (Before add in the leaves, bruise the leaves a bit with your hands to release the basil oil.)
5. When omelette is about to set, fold over a half portion of omelette over the other half (like folding pancake or Coin Purse Egg) carefully to form a half moon shape. Let the omelette cook for few minutes or until there's no more uncooked liquid oozes out when you press it with spatula.
6. Remove from pan and drizzle some sesame oil before serving.

Serves 2-4 portions.

Note: If the basil leaves are large, you can shred it to smaller pieces, chiffonade or chopped to smaller pieces. You can even eat it between 2 slices of bread like sandwich :-)

♪ Enjoy♬

19 comments:

  1. This is one great idea using basil leaves...simple and delicious omelette.
    It is good to have a pot of basil growing in the house but unfortunately I don't have one :( I use to buy it from the wet market and I take it raw together with my meat dishes and sambal. Occassionly, I will have it stir fry with chicken pieces and also with roast pork.

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  2. This is a very original recipe I never heard of before but it does sound interesting. I have two pots of basil but I don't know if it's sweet basil or not. Must give it a try.

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  3. This looks so good! And I could imagine eating it for just about any meal! Yum!

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  4. Ivy, you can try with any basilic family. I tried before the Purple Basil as well but the taste was not as strong as Sweet Basil.I suggest that you use the normal basil... green broad leaves variety.

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  5. Tom... my sister eats minimum 2 plates of rice with this dish. Her husband would add 'bird's eye ' chillies for extra kick! She said it's so appetising and even made sandwich with it... and then she drowned it with coffee...ahhhh..

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  6. hi CK,

    It's easy to grow the local basil... the 'selasih' or 'kemangi' is a fast growth plant. Even by sprinkling the seeds in a pot they will germinate easily. Try it...:-)

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  7. Hello there! I've been looking for sweet basil recipes. This one looks pretty simple. Something to try tomorrow. Does this taste as good with Cinnamon Basil?

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  8. Hi Cianoy... Thanks for visiting my blog. You can use Cinnamon Basil as it's the most common and hardy basil in South Asia region. I have several pots of it on my balcony besides another 2 species of basil. I like it's strong taste and adores their white-purplish little flowers... :-)

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  9. Hi Pixen! Won't it alter the taste of the recipe?

    In the same way that I'm wondering if pesto will be nice if it smells like cinnamon.

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  10. Hi Cianoy, there's not much difference except in texture, astringent taste and fragrance. I usually used the Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) which commonly found in Europe and Cinnamon Basil in Southeast Asia. I love both types of basils except the Purple Basil which to me is less fragrant and leached color into the omelette... :-)

    I bet it would lovely! I made before Coriander Pesto and the usual Pesto. With Cinnamon Basil Pesto, it would add another dimension to the usual stuff. Go for it! Try using it as spread for baguette or with fresh cheese/goat cheese with sliced ham on grilled bread (rub some cut garlic on the bread before grilling) ... My family loves eating this way for breakfast!

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  11. Hi Pixen! It's a lot different! I think I'll try it with tea though although I never seem to have enough leaves since I keep pruning.

    I tried sweet basil with fried rice though. It's nice.

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  12. Hi Chris...Yes..basil & rice is heavenly! It surely whets the appetite, isn't it :-)

    I guessed I have a tough taste buds :-D I just sown another range of Basil...Lemon Basil :-D One of my friends managed to sneak some seeds back from her travel...Hope it will grow soon.

    Just been to your blog and I must say your beauties grown great! Keep it up!

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  13. Hey thanks for dropping by!

    Basil is great for a gardener's ego isn't it?

    One of these days I'll stop pruning and start harvesting heavily. Pruning is sooooo addictive.

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  14. Hi Chris,
    I used broad leaf basil that I bought here (Switzerland) at the supermarket. I only read the rice comments later. It's really tasty, but next time I'll try it with baby shrimp on rice. Thanks for sharing! -Caroline

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  15. I tried out this recipe few day ago. It turned out to be one of my favourite omelette. Anyway thanks for sharing this recipe.

    Lisa
    www.bakingfrenzy.com

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  16. Oh my gosh. This was so salty we couldn't eat it. I followed the recipe exactly and it was borderline disgusting. Sorry! We love soy sauce and fish sauce, but there was just WAY too much salt. Anyone else making this should use maybe 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce. Sad that we used all our basil on something where we couldn't even taste it. :(

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  17. Hi Anonymous...

    Sorry that you didn't like the taste. Since you didn't give me your exact brand of Soy sauce and Fish Sauce you used even though you followed my recipe to the 'T'.

    The Soy Sauce I usually use are either from Kikkoman Premium or Special Fragrance and locally produced Soy sauce in my country. I even used Tamari before and it was not salty.

    Maybe you missed the STEP 3 which I DID indicated "3. Add in the fish sauce and soya sauce to taste. If you don't have fish sauce you can use soya sauce through out and adjust the saltiness to your taste. Mix well the mixture."

    I did mentioned ".. adjust the saltiness to your taste".

    Some Soy Sauce producers export different level of saltiness according to consumer requirements in different countries.

    Oh..another thing I wanted to point as I discovered recently what happened to my Fish Sauce! IT has some 'chunks of Salt' inside! I was thinking of finishing the old bottle before I open a new bottle when I saw the salt particles after pouring out into a bowl.

    Also, you didn't tell me which country you're from because the size of Tablespoon may be different as well. If you're from Australia 1 Tbl =20 ml and USA 1 Tbl = 16 ml or 15 ml approximately other countries. My 1 Tablespoon is 15 ml.

    Note: Saying that, next time I will use Metric measurement for future postings.

    I hope you give another try of this dish and this time, please add your choice of Soy sauce and Fish Sauce in small amount first. Do let me know how it turns out :-)

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  18. Thank you for your reply. I'm in the US, and used kikkoman soy sauce and Pati's fish sauce from our local Vietnamese store. The bottle is about half full and there are no salt crystals in it. I DID see the direction to season to taste, but this is impractical advice, as I'm not in the habit of tasting anything with raw egg in it...especially not plain old raw eggs. I don't like running the risk of salmonella, and think it would be better if the recipe just called for an appropriate amount of soy sauce. I will not be making this again, as it was practically inedible. But I thank you for your time.

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    Replies
    1. For foodies who are interested to know more of 'Fish Sauce'...

      1) The best of Vietnamese fish sauce comes from Phu Quoc (published in Washington Post): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042001193.html

      2) How Fish Sauce is Made (by Thai Food & Travel): http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/fishsauce1.html

      3) Lots infos from fellow Foodie Andrea Nguyen, author & teacher of wonderful Vietnamese Cuisine:
      How to buy Fish sauce: http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2008/11/fish-sauce-buying-guide.html
      Fish Sauce Basics: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/basics-fish-sauce/
      Fish Sauce Taste Off: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2008/05/fish-sauce-tast.html

      4) Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese Fish Sauce) by Wandering Chopsticks: http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2008/05/nuoc-mam-vietnamese-fish-sauce.html

      As what I have in my pantry...
      1) Thai's Nam Pla - Golden boy, Squid & Tiparos.
      2) Bagoong from Phillippines
      3) Red Boat Vietnamese Fish sauce
      3) Homemade 'Budu' from Kelantan made by my sister-in-law.

      Delete

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