|
Subject: NJ Diner Spanish Omelets
From: Gary
Date: 11/28/2018, 8:45 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com>
I contacted you earlier in the year to ask if you’d ever run into the NJ metro version
of the Spanish omelet which is totally different from the recipes you find everywhere.
Like everything else in a Greek diner, the Spanish omelet is what it is, but it’s not
anything you’d find in Spain, I guess. Anyway, I contacted Sam Sifton of the NY Times
food department and he gave me some hints. The key was “use stewed tomatoes”. By sheer
accident, bought a can of Shop Rite stewed tomatoes, Italian style with celery onions
and peppers. Also had salt, sugar and citric in it plus spices and whatever. Perfect base.
Simmered sliced celery, green pepper, sliced scallion and mushrooms in a sauté pan with
the tomatoes cut into chunks. Reserved the juice and added some cornstarch. When the
vegetables were tender, added the juice with starch and when it thickened, that was it.
Put it inside an omelet and spread more sauce on the top. Flavor/texture – perfefcto!!
Gary
Hi Gary,
I found emails from you about McKinnon's Cowboy Marinade and about Chinese Shrimp, but I
could not find one about NJ Diner Spanish Omelets. Perhaps it was another site?
Anyhow, I'm going to post your discovery, as it might be of interest to others.
Phaed
Subject: NJ Diner Spanish Omelets
From: Gary
Date: 11/29/2018, 1:24 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
The memory is the second thing to go, but I thought that you and I had discussed the NJ Diner
version of “Spanish Omelet”. In any event, if not, it is a flat 2-3 egg standard omelet crepe
of scrambled egg filled with a thickened sauce, clear, tomato-based and filled with celery,
tomato chunks, mushrooms, onions and sweet peppers. Naturally, the flavor is specific to the
diner recipes and not remarkable, but memorable. There are no Spanish omelet recipes online
that replicate that composition for taste or texture. I told Sam that the key was the cause
was tomato-based but clear, so no pulp, paste, puree etc. He told me to use stewed and I just
got lucky by choosing the Italian stewed flavor. Then it was easy to reserve the juice, add
the vegetables and the rest. If you go to a diner or restaurant anywhere outside the NY/NJ
metro area and order Spanish, you won’t get this. You’ll get an omelet with vegetables and
seasonings added to the scramble before it sets and the flavor isn’t there. If you add salsa
out of a jar, that isn’t it either. So I’d call the recipe “Greek NY Metro Diner version of
Spanish Omelet (saucy). That would be painfully accurate.
Gary
|
