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Human Ecology Essays Plastic Bag Omelette —Moses Bastille
Remember last winter, when that huge ice storm came through New England in December? Even New Hampshire, that exotic vacation spot, was not spared. My family lost power for ten days, within which time, I experienced the wonders of the Plastic Bag Omelette (no, I don’t have a better name for it; if you think of one, please let me know). It was something my mother found in the Old Farmer’s Almanac, and it was easy to cook over a tiny propane camp stove on the kitchen counter by candle-andflashlight. I enjoy it, and I hope you will find it useful if you are ever held by a blizzard and by chance happen to have eggs and a camp stove and boiling water and a pot and omelette fixin’s, but don’t (gasp) have a pan. Note: This recipe is very inexact, so use your own judgment if you think I left something out, because I probably did. First off, set some water boiling in a medium-sized pot with the lid on. The amount of water depends on how big your omelette is (more on this later). I generally find setting out all your omelette ingredients ahead of time helpful. My personal preference is a two-egg omelette with lots of cheese and veggies, but use your own tastes as a guideline. Follow a standard omelette recipe in terms of ingredients (omit anything that would have been used to grease the pan). Take your egg(s) and break them into a small, shallow bowl and whisk until they are frothy. Add milk and whisk until combined. You may need to transfer this mixture into a larger bowl for the next step- add your other ingredients + cheese. Pour your liquid omelette into a clean ziploc sandwich bag and seal it. Place the bag into the boiling water- it should be mostly submerged (though it will float a bit). You may want to turn the bag over at some point during the cooking process, so that the side that was floating out of the water gets submerged. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove the omelette from the water - the bag will be hot- and unseal it. From there, you can just upend the bag and plop it out onto your plate. Enjoy an omelette that is superbly fluffy and without those gross little crunchy edges you get on the (inferior) pan-fried kind.
HUMAN ECOLOGY = HOME ECONOMICS