// chinese sausage omelette //

 guest blogger, cousin tawn

Nellex and I grew up in a large, large, LARGE Vietnamese family. Feeding the troupes wasn't always an easy chore for our mothers. But, a chore that they excelled at and reveled at. Our mothers are sisters, the youngest two of six (they also had four brothers).

The sisters (our moms are smallest ones in the front row), looking goofy,
from their younger days in Vietnam. Why my mom had curly hair here,
is beyond me! Lol :)

The sisters are to put it mildly, competitive when it comes to their food. They take pride in their cuisine. Each has a special ingredient or tweak that they add to a standard dish to make it their own. Rarely do they divulge their family recipes. If and when they do, after you beg, and beg and grovel, you are sworn up and down to secrecy. So, please don't tell my mom on me ;)

Below, is my (and my mother's version) of a Chinese (lap cheong) sausage omelette. A popular dish in our immigrant household. It was cheap to make, served many, and used simple ingredients that were standard in our Vietnamese home. My mother used to serve it as one of the dishes that were part of our family-style dinner. I sometimes make it for lunch and eat it with jasmine rice.


 INGREDIENTS ( for two 10" omelettes): :

6 eggs
1 small sweet or yellow onion, sliced
2 lap cheong sausages, sliced
2 springs green onions, sliced, whites separated from greens
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
1/4 cup of cream
freshly ground pepper
vegetable oil

1. Prep ingredients

2. Mix eggs, cream, greens of green onions, fish sauce and pepper together in a small bowl.

3. Heat oil in a 10" pan (non-stick is better if you have it) over medium heat. 4. Add onions, whites of green onions and sausage. Sautee until onion is softened.

5. Add egg mixture. As egg starts cooking, gently lift the omelette
from side to side and redistribute raw egg to cook.

6. Maintaining medium heat so that omelette cooks low and slow (to prevent a tough omelette), lid if necessary until desired doneness is achieved.

Serve topped with freshly cracked pepper, as part of your family dinner...

or with a side of rice as a complete meal.

// eggs-in-a-basket //

 Challah bread, but you can use any sliced bread

bread goes in 1st, then crack egg into it

nom-ready

furikake aka rice seasoning - found in Japanese section of market

Krazy Jane salt mix // great multi-purpose seasoning 

If you've ever stayed at Hotel Nellex (my apt), chances are you've had eggs-in-a-basket either for b'fast or for your 4th meal. Or sometimes even both. What can I say? It tastes even better after a long night of drinking/partying and it helps to sop up the alcohol. ^_^ I put Maggi soy sauce seasoning on it and that totally makes a difference. Also, an optional add-on is furikake (Japanese rice seasoning), but careful not too put too much or else it can be too salty. I usually prefer beef bacon with this, but only had ham lunch meat in the fridge this time.

Ingredients: sliced bread, eggs, butter, Maggi seasoning

Directions:

1) butter pan on medium-high heat

2) tear or cut holes out of sliced bread (golfball-sized or a lil bit more)

3) place 2 slices of bread at once into pan - add bread hole pieces (that you tore/cut out) on the side, too

4) crack an egg in each hole in the bread

5) fry until bread is toasted on bottom, then flip (remember to flip bread hole pieces, too)

6) watch until bottom side is toasted

7) remove and serve with a few splashes of Maggi/Krazy Jane seasoningI