A friend, who lives on an actual small farm just a few miles from us (we mostly live in a suburb of several small cities, but we do have some lovely homes that are also zoned for livestock, horses, etc.). We actually live on county property, not city, so technically we could have chickens too. Fortunately none of our neighbors have begun raising any livestock to date.
So, this friend Fay has a bunch of chickens, and when they’re laying, she’s overwhelmed with eggs, so she gives them to everyone she knows. She dropped off a dozen lovely brown eggs for us. I hadn’t made specific plans for dinner, so I gave my DH a choice: an omelette or a big green salad (we’d had a nice lunch out that day, so wanted something lighter). He chose the former, and I concurred.
I dug around in the refrigerator for whatever I could find that lent itself well to an omelette: fresh dill, fresh mushrooms, Monterey Jack cheese, very sharp Cheddar and a bit of red onion. Perfect. Like you, I don’t generally follow a recipe for making an omelette. I mean, why? Eggs are so forgiving unless you cook them over too high a heat, or don’t use enough.
After sautéing the onion, I cooked down the mushrooms a bit (and set them aside), then whipped up the eggs, added a slurp of water to the bowl, poured it into the buttered pan. Using a spatula I gently spooned the cooking eggs toward the center, and once they were nearly cooked through I lapped the top with the mushroom mixture, the chopped fresh dill, and the grated cheese. A squirt of salt and pepper and I was nearly done. I sort of rolled one side over the other, and let it sit until the cheese melted. Once done, the omelette went onto plates and I sprinkled the top with some of Napa Style’s Citrus Rosemary Gray Salt.
For many years I’ve been a real fan of Michael Chiarello. I may have mentioned him on this blog before – early in his career he taught a few classes here in Southern California. At the time I didn’t really know much about him, but he taught a class about infused olive oils, which was really very interesting. Everyone went home with a small vial of infused oil, and I never forgot Michael Chiarello. The fact that he was (and is) a hunk of a good looking man didn’t hurt any, either! He was, at the time, just opening Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena (a fabulous restaurant, by the way, if you’re looking for a great meal), which consumed him for some years. The restaurant had a very cute cottage in which they sold lots of Italian inspired kitchen and house wares, and Napa Style was born. Then he got sideways with the partners, and they parted ways. Am sure there’s a long story about all that, none of which I know. He left Tra Vigne, and has gone on to great success with his mail order Napa Style business (now with physical stores here in California as well) and being a star on the Food Network.
Absolutely nothing contained in Napa Style is inexpensive, but most of the things are unique. Rarely have I seen any item in other stores, or in other catalogs. I respect him for that. I’ve ordered some things from them, and recently purchased a lovely metal side table to grace my office. But what I do buy from him are his salts. I do believe he started the flavored and herbed salt boom, and I’m grateful. They’re a cook’s epiphany. The perfect foil, the quintessential sprinkle. And I forget to use them as often as I should. I have several kinds, not just his – truffle, rosemary, lemon, and salts from the Himalayas, France, and other locales. I keep saving them for some special occasion. Now, what’s that about? Every meal is a special occasion . . . well, almost anyway. And some of Michael’s rosemary gray salt was the perfect topping for our glorious omelette.
Mushroom & Cheese Omelette
Serving Size: 2
¼ cup red onion – chopped
1 cup crimini mushrooms – chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
5 extra large eggs
1 T. unsalted butter
1 T. tap water
1 cup grated cheese – cheddar and Monterey jack
1 tablespoon fresh dill – chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 dashes Michael Chiarello’s citrus rosemary gray salt
1. Heat the oil in a sauté pan and cook the onion until it’s opaque. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms are just tender. No longer than that. Remove and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, grate the cheese, chop the dill and have ready by the skillet. Whisk the eggs, then add the water and whisk until thoroughly combined.
3. Melt the butter in the same skillet over medium heat and pour in the eggs. Cook them slowly, gently pushing the eggs toward the center once a skin has formed, then settling it out flat just a bit. When they’re almost done, spoon on the mushroom mixture, the dill, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and the grated cheese. Using the spatula, try to fold part of the sides up over the middle, the filling. Allow cheese to melt completely, then slide out onto a plate. Cover pan with a lid briefly if the cheese doesn’t melt right away. Sprinkle the top with just a little bit of the rosemary gray salt and serve immediately.
Mark Singer
said on March 10th, 2024:
Hello, I LOVED Michael’s Napa Style Citrus Rosemary Gray Salt. Have you ever found a new source for this wonderful price? Thank you!!
Mark – looks like Michael Chiarello has been through a lot in recent years. He closed Napa Style in 2016, then reopened a year or so later under a new name, Ottimo – https://www.ottimo-nv.com/ He nearly died from an allergic attack somewhere along the line and was sued for sexual harassment too. The website for this new place (mostly a restaurant) in Yountville has a page for products, but the page is empty.
Here’s a link to making his recipe, however: https://www.food.com/recipe/citrus-salt-258740 So it says, it’s Michael’s recipe.
. . . Carolyn T