Chervil omelet - savoury pancake to use leftover herbs

Apr 4

Apr 4 Chervil omelet - savoury pancake to use leftover herbs

Over the years I have thrown away many leftover herbs. It seems you can never buy herbs in the quantity you actually need. You either end up with too much or too little. The latter often puts you into the dilemma of having to buy a second bunch or package which mostly ends up being too much. Time and again it happens that I discovered the half-rotten leftovers of a bunch that was pushed to the back of my fridge and kick myself for not having acted before it started to wilt. It doesn’t seem like a huge amount of waste, however herbs are mostly rather expensive. If I add up all the leftover herbs I have thrown away over the years I suppose it amounts to quite a lot. It’s 50 cents here, 75 cents there…sometimes more, sometimes less.

I have written a post about different ways to use up a leftover bunch of lemon thyme and covered quite a few options: making herb butter, flavoured oil or vinegar, freezing it, drying it. Something I have not listed there was a herb omelet. Yet I have to say that harder, sturdier herbs like rosemary or thyme don’t work so well in an omelet, at least not in huge amounts. More delicate herbs, such as chives, dill, tarragon or coriander (cilantro) work a lot better here and may be used in larger quantities.

The other day I bought a bunch of chervil which I mainly used for garnishing a dish. I had a lot left over and running this blog not only helps to sharpen my focus, but also increases my self-awareness. When I put the rest of the bunch of chervil in the fridge (which was a lot since I only used a tiny amount for garnish) I vowed to myself to not make the same mistake again. It was not only because of the price tag, which was a rather costly 3.50 Euros.

I procrastinated for a few days, but eventually got my act together and decided to make a simple omelet with it. I even remembered that I might make use of a kitchen gadget I haven’t used for a while: a blini pan (blinis are pancakes popular in Eastern Europe often served with sour cream and roe). Again I kept it rather simple using what I had on hand: eggs, garlic, a little bit of single cream I also had left, salt, pepper, the chervil and dollops of greek yogurt on top. I was chuffed not only to have beaten my leftover procrastination, but also having created a delicious meal with something that too often has ended up in the bin. It’s up to you how finely you want to chop the herbs. You may also add some cream, finely grated lemon zest or cheese if you like. Here is what I made:

Chervil omelet

bunch of chervil, roughly chopped
3 eggs, beaten
1 clove of garlic, minced
50 ml single cream
salt and pepper
butter for the pan
greek yogurt to serve

Mix the eggs with the herbs, garlic, cream and salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a pan. Swirl the pan a little so that also the edges are evenly greased. You can make one large omelet with a larger pan or several smaller omelets if you have smaller pans. Add the egg mixture to the pan, either all at once if you have a large pan or make individual smaller omelets if you are using a smaller pan. Mine is 10 cm in diametre and I made three omelets each about one centimetre thick. Cook the pancakes at medium-high heat until they firm up. You don’t want the bottom to get too dark, so test for doneness by shaking the pan a little and seeing if they are firm enough to be flipped over. I use a plate to quickly turn them and then let the omelet slide back into the pan to cook the other side. It might run a little, leaving a little bit of the mix on the plate, but that’s ok. If making individual omelets keep them warm in a preheated oven (about 100 degrees) until you are ready to serve. Serve with Greek yogurt or sour cream or simply with some melted butter on top.