Masala omelette

Tips and suggestions

Eat with...

Chinese Scrambled Egg

Cooks Tips...

Maybe I should come clean here. Although this is a Keralan dish, I have never, in fact, been to Kerala. But the book's designer had just come back from there when we did the pictures for this book and cooked it for us one day. To eat is to be convinced and the omelette found its way into the TV programme. One of the advantages is that it's an unusual thing to eat for breakfast but easy to make, and what's more, suitable to be cooked for yourself alone. If I'm being honest, I should say that when I cook this for myself, on a weekday at least, I usually dispense with most of the ingredients: I chop two peppers, turn them around in a hot pan with a little bit of oil for a while, then beat them into a couple of eggs, adding some roughly chopped coriander and Maldon salt at the same time. I then pour everything back into the frying pan and cook for a few minutes before sitting the pan under the grill for a top-setting minute or so.

And feel free to add as well as subtract ingredients: grated ginger is good, as is chopped fresh mint and, indeed, dried. You can eat this, flat on the plate, with a knife and fork, or roll it up inside a chapati that you've just warmed through in the microwave. And don't tell them in Kerala, but I like this with a splodge of brown sauce, too.