Seasonal Considerations
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, but having written about love at some length in my last post, I thought about food. Festivals and special days like Valentine’s Day are celebrated the world over by feasts of special dishes, and archaeology suggests that has been a feature human societies for a long time. In our house this year it will some wonderful cheese from The Courtyard Dairy, and Nigella’s Devil’s Food Cake.
There’s plenty of food and cooking in Ghost Train (“I skipped those bits,” said JB – my partner and fellow Castle Sefton Press author John Blake – who isn’t at all interested in culinary matters.) and I’d had the idea of sharing the recipes of some of Clyde and Zeno’s kitchen creations. Why not start with the humble omelette, which is the first thing that Clyde cooks in the book? (Chapter 3, p40 for readers of the paperback edition).
Retro Omelettes: Arnold Bennett
First a word about Omelette Arnold Bennett. If you’re writing about omelettes and the most famous fellow author from your home town, one of whose eponymous heroines shares your unusual surname (Anna of the Five Towns), has an omelette named after him, then it would be rude not to at least mention it. Actually, I’ve never tried it, though Delia’s simplified recipe looks very good, with the characteristic richness of Edwardian cookery.
There is a message in this recipe: not everyone gets dishes named after them at The Savoy, which is where this omelette was created; Bennett was a very famous writer and an influential public figure, and it is tragic if his omelette is all we remember him for. The best of his writing is very good indeed and I encourage you to explore it. I also recommend Patrick Donovan’s excellent biography Lost Icon even if you haven’t read Bennett’s work, as he was a fascinating and enigmatic character deeply embedded in early twentieth century society.
Retro Omelettes: the 1970s
Back to Clyde’s omelette. Ghost Train doesn’t specify what kind of omelette he makes, but I think the clue is a few pages earlier (p36 in the paperback), when he brings some tomatoes home for this very same meal. It’s a 1970s English Spanish Omelette, the one that Mr Hutchinson (Bernard Cribbins) rejects in Fawlty Towers, Series 1, Episode 4, The Hotel Inspectors (about 9.15 minutes in).
Exotic British food in the 1970s, as far as I remember, consisted largely of a lot of bizarre concoctions based on ignorance and misunderstanding named erroneously after classic dishes from the cuisines of other cultures. The Fawlty Towers Spanish Omelette, as I shall now call it, was one such as it bares no relation, as far as I know, to anything ever eaten in Spain. But – and this did sometimes happen with these recipes – it is nevertheless a very tasty, nutritious and economical dish. I am going to tell you how to make it.
The Fawlty Towers Spanish Omelette
This a folded French-style omelette. Delia explains how to make a folded omelette perfectly if you are not familiar with the technique. Or you could watch the redoubtable Fanny Cradock demonstrating in a recently discovered film clip. (I believe you will be able to see it on TPTV Encore very soon, in the 9/2 episode of The Footage Detectives). Like Clyde, you will probably find it takes a bit of practice.
Ingredients
Before you start your omelette, prepare the filling. For one omelette (using 2 or 3 eggs depending on size), you will need:
- A shallot, or half a very small onion
- A small tomato
- A handful of frozen peas, defrosted
- Half a tablespoon of chopped parsley
- Two tablespoon of grated cheddar cheese
- A tablespoon of butter
- Salt and pepper
Method
In a small frying pan, melt the butter and add the shallot or onion. Sweat this over a low heat until it starts to soften, adding a small pinch of salt (be careful with the salt, as the eggs will be salted too as is the cheese, and it’s easy to end up with an overly-salty finished dish).
Add the tomatoes, raising the heat a little if necessary, and cook until they start to soften and release juice, at which point add the peas and parsley and put your omelette pan on a low heat to warm. Cook the filling gently for a few more minutes, until everything is hot and the tomatoes are soft but still have some shape. Add some black pepper to taste and turn off the heat.
Now quickly proceed with your omelette, adding the cooked filling topped with grated cheese down the middle just before you begin to fold. Turn it out onto a warmed plate, and eat it straight away!
My mother often made this recipe for me when I was a child, and we still enjoy it today. It’s quick, filling and the ingredients are things you would usually have in. Don’t leave out the peas, though, even if they are frozen, because as Mr Hutchinson wisely remarks, “I always feel that the peas are an integral part of the overall flavour.”
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