Omelet Arnold Bennett

      6 lg Eggs (the fresher
           -the better)
      6 oz Smoked haddock
           -(or other smoked large-
           -flaked white fish)
    2/3 c  Cream, heavy
           Butter
      2 oz Cheddar (sharp),
           -finely grated (the
           -light yellow New York/
           -Vermont style is best)
      1 pn Dill
      1 pn Salt and pepper

Prepare the fish by poaching it lightly (5 minutes) and then breaking it up into nice large flakes. Whip the cream and fold in the grated cheese. Add the fish and set aside. (The remaining steps are a basic omelet recipe and can be used with any filling. Crack the eggs, beat them up with the dill, salt and pepper.) Meanwhile heat a frying pan. Add a knob of butter and let it melt. When it has stopped frothing and is just beginning to go brown... Slop in half the egg mixture and immediately return to the heat and stir the eggs two or three times; then with a fork draw the edges into the middle and allow the un-solidified egg to run onto the exposed pan. While it is still a mixture of fluffy and runny, add the haddock and cream mixture. Continue to cook until underside begins to turn golden brown. Fold over and serve on a hot plate with bread and butter immediately. (You can't leave it in the oven for ten minutes while you do another!) NOTES: * Omelet with cream and smoked fish filling -- In the vein of artery cloggers, this recipe must be one of the highest-cholesterol dishes I've come across in years. It may sound unconventional, but delicious it most certainly is. I came upon it in the Bistro under the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, circa 1978. The following is my reconstruction of the dish I had there. * My guess, although I haven't yet tried, is that the smoked haddock could be substituted with any large-flaked smoked white fish, like cod perhaps. The important point is that it should not have an overpowering flavour. I bought mine in a Scottish specialty shop in Kearny, NJ. Also, you should grate the cheese as finely as possible so that it blends smoothly with the cream. * Now a diatribe on omelet pans. I have always been most successful with a small thin tinned-copper omelet pan (which loses its heat and reheats very quickly), and a heavy cast iron skillet, which maintains an even hot temperature (and doesn't need to be reheated after adding the egg mixture). Aluminum and stainless steel pans tend to cool down too much and then take too long to reheat which results in a dry leathery omelet.


Yield: 2 Servings