Think this looks suspiciously like a pseudo Italian pizza-like spin-off of my Vegetarian Okonomiyaki? You’re absolutely right because that was absolutely what I was going for! I was thinking in my head: mmm, wouldn’t a pancake/pizza/quiche/omelette be great for lunch? But that would’ve been quite impossible seeing as I didn’t have all the ingredients that was needed and neither was I excited enough to go banging around the kitchen on a pastry-making escapade. To settle for the ordinary, this was what I cam up with. It’s basically an omelette baked in a pan rather than fried on the hob. There really wasn’t a need for the oven but I was very curious about baking an egg and since my kitchen isn’t exactly very well ventilated, cooking at the hob always leaves my hair smelling of whatever I’ve cooked - which I’m not a fan of. Also, that meant I could go off on my own, tapping away on the computer or watching the telly while the omelette was cooking itself in the oven. Independent cooking; a very obedient dish.

This is effortless to prepare, hardly really need to think about it which is what I love about it. We’re busy people. And always have so much on our minds. Sometimes, you just can’t afford to think too much about lunch. It’s a quick bite and go, or a drink and small munchie. So I’d really recommend this because whilst it’s cooking in the oven, you can do whatever you want and don’t even really need to watch it through the oven door!

Somehow baked eggs brings me to associate it with chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg) or this dish my mum used to make which incorporates minced pork and salted or century eggs in a bowl of steamed egg. One of the best things ever! It was always the first dish to be polished off at the table because it was so good and tasty. Eggs on their own have so much flavour, you don’t really have to do much to it. Complement it with the right ingredients and you can bring out all the great tastes and textures from there.

Baked Olives & Cabbage Omelette
Ingredients

4 eggs
2 tbs cream
black olives, sliced
2 leaves of cabbage, sliced then chopped to small bits
salt and pepper for seasoning, or some soy sauce
fine herbs
about 3 tbs extra mature cheddar cheese, grated
1 medium sized tomato, sliced for garnishing

Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.
Crack the eggs into a bowl and using a metal whisk, mix together with cream, herbs, and seasoning. Fry the cabbage till cooked, you can leave some to brown a little for added colour whilst keeping the rest green and slightly translucent. Add the cooked cabbage and olives into the eggs. Give it a good mix.
Grease the baking pan with butter. Pour the mixture into the pan. Grate cheese all over the top. Put it into the oven to cook for 30min. Remove, layer the tomatoes on the top and return to cook for another 10min.