Fluffy Foamy Omelette Recipe
At The Original Pancake Denver, we take our breakfast recipes very seriously. One of our favorite breakfast menu items is the omelette. Light and fluffy, filled with a favorite topping, omelettes are always a crowd pleaser! There are many methods to omelette making, and most home chefs have a favorite technique.
The Original Pancake House Omelette Recipe
Here are a few tips for creating the perfect fluffy, foamy omelette at home.
1. To start, make sure your eggs are whipped until they are light and even a bit frothy. Some chefs recommend adding one tablespoon of
water to make sure the egg mixture is extra light. For a solid meal, we usually use three eggs.
2. Choose the appropriate sized pan. A 7-8” non-stick frying pan is perfect for a three-egg omelette.
3. Warm your pan over medium heat. Add fat to the pan to ensure your omelette never sticks. This step is very important; if you skimp on the fat you will create an omelette disaster! Butter, oil, bacon fat or a combination of any of these three will work. In general, you want to use at least a tablespoon to ensure your omelette does not stick. Tilt your pan in all directions to make sure the fat evenly coats the pan.
4. Turn your pan down to low heat. All omelette connoisseurs agree that the best omelettes are cooked low and slow! No one enjoys brown or burned eggs. Add your eggs to the pan and sprinkle your favorite toppings over the top.
5. This next step is one of great debate. Once the eggs are in the pan, some chefs recommend lightly stirring the eggs and pulling them away from the sides to ensure evenly cooked eggs. Others recommend you do not touch the eggs once they are in the pan; instead place a lid over top and let the omelette cook covered on very low heat for 5-8 minutes. We recommend experimenting with both to see which works best for you.
6. Once the omelette has finished cooking, fold in half or in thirds and ENJOY!
Though we can’t share all of our omelette trade secrets, we encourage you to find and perfect your favorite technique. This breakfast (or lunch!) dish is certainly an art and patience will garner great rewards!
Family Fun – Things To Do on Summer Vacation
Ah, summer vacation! We still have a few weeks left before the kids go back to school and the lazy mornings and leisurely breakfasts are over. At the Original Pancake House Denver, we love to start our dog days of summer off with a nice big stack of pancakes followed by a little family fun. Here is a list of some of our favorite South Denver attractions to try with the whole family!
Speed Raceway
– Are the kiddos getting a bit restless as home? Perhaps they have a need for speed! The Speed Raceway is an indoor electric go-kart track and provides hours of fun and racing for the whole family. Siblings can race each other (at moderate speeds) around the indoor track and cheer on their friends and fellow racers.
Pirates Cove Family Fun Aquatic Center
– AHOY! For the hottest of summer days, Pirates Cove is just the place to cool you off! With pools, water slides, a lazy river, and play area, Pirates Cove provides hours of refreshing fun for the whole family. We recommend starting with a big breakfast first so everyone has enough energy to swim all day!
Littleton Museum
– Step back in time and enjoy the adventures of life in Littleton circa the 1860’s and 1890’s. Located on 39 acres, the Littleton Museum has served as the primary repository for the history, art, and culture of Littleton. Often cited as one of the top ten local history museums in the United States, the museum consists of two living history farms, a small lake, a collections center, and a main exhibition and administration building.
Centennial Center Park
- The 11-acre, award winning, Centennial Center Park provides children of all ages hours of fun on one of three climbing walls, two expansive, age-appropriate play areas and the Nautilus water play area in the center of the Park. Ideally situated on a slight bluff adjacent to Centennial Civic Center, Centennial Center Park also features “butte” and “meadow” nature areas, three decorative water fountains and a two-story covered shelter to overlook the plaza or enjoy a spectacular Centennial sunset.
Belleview Park
–Located just adjacent to Pirates Cove, Belleview Park offers numerous family friendly activities. Visitors can enjoy a ride on the Miniature Train, play by the creek or on the playground equipment, ride their bikes along the bike paths, and cool off with some concessions sold at the farm. The miniature train has run in Belleview Park for over 30 years, averaging 60,000 riders annually. The train runs every summer from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Kids can enjoy getting to know some farm animals, which include pigs, goats, chickens, and sheep just to name a few.
Westlands Park
– Westlands Park is a hidden jewel in the middle of the Greenwood Village corporate park area. The Westlands playground includes three play areas sized for toddlers to teens. There are two large climbing structures which satisfy both the technical climber as well as the inexperienced child. In addition to the main play area, there are three multi-use playing fields, an in-line hockey rink, a natural water sculpture, a pond and a hike / bike trail.
Cherry Creek State Park
– You can’t beat Colorado State Parks! Cherry Creek State Park has it all with biking and hiking trails, a shooting range, a miniature airport for model planes, and did we mention that nice big reservoir to cool your toes? Bring a picnic and spend the day playing in the outdoors!
Brunswick Zone XL Bowling
– Cool shoes, slick lanes, the sound of pins collapsing, no wonder they say “fun is bowling!” At Brunswick Zone the whole family can escape the heat and get in on the action. Kids of all ages are welcome to take their shot at breaking a score of 200! And when the bowling is done, Brunswick Zone XL also offers laser tag, a large game room and billiards!
You’ll need lots of energy for whatever activities you choose, so be sure to fuel up Original Pancake House Denver with a big breakfast before embarking on your adventures!
Golfing for Firefighters
On June 23 and 24, The Original Pancake House Denver helped sponsor the annual South Metro Professional Firefighters Foundation Gala and Memorial Golf Tournament. One of the largest charity events in the state of Colorado, the tournament raises funds to support professional firefighters and their families who face financial hardships as a result of off-duty emergencies such as accident, injury or death. The foundation is a non-profit organization and provides funds to firefighters and police officers from Denver Fire, Englewood Police, Aurora Fire, West Metro Fire, Arvada Fire, Cunningham Fire, Littleton Fire and many other neighborhoods.
This year’s event included a Sunday night gala followed by a charity golf tournament on Monday. The Original Pancake House Denver sponsored a booth along the course where we gave out fun OPH swag and refreshments to the golfers. With over 200 participants, we had the opportunity to meet several firefighters and their families, as well as members of our community who also support the South Metro Professional Firefighters Foundation.
On behalf of all The Original Pancake House Denver staff, we are proud to participate in this wonderful event and support those who protect and serve local community!
Independence Day: Celebrating family-owned businesses and restaurants in America
In honor of Independence Day, we’d like to celebrate family-owned businesses and restaurants across our great country. Did you know the first Original Pancake House was founded in 1953 in Portland, Oregon by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke? Using her family’s recipes and traditions, Sara Hueneke Ernst, great niece of Erma Hueneke, opened the first Original Pancake House in Denver in 1996. The Original Pancake House Denver has been serving breakfast to hungry patrons for many years, but here are a few American family-run businesses that have been around even longer!
Zambelli Fireworks
Founded by Antonio Zambelli back in 1893, Zambelli Fireworks is still run by the Zambelli family out of Pittsburgh, PA. Today the company supplies more pyrotechnic displays for celebratory events than any other firework company in the country. Of the 2,000 plus annual displays the Zambelli’s create, most occur on the 4th of July. Now that is a booming family business!
Antoine’s Restaurant
We thought we’d been serving pancakes for a long time, but Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans, LA has us beat! The oldest family-owned restaurant in America, Antoine’s was established in 1840 by Antoine Alicatore. Specializing in French-Creole cuisine, Antoine’s is famous for inventing Oysters Rockefeller. Today the restaurant boasts 14 dining rooms and seating for 700 patrons!
Martin Guitars
There is nothing more American than good old fashioned Rock –n-Roll! Did you know that Martin Guitars have been an American family-run business since the early 1800s? Martin Guitars was founded by CF Martin Jr. who immigrated to New York City from Germany in 1833. Today Martin Guitars has an 84,000 square foot factory and 500 employees, but it is still run by CF Martin’s great grandson. In 2004, Martin Guitar’s produced its 1,000,000th guitar following the same standards for workmanship and quality that CF Martin outlined in 171 years prior.
On behalf of the Hueneke and Ernst families, we salute each American family-owned business on this 4th of July holiday!
Original Pancake House is reason to rise and shine
Jenn in chains By Jenn Wohletz Tue., Sep. 25 2012
It's pretty effin' rare that I eat at a restaurant and can't find anything to complain about. I've dined at countless restaurants in my 35 years on this shiny blue orb, and I've seen plenty of good, bad and ugly. I've had meals that were overcooked, undercooked, cocked-up so badly my cat wouldn't go near the to-go boxes and -- on incredibly infrequent occasions when the planets align -- I've also had meals where everything from the service to the atmosphere to the food itself was flawless.
My brunch-hour breakfast at the Original Pancake House was one of those perfect meals.
See also:
- 100 Favorite Dishes: Apple pancake from the Original Pancake House
- Jason Sheehan: The Original Pancake House brings breakfast back to basics
I was at the Original Pancake House at 5900 South University Boulevard in Greenwood Village, a part of the metro area I don't get to often. The neighborhood might best be described by a bumper sticker I saw in the parking lot that read "Cut Government Spending!" -- on the bumper of a Lexus SUV.The original Original Pancake House was opened in 1953 in Portland, Oregon, by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke, with a menu featuring international recipes they'd collected. It was such a hit that they franchised the concept, and the Portland restaurant earned a James Beard Foundation Award in 1999.
By then, Denver's Original Pancake House locations were already wildly popular. And the two surviving remain so: At noon-ish, the Greenwood Village restaurant was packed. I was seated at the second-worst table in the place, the one right by the kitchen, and I decided not to mind because I would have had to wait another thirty minutes for the worst table in the place -- the one by the restrooms -- to open up.
The smack-up-on-the-kitchen table in a breakfast spot is generally a place of suck because of the wafting aroma of omelets -- and when you're making those huge, oversized, feed-four omelets, you inevitably get EBC (egg burn crust) on the outsides. It can't be helped (unless you cheat and only cook the omelets two-thirds of the way and then and zap it already stuffed, like I do at home), and the revolting aroma tends to waft about and permeate everything, including my clothes and my subconscious.But I wasn't here for an omelet. I'd heard that OPH makes some magnificent food -- including, but not limited to waffles, crepes, house-made corned beef hash and, of course, pancakes. I ordered the house-special waffle -- lemon poppyseed with blueberry topping -- the corned beef hash with two eggs and pancakes, and the house special praline-banana crepes. I saw some other peoples' food go while I was ordering, and the home-fried potatoes looked pretty special, so I ordered a side of those as well.
Ordering accomplished, I looked around the room. The restaurant's ambience would have been off-putting had it been a dinner spot, but a lot of breakfast places do the "pretend-country-outdoors-barns-and-sh*t" style of decor; the Fight Clubcornflower-blue-tie-colored walls, faux-rustic blond-wood booths and tables, and blue-and-white painted porcelain plates might have been tacky had they not been clean, meticulously placed and well maintained. The dining room really looked like a well-scrubbed, fake-farmhouse dining room; all it was missing was an antique Victrola and some of those plastic parlor-cushion covers that only come off on Sundays, when there is company.The service at OPH was gorgeous: fast, efficient, friendly as hell, and worth a good 25-plus percent tip at the end. My food was on the table, smoking hot, in under fifteen minutes. The plates were tidy and the portion sizes far past what I was expecting.
The waffle was feather-light, with butter-crisp edges and perfect pits filled with fruity, floral, warm blueberry compote. The waffle didn't even need that topping, though, because the combination of buttermilk, lemon rind and a bit of sweetness was furiously good.
The corned-beef hash was just as good: tender, brick-red bits of not-too-salty beef and tiny dices of peel-on russet potatoes, flavored with onion and perfectly moist -- according to the menu, the cooks use cream to wetten it up, and that trick works very, very well. Topped with with two over-medium eggs -- I like to weed-whack them into the hash -- and this was the best plate of hash I've ever had, by a f*cking long shot.The Original Pancake House does not screw around with crepes, either. The plate was stacked with three giant crepes rolled up with what I suspect was over a pound of banana slices, pecans, caramel sauce and whipped cream. The single order had enough stuff to feed me for about three meals, and the crepes themselves were deliciously eggy, sticky, bouncy and warm.
Even the home fries were exceptional, so well-cooked and easy-seasoned that I wondered if the kitchen had par-boiled the potatoes first to avoid the blackened potato-peel edges (because that's what I do at home when I'm not too lazy, which pretty much means close to never).
And then the pancakes: airy-fairy light, uniformly bubbled and sized, with lacy edges and a mildly tangy buttermilk flavor that made that warm maple syrup sing like Katy Perry.
My Original Pancake House breakfast was more delicious than original sin. I'd get up before noon to eat here again...and that's saying a mouthful.