I love caviar. Grocery store caviar. More specifically, cheap grocery store caviar. I love the fishy saltiness hitting my tongue and the little spheres popping in my mouth. I have never eaten real, high-end caviar – that I remember – who knows if I’d like it.
I don’t eat it very often – even though I love it and at my local Giant grocery store it’s less than $10.00 a pot.
Last night I had dinner at a friend’s house and wanted to take something special to add to our appetizer/cocktail hour. We were going to have smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on Wasa Crispbread with our martinis, and I thought caviar would be a perfect addition.
So, on the way into the city, I ran into Giant and picked up a 2 oz. jar of Romanoff Black Lumpfish Caviar for $7.49. Regularly priced at $8.49, I got a dollar discount with my discount card. Not bad for a fun, cheap treat.
We had a great dinner and my friend sent me home with what was left of the caviar. I thought I’d make scrambled eggs and caviar for breakfast. She also gave me what was left of a really tasty sourdough baguette by La Brea Bakery in L.A. (which are available at stores in Baltimore, fyi, including Giant, Eddie’s and Shoppers).
But this morning I started thinking of a better way to utilize the leftover caviar. An omelet. With fresh spinach? Broccoli? No, broccoli would be too strong a flavor and I didn’t think it would go with the caviar. Spinach didn’t excite me. I opened the fridge and spied half a fresh avocado and some yogurt. Perfect, I thought.
I had eaten half the avocado yesterday – and it was the weirdly, sweetest, creamiest avocado I had ever tasted. I thought that would go well with the sea-salty caviar. The yogurt, my favorite Dannon Plain Whole Milk Yogurt (if you’ve never tried whole-milk yogurt, do. It has a completely different flavor from nonfat or lowfat), would complement the sweet and the salty with a little tang. I suppose you could use sour cream, but try plain whole-milk yogurt in anything you would normally use sour cream in – I think you’ll like the cooler, lighter, tangier flavor. The rest was easy.
Caviar, avocado, yogurt omelet
- 2 large fresh eggs
- 1 T milk
- Butter
- ½ fresh avocado
- Fresh plain whole-milk yogurt
- Caviar
- Baguette
- Salt & pepper to taste
Serves one
I made the omelet by beating two large, fresh eggs with about a tablespoon of milk, melting about a tablespoon of butter in my small frying pan, and cooking the omelet over medium-low heat, lifting the sides all around to let the uncooked eggs run off the top and go under to cook. I don’t like browned omelets, as I think cooking too quickly and browning changes the delicate flavor and makes the eggs tougher. In the meantime, I used a tablespoon to scoop out the avocado in one hunk, then sliced it thinly. Once the omelet was cooked through, but not browned, on half the omelet I layered a couple tablespoons of yogurt, a thin layer of caviar and the avocado slices, then folded the omelet over. (Be careful with the caviar – use it sparingly to achieve flavor without overwhelming the omelet with the fishiness.)
I served the omelet with slices of the sourdough baguette that I buttered and then toasted in the toaster oven until they were browned and the butter bubbly. As you know, I usually have breakfast with a pot of strong Irish tea (Barry’s or Bewley’s)
This was a delicious way to use the leftover caviar, and may inspire me to use caviar in more of my cooking, when I need that kind of big, intense flavor to complement a dish.
Chow for Now!
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