When my husband and I were driving back from the Oregon coast, we needed to stop somewhere and get dinner. Usually, we manage to stop at this Thai place in Pendleton that’s really good (Thai Crystal), but we ended up hungry before we passed that town this time.
So we ended up going to a burger joint drive thru type of place instead. We both ordered fish n chips, but after we received the order, it was clear we should have ordered one to share. This was a big pile of food – not something either of us were prepared to fully consume. The fish portion was generous, but it was the fries that really overwhelmed me.
They were shoestring fries, basically a big ol’ ball of them, a huge tangled nest of fries. They weren’t easy for Ambrose to eat while driving, because if you pull on one fry, you get 50 more clinging to it. I had to break them up so he could actually eat.
We got close to finishing the first order of fries, but we didn’t touch the second. However, I had an idea about what might be done with them, and I convinced Ambrose we shouldn’t just throw them out as soon as we got home.
Instead, I let them sit overnight and then I made an omelet with them.
French fries, cheese and a little ketchup in the omelet.
It was a little trickier to roll than my typical omelets. I had to be careful not to let the egg break as I folded those fries. But it turned out pretty nice on the plate, with a dusting of shredded Dubliner cheese.
After I took the picture, Ambrose also requested some hot sauce on his omelet, which I was happy to accommodate. I had some on mine as well.
I did not reheat the fries before putting them on the omelet; instead, I let the omelet warm them up as part of my process. I use an omelet process that I got from YouTube; basically, you treat the eggs like scrambled until they are almost done being liquid, then you turn off the burner, smoosh the eggs flat, and add any other ingredients that need warming. Then I cover it with a pan lid to help warm up the toppings (and melt the cheese!), which get less heat than the eggs since they are not touching the cast iron pan.
So the fries were warmed by the residual heat from cooking the omelet, but not actually re-cooked themselves. While they didn’t taste like fresh fries, they tasted really good in the omelet. I don’t think this would have worked so well if the fries were thicker. If I had thicker cut fries, I’d probably go ahead and chop them into smaller, thinner pieces before putting it in the omelet. Otherwise, I’d end up with cold chunks, yuck.
If I ever have leftover fries again, I know exactly what I’m doing with them.