Another perfection from college, when my myriad of omelettes were frequently-requested specialties, but refined slightly… Now with sea salt.

2-4 large eggs per person
1 tsp water per egg
1 drop Dave’s Insanity Sauce for every 3-4 eggs  (If you don’t have an even multiple of 3-4, round down)
several dashes of sea salt
little bit of butter or margarine
grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
several twists of black pepper from a pepper grinder
1 gallon orange juice

Crack eggs into Pyrex 2+ Cup measure or other glass bowlish-thing. Add one tsp water per egg, stir briskly with stainless steel fork (no wisk, please, thanks) until frothing and well-mixed. Carefully add  1 drop Dave’s Insanity Sauce for every 3-4 eggs, and sea salt. Coat large non-stick fry-pan with just enough butter or margarine to get it going. Pour in egg mixture and make a couple passes over it with a black pepper grinder. Cook  covered (with a cookie-sheet, if necessary) over medium heat until it looks “done”. From time-to-time, pop the “tumors” that will inevitably rise up with spatula, trying to keep things as even as possible.

When “done”, uncover, and add substantial gobs of cheese to exactly one-half of the omelette. You can, of course, add other things to the same one-half, but with Dragon Omelettes you’ll quickly learn that complexity is not your friend- cheese and large glasses of orange juice are. Fold the omelette with a spatula (or two, if necessary) such that the uncheesed half is flopped on top of the cheesed half. Make a brief pass with some sea salt and pepper grinder atop this gorgeous meal, and then cook covered over low heat for about 1.5 minutes, just to let the cheese melt.

Divide into appropriate portions, and serve with ample amounts of orange juice and breakfast pastries/English muffins/bagels/whatever.

Serves as many as you like (as long as you have a large enough pan), in about 20 minutes total.

Chicken vindaloo, a Portu-Indian favorite. Mine is slightly untraditional, but generally easier to make if you don’t have an Indo-Asian food store to buy some of the more traditional ingredients in. This recipe has been refined over about 12 years, and is one of my oldest loves.

3 lbs chicken (I prefer boneless, skinless breasts)
1 onion (chopped fine)
2 tomatoes (chopped well)
8-10 new potatoes (a rough pound)
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp mustard seed (ground, or dry mustard powder)
2 large cloves garlic (chopped fine)
4 jalapeno or green chili peppers (seeded for less heat, chopped fine regardless)
1/2 tsp crushed chili pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
Fresh cilantro

In a Pyrex dish (or other glass, I suppose) combine molasses, vinegar, turmeric, coriander, cumin, ground mustard seed, peppers (not the crushed) and garlic- mix thouroughly. Mix in chicken to coat well. Cover and allow to marinate in fridge 8-24 hours.

Get the potatoes cooking in a pot. In Wok or chef skillet (or pot, if you must), cook the onions and crushed pepper in canola oil, stirring frequently until onion begins to brown before adding tomatoes. Cook about 5 minutes to soften then add chicken soup from fridge. Cook on high heat, uncovered stirring well occasionaly for about 10 minutes. Cover, reduce to simmer for about 15 minutes. Halve the potatoes and add them, continuing to simmer another 15 minutes. Add cilantro just before serving.

Serves 6. Prep time about 30 minutes, 1 day marinade, ~1 hour cook time.

Roughly translated means: “you’ll cry like a baby grilled steak”. If you’re afraid of flavor fear not – all of the heat is in the dipping sauce which you can moderate at meal time. Try it, please. This does require some non-trivial prep and marinate time, but it’s one of my favorite Thai refinements. Steak can be cooked over a wood fire, charcoal grill, gas grill or on a stove top as desired. Goes great with rice, rice noodle or cous-cous (culinary faux paux, I know).

Sauce:

1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar (raw preferred)
3 tbsp kao kua
3-4 small green onions (minced)
1/4 cup crushed chili peppers

Steak:

2 lbs lean steak (thinner is better, but whatever)
2 tbsp sugar (raw preferred)
1/2 Cup soy sauce or Kikkoman Less Sodium Teriyaki Sauce

Steak prep: In a large bowl dissolve the sugar in soy sauce (stir). Add steak, cover and let marinate for at least one hour (overnight is great too), tossing about 3/4 of the way through. Go make the sauce while you’re waiting.  When ready to cook, get your heat hot: if cooking on a stove, an iron grill plate or skillet is suggested as opposed to non-stick cookware. Until it sizzles a drip of water, it’s not hot enough. Add the beef using tongs (bamboo preferred) quickly and sear meat, cooking to desired doneness. Generally best to get a medium to medium-well, ~5-10 minutes. Cooking it fast and hot is the key to keeping the flavor locked in.  Skip down to serve.

Sauce prep: In a bowl, dissolve the sugar in the lime juice and soy sauce (stir). Stir in onions, kao kua and crushed chile.

Serve: Meat should be plated immediately, and cut into thin slices or bite-sized pieces. Sauce should be divided into small bowls or mini-cups for dipping. There might not seem like “enough”, but a little nahm jeem goes a long way.

Serves 6-8. Prep time is an active 20-30 minutes in the midst of a 1 hour marinade, and about 10 minutes to cook.