Stiff Supper Flip

From time to time, despite our best efforts, or perhaps as a result of them, the cupboard is well and truly bare. Maybe we've forgotten to go shopping or perhaps we've simply eaten everything in blooming sight. Either way we all know the dreadful feeling of peering into the kitchen and discovering... Nothing. We look again. Open every door. Check the fridge. The cupboards again. There must be something. Panic! Then, out of the corner of one eye, you spot it...

An egg. Perhaps we'd not all immediately be jumping for joy, secure in the knowledge that we'll be eating well after all. It's just an egg. Not a meal. Nothing to feel excited about. Fanny thinks differently. She always does. We know this by now. She's determined to encourage us to crack open that solitary egg, grab our griddle pans and give out a celebratory whoop as we whip up a hunger-busting meal. Yahoo!

Well, kind of. We know that Fanny is a little bit obsessed with one particular type of egg-based meal. She loves them in all forms. Savoury. Sweet. Substantial. Small. She'll have them all. However you'd be forgiven for imagining that Fanny had well and truly flipped (some might say, finally) were she to suggest that one little egg, all on it's own, could be remodelled into Fanny's favourite. An Omelette. Not any old ordinary omelette though. C'mon, that just wouldn't be Fanny, now would it?

When times are tough, Fanny's Griddle Soufflé Omelette comes to the rescue. The griddle, you see, cuts down on one ingredient which Fanny herself would normally add to a Soufflé Omelette cooked in any other way. This is amazing. Fewer ingredients all round. The redundant element is simply, erm, water. For griddles, the egg is simply separated. The white is beaten to an absolute maximum stiffness. No semi-stiffness welcome. Maximum stiffness. The yolk is beaten lightly with a fork and turned gently into the whites until they are creamily blended. If you have a knob of cheese, add it. Salt and pepper are essential.

The ingredient list is zooming up, but we will forgive Fanny. I cannot however forgive her for rubbing a piece of pork fat on a dry heated griddle. I spray a little oil before following Fanny's instruction to 'dump' the 'foamy mixture' onto it over a low heat. Working quickly, Fanny says we must shape it using spatulas and knives, one in each hand, into an oval. Turning with the spatula when brown on one side, tidying up any rough edges with the knife. There you have it. A light, fluffy, foamy, stiffly-beaten Griddle Soufflé Omelette made with one lonely, neglected and resurrected egg. It's dead nice, but what can I eat now...? *stares into kitchen*