This is the fourth of this series of omelets made from foraging around our home for plants growing in the wild. Bay leaves are a wonderful addition to many soups, beans, meats and other foods cooked for long periods. They must be removed before being eaten as they are sharp and can actually damage organs of the body from within.

Bay flowers (see picture below of stem with baby leaves)

But when the flowers of the laurel tree pass on to the next stage of changes of spring, the baby leaves appear. These are tasty and tender and can even be eaten without cooking such as in salads. The Laurus nobilis, bay laurel is another is another native of this area and dates back to tens of thousands of years ago, derived from relics of the laurisilva forests that originally covered much of the Mediterranean Basin when the climate of the region was more humid before the drying during the Pilocene era millions of years ago. They figure prominently in classical Greek, Roman, and Biblical culture. The Greeks believed that the laurel tree was first formed when the nymph Daphne was changed into a laurel tree because of Apollo’s pursuit of her. Daphne is the Greek and also the Hebrew name for the tree.

The following is a pictorial description of how this omelet, and basically, all of our omelets are made with changes only in ingredients. First lets us start with four eggs. Separate the whites and add one yolk for the low cholesterol version of the omelet. If your choice is a more traditional use of whole eggs, use three of them. Here we do the separation.

The egg mixture now needs to be beat with a wire whisk. This cannot be done too much and should be repeated just before starting to cook the egg. More beating adds more air for a lighter omelet.

Prepare the ingredients so that they can be added without delay later when the egg is cooking. For today’s omelet, we have the fresh picked baby bay leaves washed and ready for stem removal.

dafna stem with baby leaves

washed leaves

Prepare the cheese, here using Tomm goat cheese from Adir Dairy combined with a commercial previously grated mozzarella cheese. But you can use any single or combination of cheeses that you have on hand.

The preheated frying pan is now ready to have olive oil poured into it.

As regards how much olive oil to use depends on your

own inclinations. Chop up a small hot pepper or two and put them into the heated oil.

Now give another whisking to the egg mixture and pour it on to the frying pan.

Some of the egg will start to solidify but there will be some that is still runny.

runny egg

Now lift up a portion of the solid edge a bit and tilt the frying pan to allow the runny egg to flow under what you have lifted. It will then cook, allowing the entire upper side of the egg to cook more uniformly.

Now put the coarsely chopped baby leaves on one half of the circle of egg in the frying pan.

Sprinkle the small cubes of hard cheese and grated cheese on top of the baby bay leaves.

Gently flip the other half of the circle of egg on to the half with the ingredients.

Lift with flapjack

Continue to flip

Flip finished

So there you have it. Now you can decorate it with a hint of what is inside such as a small group of baby bay leaves.

And at last, the best part, the eating. Enjoy the fresh green and spicy mixture of Baby Bay Leaves and with the tasty combination of Cheeses. Bon Apetit. Buono Apetito. B’Tayavon.