Lefse Omelette

A few weeks ago, I shared with you how to make Lefse, a Norwegian flatbread of sorts. I’ve always been a fan of lefse, and generally have only eaten it with butter and cinnamon-sugar.

About a year and a half ago, the husband and I were in Eau Claire, WI for something. We can’t actually remember why. I mean, we know we were there for a wedding once, but I don’t think it was then. Maybe it was when we were driving to Green Bay. In any case… We stayed at a hotel, and one of the days we happened to go to the Northwoods Brewpub & Grill for a meal. There I ordered the Smothered Lefse Omelette Wrap.

And my life changed forever.

I had intended to make this last year with my lefse, but forgot. I’m not sure why, I only had a 3-month old baby back then. Anyway, this year I was not going to forget. No, siree.

I couldn’t remember the thing exactly, so I went off the description on the website and made something with all the same flavors. And I was not sorry. So here goes.

Start out by making the hashbrowns.

Heat oil in a skillet. Preferably a sort of grody one. It will totally help the hashbrowns cook.

No. It won’t. But I’ll feel better about it.

NOTE: This is not enough oil! Make sure you put enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Or you’ll regret it for the rest of your days on this earth.

Since my homemade lefse were smaller than traditional lefse, I made my hashbrowns in a small pan. But if you have bigger lefse, use a pan that’s slightly smaller than your lefse, if you can.

Once the oil is nice and hot, add frozen, shredded hash browns.

As it cooks, press it firmly with a spatula so it sticks together for flipping it.

After about 5-7 minutes, when the first side is brown, flip it over, doing your best to keep it intact. Cook the 2nd side until brown.

Since I was making two of these, I put them on a wire rack in the oven (just turned to “warm”) so they would stay warm & crisp while I finished everything else.

Left: not enough oil. Right: enough oil. Take note at what catastrophes await you if you fail to adequately oil your pan!

Beware the Ides of March!

er.

While the hashbrowns are cooking, you can cut up your sausage. I used a pork kielbasa, but you can use whatever sausage makes you happy. For 2 omelettes, I used about a cup or cup & a half of cut-up sausage.

Cook up the sausage a bit in a skillet, until it is nicely seared.

Then melt some butter in a skillet for your eggs. I used a separate skillet from the sausage because I didn’t want the eggs to stick all over the leftover sausage bits. If you don’t have another skillet, I would definitely recommend washing it first.

Once the butter is all melted and starts to foam a bit, pour in your eggs. Since we’re going to be making a hollandaise sauce to go with this, I used 4 whole eggs, and 3 egg whites. We’ll use the egg yolks for the sauce. It ended up being more than I needed for the two omelettes, but my husband never complains about extra eggs to eat. 🙂  Anyway, beat the eggs up in a bowl and then pour into the hot pan. Stir constantly.

When the eggs are almost set, turn off the heat and stir in the sausage. The residual heat from the pan will finish cooking the eggs, and this way you can leave the eggs in the pan while you start to assemble everything, keeping them warm without overcooking them. Because overcooked eggs are super gross and make me want to hurl.

To assemble, warm the lefse slightly in the microwave (like 10 seconds or so) and top with the hashbrowns.

Put the egg/sausage mixture in the middle third of the lefse.

Top with your favorite cheese, shredded.

Wrap, and place seam-side down on a plate. Pour on hollandaise sauce. I used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe from her eggs benedict post. It’s SUPER easy. I melted the butter on the stove while I cooked the eggs so once the omelette was assembled, I blended everything in the blender and it took about 2 minutes. Then I was able to pour it over while everything was still warm. ONE NOTE: PW’s recipe says to use the juice of one lemon. In her photo, it shows her squeezing the lemon with her hand, straight into the blender. I used a juicer and ended up with WAY too lemony of a sauce. I would definitely recommend just using your hand to squeeze the lemon, or otherwise put a small amount of the juice in at a time until it tastes right.

This is so good. Seriously. I love the crispness (crispicity?) of the hash browns and the softness of the egg and the sauciness of the sauce all mixing together in each bite. The sausage adds a delicious richness, and who can resist cheese? And then it’s all wrapped in lovely lefse.

Excuse me, this lefse omelette and I need some alone time.