Late Lunch: Mustard Omelette & Bang-Jo Salad

One of my bad habits is that once I start working on anything, I tend to be unable to stop until I finish it all. So I often had a late lunch. Not a healthy habit, I know.

Living in a dense area with a university right behind my kitchen, eating places swarm around my neighborhood like ants to candy. I could easily buy whatever I want for my meal, and I do, from two of them which had passed my inspection as being healthy enough, descent enough, and hygienic enough to eat. Although sometimes I'm not really sure about the latter. I usually was exhausted from work, so I just let go. As long as it has enough raw vegetables and is sold in a house, not by the street where carbon monoxide is expected to be all over, I can live with it.

But when I have the energy to prepare my meal, and I often do, I just open my fridge and improvise from there. One afternoon, I had all these beautiful free range eggs, grainy mustard, gorgeous red and green veggies, and I was sold. Turned them into a delish omelette and red-green salad, and I had a beautiful healthy late lunch.

The name Bang-Jo salad I got from when I was on a trip to Jepara and was looking for a direction. A man said, "Go straight until the bang-jo." I frowned. Later I found out that bang-jo was a short for abang-ijo, means red-green in Javanese, means traffic light. :)


Mustard Omelette

3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
5 shallots, thinly sliced
1 stalk spring onion, thinly sliced

Heat 1-2 tablespoon oil in a pan -- I use rice bran oil. Sautee the garlics, shallots and spring onion until soften and fragrant.

Meanwhile, loosely beat together with a fork:

3 eggs, free-range
1 tsp mustard -- I used the grainy one
about 1 tsp of sweet soy sauce
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper

Pour the eggs mixture onto the pan, covering the sauteed spices. Fry on medium heat until done, flip over, cook the other side. Do not overcook the omelette, it will get dry. Try to stop frying while the middle is still soft, the inside will be moist and creamy.


Bang-Jo Salad

Put together in a bowl:
1 tomato, diced
1 small beet root, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 stalk of lettuce, tear

For the dressing:
Extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp mustard -- I used the grainy one

Garnish:
1 small stalk of cilantro

Drizzle the olive oil all over the vegetables until it covers most of them. Spoon the mustard over the salad, sprinkle a pinch of salt, then mix them all together until all bits of vegetables are covered in dressing.

Serve the salad over the omelette. Chop the cilantro, sprinkle all over the dish.

Have a bang-jo afternoon!