Cookbook on a Budget: Khushbu Shah's Maggi Omelet

A new way to put noodles in your eggs!!!

My love for carbs baked into eggs is well-documented: see tortilla de patata, see pasta frittata, see Perry’s green rice. I love to open my fridge and see a firm triangle of egg-and-carb, a pie chart wedge come to salty life. I love even better to open a new cookbook and find a new permutation of these components. This is exactly what happened a few weeks back when I first flipped through Khushbu Shah’s wonderful Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora, which comes out next Tuesday. Armed with my booklet of technicolor sticky tabs, I eagerly bookmarked the saag paneer frittata, the aloo paratha quesadillas, the amchur ranch salad (!) with crispy chickpeas (!!), the tamarind chutney margaritas (which I will be making this weekend). But upon seeing the maggi omelet, with its golden face and squiggly middle, toasty noodles pirouetting out from its edges, I knew what was coming for that week’s lunch. It was brilliant, it was easy to make, it called for just two ingredients I didn’t already have on hand. And it required ketchup, for dipping, so I knew we were having fun.

this would be such a cute dish to bring to a picnic….cut up in bite sized cubes….with a miniature jam jar of ketchup toted along? can you imagine???????

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Khush’s book since its announcement a year or two ago, in part because Khush brings a near-dogmatic sense of PLAYFULNESS to so much of her work. That tone matches her subject—diasporic cooking—perfectly: Shah is delighted and inspired by the adaptations of so many home cooks, and the polyglot nature of Indian-American pantries. (Amrikan is a word used by Indians to denote all things American.) An introductory spread on the Amrikan pantry offers a grid of grocery staples, whose effect lands somewhere between a lotería card and Hollywood squares. Here you’ll find rice krispies, ginger paste, ghee, bisquick (for making gulab jamun!), ketchup, jaggery, and so on, and it’s an apt introduction to the book’s entire vibe. Khushbu is also happy to lean on microwaves, instant pots, and instant coffee, the things home cooks actually use (though as someone without the former appliances, I’ll be doing some macguyvering with instructions).

When I approach a new cookbook, I either go all-in—crafting a feast from like 3-4 recipes—or I go the lazy route, and pick the thing(s) I’m most likely to incorporate into my repertoire. Here I leaned toward the latter option, picking up ingredients for the maggi omelet, the tamarind margaritas (yum), and the vagharelo bhaath, a yogurty, spiced vehicle for leftover rice. This mostly meant buying instant noodles, plain yogurt, feta, some chutney, and booze—a delightful grocery run.

In her headnote for the maggi omelet, Khush explains the origins of the recipe, an old Lucky Peach video from 2015 in which David Chang whisked some instant ramen seasoning into some eggs, and turned it into a French-style omelet. I have since found myself thinking about the Ramlet often, she writes, not because of what Chang did, but because what he was not brave enough to do. Khush is wise enough to know that a frittata di spaghetti is genius, that the bounce of a par-cooked noodle is the perfect foil to tender, spiced eggs. And personally, I love a spaghetti frittata as much as I love dunking on Dave Chang, so this headnote fulfilled a wide swath of my hierarchy of needs.

As long as you can bring yourself to flip a pan of eggs with a plate—which yes, you can—this is an incredibly easy dish, ideal for one person who will enjoy leftovers tomorrow. I added an extra egg to the recipe—as written I was worried it wasn’t enough, but now I’m quite sure it would be—and the seasoning packet still shone through, a salty little masala boost to the eggs and noodles. I loved the bite of the raw onions against the softness of the feta, the aggressive quantity of scallions. I loved even more folding leftovers into a store-bought roti, stuffed with dressed greens, a handful of cilantro, more feta, and a few lashes of tamarind chutney.

a perfect lunch !!

And because this series is indeed called cookbook on a budget: my math brings the cost of one omelet at roughly $11, or $5.50 a serving. Happy pay day to all who celebrate <3

Maggi Omelet

Serves 2, excerpted from Amrikan by Khushbu Shah

2 (2.46-ounce) packets Maggi Masala 2-Minute Noodles
3 large eggs (MB note: I used four, for extra structure)
4 scallions, chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
1/3 cup crumbled feta
Ground black pepper to taste
Butter, for frying
Ketchup, for serving

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the noodles, setting aside the seasoning packets, and cook until al dente, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the reserved seasoning packets, scallions, red onion, and feta and mix thoroughly. Add the cooked noodles, along with some freshly cracked black pepper, and give it a good stir.

Melt a generous knob of butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour the egg and noodle mixture into the pan and let it cook, undisturbed, for 4 to 5 minutes, until the bottom is set and gently browned. Place a plate over the pan and flip the cooked side onto the plate. Melt a little more butter in the pan, then slide the uncooked side of the omelet back into the pan. Let it cook for another 3 minutes, or until golden and set. Slide the omelet out of the pan and cut into wedges. Honestly, this tastes best with ketchup—no shame!

MB note: this dish is perhaps at its best cold from the fridge; try it wrapped in a roti (or other flatbread) with dressed greens, extra feta, and tamarind chutney.