Omuraisu - Japanese Rice Omelette

 

2013-10-29

Omuraisu - Japanese Rice Omelette

A good friend of mine asked whether I would mind figuring out how to make a Japanese rice omelet. I love cooking challenges. Never heard of the dish before, but I was determined to make a more-than-acceptable first attempt. From what I understood, this dish is basically fried rice within an omelet.

Just last night, I made fried rice. For some instructions for how to make fried rice, I can offer some guidance! You can click here. I have been told I make a pretty tasty fried rice, so much so that I was asked by a preschool to make fried rice for some 100 preschoolers this past spring. There was none left for the teachers, teacher-assistants, staff, or volunteers to share!

The ingredients I used to make last night's version of fried rice included: medium grain Nishiki white rice, brown eggs by pasture-raised hens, Tamari gluten-free soy sauce, sea salt, frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, corn), Applegate organic uncured beef hot dogs by cows that were grass-fed, dried shittake mushrooms, water, and Pacific free-range chicken broth.

 

Abridged Instructions for making fried rice:

The short end of how to make really good fried rice is to cook each component part separately. I cooked my rice by rice cooker. Then I placed the white rice into a larger pot and mixed in some Tamari soy sauce. Mix gently. Then fry each component part separately. I fried eggs first, after warming up a pan with olive oil and green onions. I didn't cook the eggs until they were well-done. The eggs joined the rice. Then in the same pan, I cooked the frozen vegetables with chicken broth and added a little bit of sea salt. Then the vegetables (leaving behind the broth) joined the rice and eggs. Since I was using dried shittake mushrooms, I had been soaking them in hot water for several hours. As I started preparing the fried rice (e.g. cooking the rice), I cut the shiitake mushrooms thinly and marinated them in some Tamari soy sauce. I pan fried the mushrooms for several minutes and then threw the mushrooms into the fried rice mixture. Lastly, I heated up the cut-up hot dogs in the pan for several minutes and threw them into the fried rice mixture. Stir gently, and viola, the fried rice is done.

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Instructions for making the Japanese egg omelet:

1. I was making the omelet for 2 adults, to possibly share with my (24 month old) twins [use 2 eggs per adult]. In preparation for making the omelet, I gently beat 4 eggs in a bowl and then added some chicken broth. Once the pan with olive oil and green onions was sufficiently hot on medium heat, I added the egg mixture.
2. Once the egg mixture had cooked for a bit and was/is close to being solid enough to flip, I added the fried rice on top, as can be seen in the picture below.
3. After the fried rice has cooked for several minutes, add shredded cheese on the fried rice as well as over the rest of the egg. The shredded cheese acts as an adhesive (I will be flipping the egg into a burrito sort of shape, so I need it to stick together).
4. Then flip the egg into a burrito shape. I started with the side that has more egg and cheese available first.

  2013-10-29

Since I was splitting it with a friend, I spit the omelet in half.

For the finished product I added a few green onions on top for garnish and drizzled organic ketchup.

I had made this dish as a second breakfast this morning. It was so popular, it was the request made for lunch.