Ohayo Gozaimasu!!! For those who can’t understand Japanese, that means “Good Morning!!!” Even though it’s late night, the recipe I want to talk about today is a breakfast food. It does take quite a bit of patience and a little technique, but if you are willing to try, you will find that this recipe can be fun to make. I particularly like to applaud myself when I can make it without breaking the egg!
So, today’s recipe as the title says is a Japanese Style Omelet. Instead of the normal folded omelets we know here in America, it’s rolled and consists of many layers. The first Japanese Style Omelet I was taught is called a sweet omelet. It normally contains chopped chives, some brown sugar and a little bit of mirin ( or Japanese Sweet Rice Wine). As I got better with the recipe over the years I started to experiment which is where this version comes from. You can use a lot of items to make this recipe, the only catch is they need to be thinly cut items. I am using Smoked Turkey breast Deli meat and some thin slices of Mozzarella cheese. So, let’s get cooking!
For this recipe you will need
Two eggs
Chives
A thinly sliced meat of your choosing; I’m using Turkey breast
A thinly sliced cheese of your choosing; I’m using Mozzarella, but I bet you can use shredded or grated cheese as well. Just nothing too thick.
Olive Oil
A skillet; I found a small square one which is perfect for this recipe, but I have used a regular small curved skillet before as well.
Two bowls; One large one for the eggs and one small one for the olive oil.
A whisk
Something you can easily maneuver; a fork; I’m personally using chopsticks.
A paper towel; half a sheet if you have regular sized ones.
First thing you want to do is take your paper towel and fold it until you have a small rectangle. Place it in your small bowl and pour about a teaspoon and a half to two teaspoons of olive oil over it. Make sure the paper towel becomes thoroughly soaked.
Now, place your skillet on the stove and turn it on low. After a minute, place the soaked paper towel in it and use your fork or chopsticks to coat the entire skillet. When you’re done, return the paper towel to the small bowl. You’ll be using it at least three more times.
During that minute of waiting for the pan to heat. Crack your eggs into the larger bowl and whisk. If you’re using chives or other spices and herbs, add those now and whisk into the eggs as well. After you have coated your pan, wait another minute before using your fork or chopsticks and then drop a little dot onto the pan. If it makes a sounds than the pan is hot enough.
Now, it is very important to make sure you take your time, but also move fast. You need to ration your egg mixture. The key element of a Japanese Style Omelet is the rolled, layered aspect. With two eggs I can normally get about four layers with a fifth layer being the core. For each one, you only want to pour in enough egg to coat the bottom of the pan. These are THIN layers. Do not add a lot of egg. (A tip to making sure you don’t use a lot is tilting your pan to spread it out.)
For this first layer, your going to pour a little in and then immediately scrunch it to one side of the pan with your fork or chopsticks. The layer should be so thin that it will only take about ten to twenty seconds top for the egg to cook.
Once you have done this step, you want to use your paper towel again and coat the pan for the next layer. Make sure you move out the egg so you can coat behind it as well, then push it back to the one side.
Now, the first thing you want to do is turn down your stove a little more. This is where you will begin to add your meat and cheese, so you are going to need a few more seconds. As the spices and chives will like to settle in the egg, make sure you whisk the mixture between layers before you pour. With this next layer, you are going to want to lift the cooked egg you have and make sure that the raw egg gets under there so it adheres to the cooked egg.
Now, for the layers of fillings, I like to alternate. The first I place my cheese, the next my meat and then another layer of cheese. Make sure you lay it out as thinly as possible, otherwise the next step will be a little more difficult.
Now, here comes the difficult part. Rolling. If you are using a fork, this step might actually be easier for you. If you are using chopsticks, you are going to want to place them out farther apart. Behind the core, place your fork in the middle and lift the core until it rolls over. If you are using chopsticks, mentally divide the core into thirds and place the chopsticks at the one third and two thirds points. Lift until it rolls over. Repeat the process until that layer is gone, then push it back to the starting point and coat the pan once more with your olive oil covered paper towel.
Add your third layer of egg and place a thin layer of your next filling. Roll when you have done that and then coat your pan once more. Make sure you are getting behind the omelet as well.
Now, as you start to run out of the egg mixture, you will want to decide if you can get at least two more layers out of it. If you think you can only get one, do not add anymore filling. In my case I was able to add another of cheese. The last layer thought is important. I use that to make sure the omelet is whole and won’t unroll when I’m done with it.
As you can see the omelet gets pretty big with each layer. When you go to cut into it, you should have something that looks like this.
That’s it! You’re done! If you had the patience to make it through this recipe, I applaud you. My teacher was very patient when she taught me, I couldn’t get it to roll the first few times without breaking the egg. It looked horrible! Now, you can do whatever you want with it. I really like cheese, especially Mozzarella, so I placed another slice on top and let it melt before I placed the two halves on two slices of buttered toast!
Enjoy!!!
Mmm Delicious! 