Omurice

Ketchup rice under an omelette taken off barely set, draped rather than wrapped.

Chicken, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

the rice

• 600 g cooked rice, cold
• 300 g chicken thigh, in small dice
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 0.5 teaspoon white pepper

per omelette

• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ketchup, to finish

Method

1. FRY THE KETCHUP BEFORE THE RICE. Two minutes in the pan until it darkens from red to brick and stops smelling sharp. Stirred in cold at the end the whole plate tastes of the bottle.
2. TAKEN OFF BARELY SET AND DRAPED. The omelette is cooked until the base is just firm and the top is still liquid, then slid over the rice and left to finish in its own heat. Cooked through and folded it is an omelette with rice inside; draped, it collapses over the mound and stays soft.
3. ONE OMELETTE AT A TIME, three eggs each, in a small pan. There is no way to do four at once.
4. Cold day-old rice, grains separated.
5. Chicken and onion fried in the butter and oil, 5 minutes. Ketchup in and fried as above. Rice in, pressed and turned 4 minutes until every grain is orange. Pepper. Mound it on the plate and shape it into an oval.
6. Beat the eggs with the milk and STRAIN them. Strands of white give a bumpy surface, and this dish is judged on a smooth one.
7. Butter in a hot pan until it foams. Eggs in all at once.
8. STIR FAST FOR TEN SECONDS with chopsticks, then stop and let the base set. That brief stirring makes the curds fine and the surface even.
9. When the base is set and the top still wet, slide it from the pan straight over the rice mound.
10. Ketchup over the top. Serve immediately -- it continues setting on the plate.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes