Tamago kake gohan

A raw egg beaten into rice hot enough to thicken it but not to cook it.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg. Vegetarian only if you leave out the optional fish.

Ingredients

• 2 portions freshly cooked rice, very hot
• 2 eggs, very fresh, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• nori and katsuobushi, optional

Method

1. THE RICE MUST BE HOT ENOUGH TO THICKEN THE EGG AND NOT HOT ENOUGH TO COOK IT, which is a narrower window than it sounds. Straight from the cooker is right. Rice that has stood ten minutes leaves the egg thin and raw-tasting; rice reheated in a microwave to steaming sets it into threads.
2. EGGS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Fridge-cold eggs cool the rice on contact and the whole thing goes claggy.
3. THIS DISH IS EATEN RAW AND IS ONLY AS SAFE AS THE EGG. Use the freshest you can buy, from a source you would eat raw from. Where eggs are routinely refrigerated and not vaccinated against salmonella, this carries a real risk and the honest advice is not to make it.
4. BEAT THE EGG SEPARATELY FIRST, with the soy sauce, until completely uniform and slightly frothy. Cracked straight onto the rice, the white stays in slippery strands that never incorporate.
5. 20 to 30 seconds of beating is enough to break the white down.
6. Rice into a warmed bowl, mounded.
7. Egg poured over in a circle, not in one spot.
8. MIX FAST AND BRIEFLY, 10 to 15 seconds, with chopsticks held like a whisk. It should go glossy and pale and coat every grain.
9. Over-mixing cools it and breaks the rice down to porridge.
10. Spring onion, and nori or katsuobushi if you want them. Eat at once -- it is a two-minute dish from start to finish and does not wait.

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