Tamagoyaki or Atsuyaki Tamago, Japanese sweet omelette

[Dover]

I just stumbled on this site, which looks really interesting!
Wow, this omelette looks good and relatively quick and easy.
I just need to gather the ingredients. I love Asian foods!





The name tamagoyaki means “fried egg”, and the alternate name, atsuyaki tamago, means “thick fried egg”. (Some books or restaurants erroneously called it just tamago, which just means “egg”.) A slightly sweet, moist square-shaped egg concoction, tamagoyaki is a bento box staple, as well as being a popular sushi neta (topping). It’s also great as a side dish for any meal.

You don’t really need a special tamagoyaki pan for making this. A regular small non-stick frying pan will do. The one advantage of having a small tamagoyaki pan like this one is that the size is good for making small, thick tamagoyaki without using extra eggs. Conversely, a big square tamagoyaki/atsuyaki tamago pan is used for making those thick tamagoyaki served at better sushi restaurants. (Cheap sushi places use manufactured tamagoyaki, which is an abomination.) However, I’m assuming most people are likely to own a small frying pan, so that’s what I’ve used for the photos here. The one I have is an ordinary (pretty cheap) Tefal model that I got at a sale somewhere.

Once you get the hang of making the multilayers of egg, it’s very easy to do. A 2-egg tamagoyaki takes less than 5 minutes to cook, and a 4-egg one just a bit more. 4 eggs is the maximum that’s practical to cook in a 20cm / 8 inch standard frying pan.

I prefer my tamagoyaki to not be too sweet so there isn’t much sugar in this - I’ve seen recipes that add up to 3 tablespoons for 4 eggs. You can add more or less to your taste.

Tamagoyaki or Atsuyaki tamago
Halve the quantities for a 2-egg tamagoyaki

4 ‘large’ eggs
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. mirin (sweet rice cooking wine)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu); you can use regular soy sauce instead
Oil for cooking

Equipment:

20cm / 8 inch (small) non-stick frying pan
A heat resistant brush OR a wad of cotton wool or kitchen paper, for spreading the oil
1 or 2 forks, or 1 fork and a pair of chopsticks - or if you are skillful one pair of chopsticks
Sushi rolling mat
Optional: a fine-meshed sieve

CONT'D (check out the pics...very helpful)


http://www.justhungry.com/tamagoyaki



This special tamagoyaki pan is neat but not essential:



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HS0SHA?tag=wwwmakikoitoc-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B000HS0SHA&adid=0Z3V7GB77ZSEKQNXZQZT&

[Lucinda]

1. I love the idea of this...

Really interesting technique too. I can also see this working with savory filled crepes (using the sushi mat to roll the crepe and filling)

Interesting stuff! :)

[Dover]

2. Yes, very similar to crepes.

I bought the pan because I don't own a small frying pan and I LOVE omelets. So it made sense.
I was surprised how easy it was to find the mirin - my local grocery store carried it!
The first time I made it I used the above recipe but cut way back on the sugar. And while the
rolling technique is a cinch, the flavor was a little bland. So the next time I added more sugar (actually I used agave) and rather than using my spray on olive oil to cover the bottom of the
pan before each addition of egg, I brushed on pure black sesame oil instead. YUM! And I tossed in some chopped green scallion onions and long thin partially cooked slices of carrot (to soften them a bit), on the first egg layer just before rolling it up.

OMG! What a difference. So, good and tastes very 'authentic'. (as if I'd know...lol).

So I highly recommend adding nearly the amount of sugar called for in the recipe and use the black
sesame oil. I suppose you could add just a little bit of the oil to the egg mixture too for the flavor and then go ahead and use whatever spray on oil you have handy to spray the pan. But not too much or the eggs will not cook right and be too oily.
It really doesn't take any longer than a regular omelet and it's an unusual treat to serve day or night as a side to egg drop soup, noodles or other asian foods...or just alone.

Some recipes call for the addition of Dashi soup (2 T). I'm not familiar with Dashi but it occurs to be that any clear soup broth would work fine (like onion soup broth...yum).
Dashi - http://www.tasteofzen.com/recipes/detail.php?refer_id=16

Oh, and I rolled my first one up in the sushi bamboo mat after I finished (two eggs made three layers), and left that step off the second time. Rolling it in the mat made it tighter and more compact, but no biggy.

[Lucinda]

3. Thanks for the additional sugar suggestion and the Taste of Zen link!

They have some really interesting recipes. :)

We have been experimenting with Black Sesame Oil quite a bit... I love the fragrance and flavor. We even brushed some on a baguette before baking. It rocked. Amazing stuff.