Cooking Lessons

Here’s something new and different. My daughter and I are learning to cook different Japanese dishes, inspired by the Netflix series, Midnight Diner. It’s been a blast. I started off my lessons by learning to make an omelet—Japanese rolled omelet, called tamagoyaki.

You can get a quick cooking lesson on tamagoyaki on YouTube at https://youtu.be/fmQyO6c9dtA. It’s entertaining and has the advantage of having an English-speaking chef following the instructions of the Japanese chef. And it is fun.

I tried practicing in my frying pan but tamagoyaki is supposed to be a nice even roll with flat ends. Mine turned out looking more like scrambled eggs.

So, I bought a cheap square griddle and tried using that. I managed to get one edge square, but the griddle was so huge that the heat bowed it up in the middle and I ended up with one edge sort of square and big ends.

After several tries, it didn’t get better, so I broke down and bought a high-quality Japanese Tamagoyaki Pan. And cooking chopsticks (16 inches long!). And a silicon spatula about the same width as the pan. What a difference! The pan worked great, but my first effort I think I added too much liquid to the eggs (chicken stock because I haven’t been able to find dashi and I don’t want to attempt making my own) so the eggs cooked poorly and came out too salty.

Still, it was much better. I used just a splash of water to lighten the eggs and rolled the omelet around parmesan cheese and bacon bits. I have to say the best part of these omelets in my book is how light and fluffy they are.

I made a big switch in my recipe, based on looking at several. So, my recipe is now:

Egg batter:

2 eggs

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp half-and-half

That’s all! I would never have thought about putting sugar in eggs, but the sweetness is really good! When I rolled the omelet, I sprinkled parmesan cheese shreds lightly in the layers. Bravo!

I won't say it was perfect, but this is a really good omelet.

I followed up making this kind of omelet with an attempt at omurice, which is essentially a fried rice omelet. It’s not quite as pretty as the tamagoyaki, but it’s very tasty. You can get instructions on YouTube at https://youtu.be/vF51LgSSpe0.

I didn’t have tomato paste or ketchup or ham. Surprise, surprise! I made a Southwestern omurice! A little salsa and pico de gallo with sausage crumbles and my fried rice was definitely a Mexican flavored fried rice.

So, my adventures in Japanese cooking have also extended to making my own version of yakisoba or fried noodles. It takes three minutes to boil ramen noodles. While they’re boiling, I toss chopped onion, peppers, and chopped cooked chicken in my frying pan. Drain the noodles and stir into the add-ons with teriyaki sauce. Pretty darn good!

In fact, I’m hungry now and I think it’s time to make breakfast.

Oh, by the way, I've been experimenting by cooking Japanese recipes for a week now. I've lost three pounds!