Monday, May 20, 2013

Japanese-style stuffed omelet with saag インド風ほうれん草ソースいりオムレツ

My wife and I occasionally watch "Sakaba hourouki" 酒場放浪記 on Youtube. Beside the shows with the  host "Rui Yoshida" 吉田類, my wife particularly likes the female model, Yasuko Kuramoto 倉本康子 who occasionally hosts the female version of the show.In one of her shows, she visited an eel kushiyaki 串焼き place and had an unusual omelet stuffed with eel. I suppose it was a variation of a more traditional "Umaki" 鰻巻き (cooked filet of eel wrapped inside a Japanese-style omelet). My wife was impressed with the bright yellow color and homogenous smooth appearance of the omelet. I rose to the challenge by saying that I could make it that way easily. So here is my omelet.

Since I did not have eel handy and this was a weekend breakfast, I substituted the stuffing with my wife's "Saag", pork, shiitake mushroom and cottage cheese.

Stuffing (for one 2 egg omelet):
Onion, one small or half large, finely chopped
Pork, I used leftover barbecued whole pork loin, just cut into small match stick, 3-4 tbs
Shiitake mushroom, Thinly sliced, 6 small or 3 large
Spinach saag,  2-3 tbs
Cottage cheese, 2-3 tbs

I sautéed the onion in olive oil in a small frying pan, seasoned with salt and pepper. When the onion was soft and semi-transparent, I added the mushroom and pork and kept sautéing for 2-3 more minutes. I then added the saag and mixed well. I placed the cottage cheese on the top and kept the pan on "warm" or lowest simmer with the lid on.  The idea of using cottage cheese came from the fact that my wife initially made something similar to "Saag paneer" with home made cheese curd—the cottage cheese substituted for the paneer.

Omelet: I used two brown eggs, well-beaten. I did not seasoned the eggs because of the rather assertively flavored stuffing I was using.

There are many different ways to make omelet. For a stuffed omelet, I generally use the method I learned by watching omelets being made at one of the restaurants we used to visit in Los Angeles many years ago when we lived there. The restaurant specialized in brunch especially omelets. Using a spatula, I raise the side of the omelet after the egg on the bottom is set and let the uncooked egg mixture flow under the cooked egg. I repeat this on all four quadrants until I reached the desired doneness of the omelet. An omelet made in this style has a large soft curd.
The secret to making a Japanese style yellow smooth omelet is to beat the eggs well (if so preferred, you could add more yolk to the mixture to enhance the bright yellow color) and use a very low heat with the lid on the pan. It takes longer to cook this way but the result is as you can see here—there is no curd and the egg is homogeneous in texture. The same technique is used to make "golden thread egg" or "kinshi-ran 金糸卵".

After cooking the egg for 5-6 minutes or until the surface of the omelet was just barely dry, I mixed the cottage cheese into the remaining ingredients and placed in the middle of the omelet. Holding the plate in my left hand and the frying pan in my right hand, I slid the omelet onto the plate using the edge of the frying pan, to overlay the remaining omelet over the stuffing (see the first picture).

I do not think if this is a "better" omelet but it has a nice look.
By the way, I took this picture for the blog as though the whole omelet was for one person but, we shared this omelet. The saag is spicy but not too hot and the smoky flavor of the pork still came through. The cottage cheese had a very neutral taste but added a nice texture.

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