This is a good izakaya staple. You can have it for breakfast, lunch or tea, as a mains or a side, it's good hot, warm or cold. And it's pretty easy to make once you've got the knack. the Japanese have these wonderful rectangular pans for making nice, neat edges. However, I don't have one of those, so I use a regular, circular, pan cake skillet.
Ingredients
4 eggs
A splash of soy sauce
A little mirin
Pinch of salt
Tablepoon of dashi
2 teaspoons of oil for frying.
Method
1. Crack eggs in a bowl or measuring jug (I use my Pyrex jug for this one). Whisk until yolks and whites are totally combined. Add, soy, mirin, dashi and pinch of salt.
2. Heat oil in a smooth surfaced fry pan (pancake skillet rather than a cast iron pan). Once the oil is hot, roll it around the surface of the pan to coat the pan entirely.
3. Pour about one third of the eggs into the pan and roll them around to cover the bottom of the pan. As the eggs begin to harden, fold about 1 inch worth of omelet onto the slowly hardening eggs. Reposition the rest of the omelet in the pan to make room on the open edge. Fold over the next inch worth of omelet, and reposition it in the pan once more.
4. Into the open edge side of the pan, put another third of the egg mixture. Continue rolling, inch by inch, repositioning it in the pan, and adding more eggs until you run out of egg mixture. To illustrate what I mean, there's some pictures down the bottom. By the end you should have a log of omelet.
5. Serve the omelet on a plate, and slice it into 3cm wide slices. Serve hot. Traditionally tamago yaki is served with grated daikon radish and soy sauce, but I prefer it just by itself or with a little aijipon.
Mmmm, yummy.
