Cooking Tokyo: Omelet Rice (Omurice)

A recipe that is very popular with kids (and with us!) is omurice (オムライス) or Omelet Rice. We usually eat it for lunch but since it's quite a filling meal you can also prepare it for dinner. Like the name suggests, this recipe is a fusion between an omelet and rice. The distinctive presentation style makes it an icon of Japanese cooking, and it looks pretty cool too! It takes about 15-20 minutes in the kitchen and you only need a little skill to make it look really good. So where do we start?

Ingredients (2p):

Any mix of vegetables you like, this time we used:

1 small broccoli
4 big mushrooms (shiitake)
carrot

white rice for 2 persons (normally; 1 cup of rice makes 2 servings)
ketchup
For the omelets:

1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sugar
4 eggs

Omelet Rice can be made with al kind of ingredients and you can experiment with different vegetables. It is very good meal to use some left-over vegetables from you refrigerator! We like to eat this meal vegetarian, but you can easily change that and add chicken to ingredients. Feel free to do whatever you like but keep in mind that all has to fit in your egg roll in the end :).

Preparation:

Prepare the white rice in your cooker or pan. The rice will be fried afterwards so make sure it's not too sticky or wet. Cut your vegetables and boil the broccoli and carrots for +/- 5 minutes (or other vegetables you use that need boiling to prepare).


2/3 of the carrot was already boiling, but this should give you an idea of how much ingredients you need

When the broccoli and carrots are almost done, heat some oil in the frying pan and fry the mushrooms. (Here you can substitute for other vegetables or chicken) Pour off your boiled vegetables and add them to the mushrooms. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes then put it on low heat while you prepare the omelet.

Put 4 eggs in a cup and add 2 tblsp mirin, 1 tblsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp of sugar. Be careful not to add more because your omelet might become to thin. The mirin gives the omelet a nice even light yellow color, while soy sauce adds a little salty taste and the sugar makes it a little sweet. Stir and divide into two portions

Of course, if you find this too much of a hassle you can leave the mirin, soy sauce and sugar out, and just make a normal omelet. However, we do think the taste of the original omelet does give this recipe that little extra to enjoy!