Omurice

ｵﾑﾗｲｽ aka Japanese omelette rice. It was one of those dishes that I'd see on Japanese menus and go "..." at. Ketchup, fried rice, omelette... and more ketchup? Ooohkay. I love ketchup just as much as the next average American but somehow the idea of ketchup fried rice failed to stir my taste buds.

I confess, the only reason I attempted to make it in the first place was because I saw it on either a dorama or anime that made it look good. It might have been ランチの女王 (Lunch Queen) but this might have been before that. In any case, never watch a food anime or dorama when hungry because you will probably go hunting for whatever food they're having.

The original recipe I followed was by Katsuo Kobayashi. (Since it's part of a cookbook, I won't replicate the original here.) It was a pretty classic recipe: ketchup flavored fried rice wrapped inside a

As an aside, I just love Kobayashi-san. Her translated books are very easy to read and follow and the recipes have a home cooked taste. None of that pretentious stuff. I first saw her on the original Iron Chef when she went up against Iron Chef Kenichi (Chinese) during Battle Potato. It was hilarious to see a little おばあちゃん running around the kitchen, cooking a whopping 11 dishes in an hour, fairly effortlessly with time leftover to see if Iron Chef Kenichi needed help. She won, by the way :)

Once it became part of my routine, I'd gotten kind of frustrated with it. For one, getting a perfectly thin, flexible omelette that wasn't always easy and getting the rice folded neatly around it in a perfect, football shape was next to impossible. Plus I wasn't always happy with the fried rice portion. Some tweaking was definitely in order.

One day, while watching Good Eats, I watched Alton's omelette technique which I realized was the same technique used in Lunch Queen and also Tampopo. In this case, I wouldn't be putting the rice in the omelette but rather I'd be making the rice first and then topping it with the omelette. No more frustrating wrapping!

So here is my latest attempt at making omurice. It's not perfect but my husband and I are quite happy with it. He likes it because there's a better rice to egg ratio. He noted in previous versions, there wasn't always all that much rice to go with the egg because it wasn't easy to wrap the rice neatly. I included bacon in the fried rice recipe because, well, (almost) everything is better with bacon! (Yum.)

* *

Michelle's Omurice
Serves 2

Fried Rice

• 1 thick slice bacon, diced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 c red pepper, diced
• 1/4 c cooked chicken, diced
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 tbsp ketchup

Omelette (per serving)

• 2 eggs, beaten

To make the fried rice

Sautee the diced bacon over medium to medium high heat until brown and crispy. Turn down the heat to medium and add in the shallot, red pepper and garlic, sauteeing until the shallot is translucent, about one minute. Add in the chicken and toss in the mixture until warmed through. Add more oil if needed and then add in the rice. Stir fry until rice is evenly coated. Add in the ketchup and stirfry again until the rice is evenly coated. Divide evenly between two plates and keep warm.

For the omelette

I can't really explain how to make the omelette except that I wasn't all that great at it. :x To give you an idea what I was going for, watch this video.

It's the omurice scene from Tampopo. :)

Once the omelette is done, top the rice with it, cutting it to spread it evenly over the rice. Top with the desired amount of ketchup and enjoy.

It sure doesn't LOOK perfect but it tasted great. And in the end, that's what counts :)

* *

ETA: Re: the mise en place with raw bacon on the plate with everything else... eh. It was going to be cooked all together anyway so no need to worry about cross contamination there. :)