Tamagoyaki
Sweet Rolled Omelette
Tamagoyaki is an omelette made in thin layers and rolled up in a rectangular pan, so that the finished roll is a pale yellow log with a spiral inside. This is the sweet kind, flavoured with a dashi that has sugar in it, and it takes patience and a hot enough pan.
The writer's recipe whisks four eggs with 60 ml of a sweet dashi of dashi, sugar, soy sauce and salt, and cooks it in four or five thin layers, rolling each towards you, then wraps the hot roll in a bamboo mat for 5 minutes before slicing.
Ingredients
For the sweet dashi (makes more than you need)
- 300 ml dashi
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
For the omelette
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tbsp of the sweet dashi
- 2 tbsp neutral oil, for the pan
Method
- Make the sweet dashi Heat the dashi, sugar, soy sauce and salt in a small pan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cool completely and chill. Keep what you do not use for up to a week.
- Mix Whisk the eggs with 4 tbsp of the sweet dashi using chopsticks, in a side-to-side motion, so that the eggs break up without making foam.
- Cook the first layer Heat a tamagoyaki pan over a medium heat and wipe it with an oiled paper towel. Pour in a thin layer of egg, pop any bubbles, and when it is just set, roll it towards you with chopsticks.
- Build the roll Oil the pan again, push the roll to the far side, pour in more egg under and around it and roll again when set. Repeat 4 or 5 times, until all the egg is used and cooked through.
- Shape Lift the hot roll on to a sushi mat or tea towel, roll it up tightly and leave for 5 minutes to set the shape. Unwrap and cut into slices.
Keep the heat steady. If the egg browns, lower it.
Left over, it keeps for 2 to 3 days in the fridge.