Hanasaku Iroha: Food Induced Coma

A few weeks ago I talked to someone about curry and how that played a role in Penguindrum. Here’s a recipe inspired by it. (Apple in my curry, tho, not my thing.) On Sunday I made “chicken rice” and wrapped it in an egg skin for breakfast. I guess that qualifies as omurice. I guess that also tells you I woke up to HanaIro on Sunday! I also took a note from Penguindrum and added Sriracha sauce in the egg. Because that’s just how I roll.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • small amount of diced spring onion, or some diced onion.
  • rice (probably 2 cups of cooked rice is fine; any variety is fine but short grains are preferred)
  • enough chicken (could be any, as long as boneless) to go with the rice (I actually used some leftover rotisserie chicken breasts)
  • pepper
  • salt
  • ketchup
  • cooking oil (vegetable oil, lard, chicken skin, anything really)
  • optionally hot sauce (I prefer Sriracha with this, but whatever works)

I was amused when Ohana thought Minko couldn’t make it. But since omurice is like, home-style all the way, there are a lot of different varieties. As we learn this week. This is the super simple you can do it if you are a single man in your bachelor-pad style. And ideally your cooking surface should be better than a hot plate…

I used a really deep skillet (almost like a wok but with a flat bottom), because that’s just what is handy. You want to basically make fried rice. For omurice you probably don’t want to season it that much, unless you prefer it to be like Chinese or southeast Asian style. I just added ketchup and pepper. But that is especially true if you want to spike the eggs. The goal is that when you eat it with the egg, you can taste both and the rice goes with the egg. If you are using raw chicken pieces, you can also season them more heavily since it will stand out when you chew on it. Marinate it even. However for fried rice, you want to cut it fairly thin and small.

Heat up your wok or whatever, and toss in the spring onion or onion. You want to cook those pretty well and caramelize it. I just throw it in whenever. When the cooking apparatus is hot enough, put the meat in. Stir lightly until they are just done. If you are using leftover like me, this time is just long enough so they are kind of warmed up. Seasoned veterans of leftover fried rice construction should feel free to substitute any other meat or vegetables in here, but for omurice you want to keep it simple.

Simple is delicious sometimes, you know?

So as the chicken is cooked, you put in the rice. Cooked rice. If you don’t have any, you will want to make the rice first before any of this, since that takes a while. Cold or hot it doesn’t matter, just stir it up so the ingredient mixes well. Add ketchup and pepper to taste. I think omurice tastes better with more ketchup. Some people even like a little char. Whatever, man. You can also add salt here, but I prefer to add it in the egg.

When the rice looks good enough to eat, it’s time to set it aside and make the egg part. You can do this on a hot plate if it’s big enough, a wok if you’re skilled, or just in any skillet or frying pan. But first you want to deposit the eggs in a bowl and mix it up well. At some point you can add some salt to the mix. Also, some hot sauce, if you want it all over the thing. It’ll give you a more subtle flavor rather than a strong kick. That is, if you don’t add too much.

Ad a bit of cooking oil for your skillet. When it’s hot enough evenly mix in the egg mixture so it forms a thin skin, hopefully big enough to fit the fried rice you’ve whipped up. If you made too much fried rice, that’s fine, you don’t have to add all of it in. Anyways, it’s like making an omelet. If you can do that, you can do this. First carefully dislodge the egg skin. Carefully scoop in the rice towards the center, about 1/3 of the way from the edge. If you’re a noob, don’t add too much rice. Close it up, and then carefully slip it out of your pan onto your serving dish.

Omurice is really easy to make. It’s also really gimmicky. It’s like, if you just want to eat egg with your rice, you can put that egg directly in the fried rice. Why bother when you’re cooking it for yourself? It’s more an opportunity to display that extra loving tender touch for the ones you cook for. Like Ohana’s super broccoli omurice for her mom. Or the maid cafe flair. It works. On somebody else.

One last note; I actually applied hot sauce on Sunday directly on the rice right before I rolled it up in the egg. It’s probably a little more potent and you can localize the flavor this way. I  wouldn’t recommend drawing hearts and crap with Sriracha sauce though!


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