A favourite of children all over Japan, omuraisu ("omu"lette rice) is a staple of modern western influenced Japanese food, known in Japan as "yoshoku".

This recipe is for 2 omelettes -- this really needs to be shared...or eaten twice!

We'll be making the fried rice as well, but you can also just use any leftover fried rice. Refer to my post on basic fried rice for more in-depth instructions on how to make fried rice.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups cooked leftover rice
• 1 small handful chopped carrots -- think baby hand
• 1 small handful chopped onions
• salt
• pepper
• cooking oil

Method

• Beat the eggs and add a pinch of salt.
• Break up the rice so it's not all in one chunk.
• Add cooking oil to a frying pan and turn the heat to high. A Teflon pan really helps for this recipe.
• When the pan is hot, fry the onions and carrots until both are soft.
• Add rice and fry until the rice is loose and nicely toasted. Salt and pepper to taste.

• When done, empty the fried rice into a bowl and put aside.
• Oil the pan again and turn heat to medium. The pan should be hot enough so that the egg starts to cook immediately and doesn't sit there pooling in the oil. But not so hot that it burns immediately.
• Pour half of the egg in and spread it around evenly and quite thinly. If it's too thick, the folding part will be difficult.
• When the egg is 85%-90% done, spoon half the fried rice in the middle of the egg.

• Now the tricky part! I find it easiest to use chopsticks, but pick the weapon that suits you most.
• Tilt the pan forward so that the egg slides down and curls up the lip of the pan. You can nudge it down with your weapon.
• When the egg is just over the lip of the pan, use your weapon to flip this overhanging egg over the rice.
• Flip the egg on the near side over the rice.
• You can tuck the egg into the edge of the pan to get a nice shape.

• To flip the omelette onto a plate, place your weapon against the far edge of the pan to prevent the omelette from just sliding out and quickly flip the pan over the plate. You may need a secondary weapon to help retrieve your primary weapon from under the omelette. The key to flipping anything is no hesitation. If you don't hesitate, there's a 50% chance of success, which increases with practice. If you hesitate, there is a 0% chance of success.
• Once on the plate, you can tuck the egg in underneath to make a nice shape.
• If you failed, don't worry! You have the other half of the ingredients to try again. That's the other reason we're making two.

In case you're having a hard time with this one, let me leave you with some inspiration. It's a scene from Tampopo, a classic Japanese movie and best food movie ever made.

Note that he is making the "egg on top" version of omuraisu, which is also very popular.

Since I saw this scene over 20 years ago, I've set this as my standard for making omelettes. Still can't do it. But I still love trying. Itadakimasu!