Fried Brown Rice Wrapped in an Omelette: OmuRice

The other day at work, I had a sudden craving for fried rice wrapped in an omelette. It’s not like I instantly created the idea, it’s been done by many Koreans, Japanese and possibly Chinese people everywhere, as foreign as that may be.

My mom used to make it for me when I was little enough to barely see over the counter, and when she was too busy running her piano academy, my sister made it for me when she was probably 10-12 years old. It’s that easy, a child can make it. I have fond memories of my sister trying not to tear the omelette as she handled it with her hands to wrap the fried rice. Sometimes she did it when it was too hot, and would wince at the heat.

The best part about the entire experience was that at the very end, regardless of whether she wrapped it perfectly or not, she would take a bottle of ketchup and spell my name in Korean with it over top. She would then spell her own name on her own. Just that memory alone reminds me how much I love my sister for making this dish for me at her young age.

I know some might grimace at the thought of putting ketchup on it, and you really don’t have to because it’s delicious enough on its own, but if you want to write your name on top, then go ahead. The ketchup adds a sweetness and a tang to the dish, which is why I still like to spell something with it on my OmuRice. You can put Tonkatsu sauce on it too, that would actually be really good… I’m going to try that next time.

Final Product:


Ingredients:

1/2 Large Onion, diced
3 Mushrooms, chopped
1/2 Medium sized Zucchini, in 1/2” chunks
1/4 Large eggplant, in 1/2” chunks
A small handful of spinach
3 Green Onion, chopped
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2” of Fresh Ginger, minced
A small handful of Fried Tofu
3 Tbsp of Light Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp of Sesame Oil
1 tsp of Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
2 cups of Day Old Brown Rice (more or less depending on how much rice to vegetable ratio you want)
2 Eggs
3 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil
Optional: 1/2 Spicy Green Pepper, minced.

1. Start heating up a large non-stick pan with 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil.
2. Slice the onion pretty thin, but not paper thin. I like to start slicing in the center, then once it gets too small to grip, lay it on its side and slice on an angle and kind of keep angling the blade more upright as you get to the top. This is so that you get nice sections of sliced onion rather than the thick, large slices you normally get if you didn’t angle the knife. Does this make sense? I hope so…

3. Chop up the mushrooms. Add the onion and mushrooms into the heated pan.

4. Either stir it around with a spatula or do the pan flips like a master chef. Wow, this was hard doing it with my left hand and while looking through a viewfinder and taking pictures with my right hand. What was I thinking? I admit…some of it landed on the floor…but practice makes perfect!
some awesome chef in a yellow jacket and hat
 
5. Peel and mince the ginger.

6. Cut up the zucchini and eggplant. Add to the pan. Do more pan flips or stir. Sauté until all veggies become browned and a little soft but not mushy.
 
7. Wack some cloves of garlic to get the skin off, then mince. Add garlic towards the end of cooking or else it will become very bitter and burned.

8. Chop the spinach and add this at the end to wilt. Again, this is added at the end so that it doesn’t go mushy.


9. Add Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil

10. Slice up the fried tofu and add. If you don’t like tofu (I don’t know why you wouldn’t because it’s so yummy) instead you can add left over already cooked shredded chicken, or leftover sliced steak.

11. Add your day old Brown Rice. I actually didn’t add the entire bowl, I probably used half of that. The reason why you use day old brown rice is because it will soak up the moisture and the flavour much better than just cooked rice. Fresh rice has too much moisture on its own and will break down, get mushy and you don’t want that. You can use day old rice straight from the fridge. Break apart with a wooden spoon and mix well with the vegetables and fry for a few minutes.

12. Slice up 1/2 a hot pepper if you want to add some heat.

13. Add a dash of black pepper.

14. Chop up the green onion and I added it last because I wanted it to stay crunchy.

15. Take the fried rice out of the pan and into a large bowl. you can eat it just like this or keep following the directions if you want to wrap it in egg.
Add toasted sesame seeds.

16. Crack a couple eggs into a small bowl. Add salt and pepper and whisk. Add a few leaves of cilantro and whisk in it as well.

17. Heat the same non-stick pan with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil and add the egg. Carefully swirl the egg around to cover the entire surface. Cook on Medium Low heat. Flip over and cook for 30 seconds.

18. Slide off the pan and onto a plate. Put the “presentation side” down.

19. Add the fried rice in the center.

20. Fold up, over, and under using your clean hands. Garnish with some cilantro and eat it like that, or…

Optional: Gasp! What are you going to do with that ketchup!


mmmm… so good.