JAPANESE OMURICE (OMELETTE RICE)

A few weeks ago I tried making omelette rice for the first time because my family really had nothing to eat. Others told me it was simple, but I was so afraid mine would just come out badly. BUT it did NOT come out badly, but was actually pretty good for my first try (as told by the "others"). I actually found this recipe from a Japanese manga based on cooking. Who knew it'd come out so well?



OMURICE:
1-3 onions (white/red)
60g chicken
1 bell pepper
1-2 tbp ketchup
salt & pepper (to taste)
1C cooked white rice/sticky rice
1 egg
1/2 tsp potato starch powder
1 slice ham
ketchup (for finishing touches)
2 tsp vegetable oil

Extra Ingredients:
3 carrots, diced
2-3 potatoes, diced

1. Dice the carrots and potatoes. Dice the onions and bell pepper into small pieces. cut the chicken up into 1cm-sized cubes.
2. Add oil to a frying pan, and once it has reached a high enough temperature, add the carrots and potatoes first. When almost cooked, add the onions, bell pepper and chicken; fry. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Once the vegetables are almost cooked, add the rice. Stir it quickly with a wooden spatula and fry until fully cooked.
4. Once mixed, add the ketchup; add more if preferred.
5. In a bowl whip up the egg and add one tsp of water with the potato starch dissolved in it.
6. On a medium heat in another frying pan (small), add a small amount of vegetable oil (enough to cover whole pan). Carefully pour the egg mixture in.
7. It should spread out fully into the pan, and once the edges are dry, carefully turn it over. Let if cook and when done, take it out.
8. On a wooden chopping board lay some clingflim/plastic wrap on top. Put the omelette on top of it, then add the rice to the top of the omelette.
9. Squeeze and twist the clingfilm on both sides, turn it over and put it onto the plate. Carefully remove the wrap.
10. Squeeze ketchup for finishing touches; serve warm.


Tips:

-I forgot to add the chicken, but this recipe is fine vegetarian.

-You can add any other ingredients to your taste. I added potatoes and carrots, but vegetables such a tomatoes, zucchini, beef, etc.

-I have a bad habit of ending up with more than 2 times the normal proportion sizes of normal cooking recipes, so I simply double the ingredients. Comes out fine.

IMPROVED CURRY

So I was reading this manga (Japanese comic book) called Addicted to Curry. It has A LOT of curry recipes that I want to try out in the future. We had curry for dinner and I used the book's list of "improving" ingredients.


IMPROVED CURRY:

-Curry block or powder (you can find at like ANY Asian supermarket, and if you get the block, make sure to chop finely)
-A pot
-Meat (pork, beef, or chicken is preferred, cut into chunks. If you don't eat meat, leave this out)
-Carrots (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-Potatoes (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-Onions (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-3-4 C of water (depending on how thick you like your curry)
-salt and pepper for seasoning

"Improving" ingredients:
A bit of each depending on your own taste. They DO sound weird, and I thought so too. But trust me, the ending result is DELICIOUS.

-ketchup
-hot sauce (especially those ones from the Chinese markets w/ the rooster on it)
-soy sauce
-milk
-sugar
-red wine
-coffee
-chocolate
-butter
-tomatoes
-ginger
-fresh garlic
-PLAIN yogurt
-PARMESAN cheese
-Coconut milk
-cream
-cashews (if you are allergic to nuts, do NOT use this)
-crush soft apple (soak in salt water to make is soft before crushing it into mush)
-mango (crush it into mush. Riper ones are softer)
-banana (crush it into mush. Riper ones are softer)
-mango jam


1. Finish preparing the basic ingredients. Put the chopped potatoes, carrots and onions in oil in your pot first. After they have gotten ALMOST soft, add the meat and add salt and pepper to the pot. You may use other spices too.

2. Add the water to the pot and wait for it to become hot (but not boiling). Add the curry block or powder. As it dissolves add some milk, ketchup, soy sauce, ANYTHING of liquid. Do not add too much, but also not too little that it wouldn't make a difference.

3. As the liquid ingredients get mixed in, start adding the sold ingredients. Make sure you prepare them the way told above. Mix thoroughly.

4. You may add more of any ingredients to match to your taste, and serve fresh.



TIPS

-I only had these extra ingredients in my house to use in the curry: milk, ketchup, soy sauce, flour, hot sauce, butter, tomatoes, and red wine. The curry came out fine.

-Since I have younger kids in my house (my cousins), the curry was too spicy for them. To make it a little better, I added more milk. If you add in soy sauce or anything salty, it can make your curry too salty. I didn't have cream or yogurt, but they would have helped better than milk.

-If you prefer thicker curry and it is already salty enough (so don't add anymore curry blocks or powder), then use flour. A lot of people use flour to thicken their curry, so don't worry.

-If you prefer thinner curry, either add more water, or any liquid ingredients (if your curry is salty enough, don't add salty liquids). I like using milk or red wine.

-Make sure all the vegetables are soft enough before serving. Usually people do not enjoy hard carrots and potatoes in their curry.