This omurice by Korean celebrity chef, Baek Jong Won, is the perfect comfort dish with fluffy eggs wrapped around a simple ketchup based fried rice. A home cooking staple for all kids growing up but enjoyed by all ages.
Omurice is a classic Japanese classic that many Asian children grew up eating. It’s made up of two components: 1) fried rice and 2) the omelet. The fried rice part is very simple to make and is ketchup based for it’s sweetness which makes it so popular with children. Like many fried rice dishes, this recipe is very forgiving. You can use any leftover vegetables you have in your fridge but most commonly include chopped onion and carrots. Spam or hot dog sausages are also very popular for the extra protein, chewy texture and saltiness to balance the sweet ketchup.
Rice: As with all fried rice, it’s best to use day-old rice. If you need to make a new batch of rice, take the rice out of the rice cooker as you start the recipe so that the rice has a few minutes to allow some of the surface moisture to evaporate and dry out a little bit before you add it into the frying pan. Slightly dried rice will have better texture in the fried rice and cook better with the other ingredients. If not, the texture may be a little sticky.
Egg: Use 2 eggs per 1 serving of rice and create a thin layer of egg to wrap around the rice. You can add cream or milk to the egg mixture for an extra soft omelette but Baek Jong Won did not include this. If you want a thicker omelette, 3 eggs per 1 serving works well too.
Don’t forget to make some cute ketchup designs on top of the omurice for the kids. Enjoy!
Omurice - Baek Jong Won
Ingredients
- 2 servings of rice 2.5 cups of cooked rice; about 400 g
- ¼ can of spam, chopped 3 oz
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1.5 inch knob of carrot, diced
- Optional: other leftover vegetables in fridge
- 3 Tbsp oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp ketchup
- 1.5 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 0.5 Tbsp vinegar
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Prep the ingredients, and dice the spam, onion, carrot and any optional vegetables into small pieces.
- Heat the frying pan on medium heat with 3 Tbsp oil. Once warm, add in the spam, and stir fry for about 30 seconds, add in the onion, carrot and other vegetables. Continue to cook until the onions become soft and transparent. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Move the mixture to the side of the pan. Pour the 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce to the empty side of the pan and let it cook for a few seconds. Add in the ketchup on top of the soy sauce and mix. Add the butter to the ketchup mixture and the vinegar.
- Once the sauce ingredients are thoroughly mixed, mix sauce with the spam and vegetables. Continue to stir fry until well incorporated.
- Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the cold rice into the frying pan. Mix until the rice is all broken up and the sauce is evenly mixed into the rice. ** I like to use a wooden spatula or turner, and gently stab at the rice to break up any clumps. Set aside.
Egg
- Beat 4 eggs in a bowl with a fork. Heat a lightly oiled medium sized frying pan on medium-low heat. Once heated, add half the egg mixture into the frying pan and swirl around evenly.
- When the egg begins to set but is not cooked through yet, lower the heat to low, add a serving of rice into the middle of the egg. Mound the rice in the middle. Using a spatula, fold over the long sides of the egg into the middle. **I like to make the rice shape long. You can also make it into a circle. – there’s no real reasoning and no right answer!
- Flip over the frying pan onto a plate.
- Optional Tip**: If you want to make it pretty, use a paper towel to cover the omurice and shape it with your hands so that it is wider in the middle and tapered on the sides. The shape will hold better once you take this step. It is not necessary.
- Serve
- Squeeze a bit more ketchup on top of the omurce.
- Repeat these steps for another portion of omurice.
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