Dashi-maki Tomago

The first meal I made was Udon Noodle soup and Dashi-maki Tomago.

The udon noodle soup was actually simple. We had packages of udon noodles from the refrigerated section of our local Asian food market. The soup itself was dashi, soy sauce, sugar and mirin, combined with the udon noodles and chopped green onions. It was delicious.

The main dish was Dashi-maki Tomago or Rolled Omelette. This was a little bit trickier. Essentially, this is a french omelette that is rolled in the pan with chopsticks or a spatula, instead of folded over on itself. The procedure is repeated three times to get a pretty thick egg roll. (Egg roll not eggroll!)

The first problem I ran into was that the recipe requires a square frying pan. You are supposed to pour a small amount of the egg mixture into the pan, let it cook until it is just a little runny, then roll the egg onto itself toward you. Then move the omelette back to the far side of the pan, pour in more egg mixture, and repeat the rolling procedure. It doesn't really work in a round pan. If you push it back to the far edge, you end up with a misshapen version of the Dashi-maki Tamago.

Since I am determined to buy the minimum amount of specialty equipment for this project, I made due with the round pan. The result was ok, but not perfect. I literally tried to fit a square peg in a round hole.

The meal overall was tasty. The udon noodles are a favorite of mine for sure. They are chewy and soft and add a nice touch to the slightly fishy taste of the dashi soup.

If I were going to try this recipe over again, I would probably try to use one of those square griddle pans you use to make pancakes. I don't own one, but I have friends who do. I will say that I liked the flavor, but my favorite egg dish is still the fritata.

For next time, I'll need to write more about dashi, which was used in both of these recipes.