In this video, learn the art of crafting Chef John's Japanese-Style Rolled Omelet (Tamagoyaki) with a step-by-step cooking tutorial. Discover the secrets behind achieving the perfect texture and flavor as Chef John shares his expert tips and techniques. From whisking the eggs to rolling the omelet with precision, follow along to create a delightful and authentic Japanese dish right in your own kitchen.
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00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Japanese-style rolled omelette.
00:09 That's right, to make perfect tamago yaki, you need a special pan and many years of experience.
00:14 But even a not perfect one, made in a regular pan, is still amazing.
00:19 And out of all the online chefs, who better to show you how to make something not perfect
00:23 than me?
00:24 So with that, let's go ahead and get started with four large eggs, which we've cracked
00:28 into a mixing bowl, and then to these we will add a splash of cold fresh water, which in
00:33 some versions is actually dashi.
00:36 And then we'll also be adding a little bit of soy sauce, plus something called mirin,
00:41 which is basically a sweet Japanese cooking wine.
00:44 And yes, you can find it at the store.
00:46 It's right next to the soy sauces and rice vinegars.
00:49 But anyway, after we add a little bit of that, we will season this with a touch of salt,
00:53 a little bit of white sugar, and then last but not least, a couple shakes of cayenne.
00:58 And by the way, the traditional version of this is very sweet.
01:02 Right, for four eggs, you'll see people put in like a tablespoon of sugar.
01:06 So I've significantly reduced the amount to what I find pleasing to my palate.
01:11 But of course, you will adjust that to your taste.
01:14 And then what we'll do once we have everything in the bowl, is take a fork, and we will pierce
01:18 those eggs right in the yolks.
01:20 And then we'll beat these until the whites are fully incorporated.
01:23 Although I should mention, many versions don't have you beat the eggs as much as I do.
01:27 And in the final omelet, you can actually see little pieces of the white, which visually
01:31 I do not enjoy.
01:32 I find that distracting and disconcerting, so I don't want to over beat.
01:36 But I do want the whites completely mixed in.
01:39 And once that's been accomplished, to make things easier at the stove, we'll go ahead
01:43 and transfer that into some kind of pourable measuring cup, or something similar.
01:48 At which point we can head to our nonstick skillet, which I have set over medium heat,
01:53 and before we add our first addition of egg, we'll brush the bottom with some oil, which
01:57 for a lot of people is pure sesame oil, but I find that can be sometimes a little bit
02:01 overpowering.
02:03 So I do one part sesame to three parts vegetable oil, which seems to work out nicely for me.
02:09 And then what we'll do is carefully pour in one third of our egg mixture, and we will
02:12 tip and move the pan around until it evenly covers the bottom.
02:16 And then once we've done that, we are simply going to wait for this egg mixture to cook
02:19 enough so that it will hold together as we roll it up.
02:23 Oh, and the reason we put a third of our eggs in is because we're going to do this three
02:27 times, which I would say is the minimum amount of times.
02:30 Okay, if you're really good at these, and you're using the right pan, you can do like
02:34 four or five rolls, which gives you a lot of extra layers.
02:38 But trust me, this is amazing just with three rolls, as I hope you find out.
02:43 But anyway, what we'll do when our eggs are about halfway set, is take a spatula and kind
02:47 of push the eggs in from the side, just so when we roll this up, we have a little more
02:51 of a uniform thickness.
02:54 And one of the challenges here is square spatulas and round pans don't often make that easy.
02:59 Which by the way, is why you're going to see me switch to a silicone spatula at certain
03:02 points, since those are flexible and a little easier to maneuver.
03:07 And once in a while, I'll reduce the heat down to medium low, so the egg's not cooking
03:11 too much as we're doing these maneuvers.
03:13 And then I'll turn it back up later once we add more egg.
03:16 But anyway, once we have those three sides kind of squared off, I'm going to go back
03:20 to the spatula and attempt to roll this up into something like a two inch wide rectangle.
03:25 And because we're using relatively low heat, and the egg is still pretty soft and flexible,
03:30 it's not going to be that hard to make some minor adjustments.
03:34 And then what we'll do once we have achieved something close to this shape, is slide it
03:37 to the edge of the pan, so it's about a third of the way in.
03:41 Only if we have little pieces of egg to break off, you can just kind of tuck them in and
03:45 under the roll.
03:46 Or if you think they're going to brown and look weird, you can use a paper towel and
03:49 kind of wipe them out like I did here.
03:52 But in hindsight, we probably don't have to do anything.
03:55 We can just go ahead and apply a little more oil, and then pour our second third of the
03:59 egg mixture into the pan, on both sides of that rolled omelette we just made.
04:03 And as I mentioned, if I turn the heat down, I do like to turn it back to medium when we
04:07 add the egg.
04:09 And then once that's in, kind of an important step before it sets, we want to lift our already
04:14 made egg roll up, so some of that egg flows underneath.
04:18 Which is going to help everything stay together, and theoretically make this a little easier
04:22 to roll.
04:23 And then we are basically going to repeat that first step, exactly as we just did, except
04:28 this time we have a small omelette in the pan.
04:31 But basically all the moves are the same.
04:33 And just like after the first addition, once the egg mixture was distributed, and starting
04:37 to set, I reduced the heat to medium low, so our egg doesn't cook too fast.
04:43 So above and beyond repeating the physical moves I'm showing you, you're going to have
04:46 to keep an eye on things, and adjust the heat up and down as needed.
04:51 I mean you are after all the gaugine of what you're seeing.
04:54 And that's it once our eggs are set enough to start moving.
04:57 I like to flip that short side up over the omelette, before we grab our spatula and attempt
05:02 to roll this up.
05:04 And on these second and third rolls, I don't worry too much about squaring off the sides,
05:09 and you'll see why when we get to the final shaping.
05:11 But anyway we'll go ahead and fold that up, and if you go too far just readjust like I
05:15 just did.
05:17 And once we do get that back to sort of the original shape, we will slide it over in the
05:21 pan just like last time.
05:23 And speaking of the last time, for the last time at least for this omelette, we will brush
05:28 the pan with oil, and we'll pour in the last of the egg mixture, and we'll do everything
05:32 we just did.
05:33 And in case you're wondering, the traditional pan for this is a rectangular shape, which
05:38 usually comes with a spatula that's shaped like a putty knife, and it's the same width
05:43 as the pan, which makes it a lot easier to roll your omelette up and keep a nice uniform
05:48 shape.
05:49 And if you end up enjoying this, and are going to make these on a regular basis, I'd probably
05:53 recommend you get one, since it is a lot easier.
05:57 But as this video hopefully proves, even using a round pan, with a few special tricks, and
06:02 some lowered expectations, we are still going to produce something absolutely incredible.
06:06 Oh, and if you're wondering about fillings, you could if you want, add any and all things
06:11 you'd add to a regular omelette, but you're going to want to make sure everything is diced
06:14 really small, and that everything is already cooked and tender and ready to eat, since
06:19 you're just not going to have enough heat here to cook anything that's raw.
06:23 But if you did have some diced up pepper and onions, maybe with a little bit of diced ham,
06:28 you could sprinkle that onto your half-cooked egg before you roll it up.
06:32 Personally, just like a classic French omelette, I do prefer mine plain, and if I want to eat
06:37 other things, I'll put that on the side.
06:40 But anyway, whether we add things or not, once that last addition of the egg mixture
06:43 is half set, we'll go ahead and fold/roll this up for the last time.
06:48 And the reason we want to do this before the eggs are fully set, is because once rolled
06:52 up, all that heat is trapped, and those eggs continue to keep cooking.
06:56 And if we cooked everything fully set before we did this, the final product would be much
07:00 drier than we want.
07:02 OK, the magic of a Japanese-style omelette, besides the great flavor, are lots of layers
07:07 of tender, moist egg.
07:09 So basically, we just want the eggs set enough, so that we can roll this, and they hold their
07:13 shape without everything falling apart like scrambled eggs.
07:17 And yes, this last roll is going to be the hardest, since that thing we're rolling up
07:21 is now a lot bigger.
07:22 But don't worry if it breaks, just put it back together the best you can, and no matter
07:27 how you need to manipulate it, or which tools you need to do that, as long as you can somehow
07:31 fold this up into some kind of uniform shape, everything's going to be fine, because of
07:36 this next and most important move.
07:39 And that would be to pull it off the heat, and transfer it onto a piece of plastic wrap,
07:44 and we will fold some over the top.
07:46 And while we roll this up, and eventually tuck in the sides, we are actually able to
07:50 do some final shaping, since again, hopefully our eggs are still relatively soft.
07:54 And then once we do have that arranged into a nice neat package, I like to wrap it in
07:59 a kitchen towel, just so everything stays nice and hot.
08:03 And what we'll do is let that sit there for about 5 minutes.
08:06 Although believe it or not, you can go like 10 or 15 minutes, and it will still be warm.
08:11 And somewhere between warm and hot is how I prefer to eat this.
08:14 But in case it matters, you should know that a lot of people do eat these cold, or at room
08:19 temperature.
08:20 So it really is very versatile in that regard.
08:23 But like I said, I like to go 5 minutes, before I unwrap and slice it up.
08:27 And as you can see, it's still nice and steamy, and relatively hot.
08:32 And then what I usually do is slice off the ends.
08:35 And that's because by using a round pan, the ends are going to be a little bit thinner
08:38 than the middle.
08:40 So we'll cut those and eat those as a very special chef snack.
08:42 And if you've never tasted this before, you're in for a huge treat.
08:47 But we'll get to that.
08:49 First let me go ahead and cut this up, which we could do into 6 pieces, or maybe 8.
08:55 No let's go with 6.
08:57 And of course once that's portioned, if you realize one of the pieces is off, you will
09:01 have no choice but to do a little more trimming, and maybe enjoy one more chef snack.
09:06 And that's it, let's go ahead and flip some of these up on their side, so you can see
09:10 all those amazing layers we created.
09:13 Which not to brag, but for using a round pan, and having very little experience, we've achieved
09:18 something very, very close to the original.
09:21 But let's not admire our work for too long, since like I said, I do like to eat this warm.
09:26 So we'll go ahead and plate that up.
09:28 And this is usually served with some grated daikon radish.
09:31 But I didn't have daikon, although I did have a regular radish, which I decoratively cut
09:36 and stained with soy.
09:38 And by decoratively cut, I simply sliced one way, and then turned it and sliced the other.
09:44 And then for a final touch, I like to sprinkle on a little bit of furikake, which is basically
09:49 toasted sesame seeds and seaweed, and sometimes bonito flake and chili flake.
09:55 And that's going to add a little bit of texture, and a little bit of extra seasoning.
09:59 And that's it, I grabbed some leftover takeout chopsticks, and went in for the official bite.
10:05 And that my friends, might just very well be the best omelet.
10:09 Sorry France!
10:11 And thanks to that gentle cooking, and all that rolling, we've achieved something that
10:15 has a very similar texture to a classic French omelet, which also has a bunch of folded up
10:20 layers if done correctly.
10:22 And besides being very moist, and incredibly tender, thanks to those ingredients we beat
10:27 into the eggs, this is just a little more flavorful, and a little more savory, than
10:31 a regular classic omelet most of us are used to.
10:34 Oh, and this might sound like a joke, but it's not.
10:37 This definitely tastes better eaten with chopsticks than with a fork.
10:41 Alright, I can't explain that, but it does.
10:44 And yes, thanks to the mirin, and that sugar we added, this does have a little bit of sweetness
10:48 to it, but I think that's balanced beautifully with the savory and salty flavors.
10:53 So to summarize, this feels amazing, looks amazing, and tastes amazing.
10:58 Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
11:02 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
11:06 more info as usual.
11:08 And as always, enjoy!
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