Tamagoyaki Recipe for Cheats

Tamagoyaki is the traditional Japanese omelette that you sometimes find inside sushi rolls. It's that sweet yellow thing that perhaps you didn't know was actually eggs. Basically it is eggs with lotsa sugar carefully cooked and rolled up in a special square pan. You would normally need a square pan, and some Japanese ingredients like mirin (sweet rice wine), and dashi (stock made of seaweed and tuna flakes) to make the tamagoyaki.

I've found a lazy way to make tamagoyaki to impress my British friends, and they can't seem to tell the difference. That should be good enough for most of us, just don't serve it to a Japanese!

So here's what you need:

1. Eggs x 3
2. Sugar - 1 heaped teaspoon, more if the tamagoyaki is to be wrapped in a sushi roll, and less if eaten on its own, or more if you are sugar addict
3. Soysauce - 1/2 teaspoon. Don't worry if you don't have this. It doesn't make much difference.
4. A non-stick frying pan that isn't tiny (abt 20cm diameter maybe)
5. Some vegetable oil (if your non-stick pan lies about being non-sticky)

Here are the steps:

1. Mix the eggs, sugar and soysauce in a bowl. Don't beat the eggs, just stir till sugar dissolves.
2. Heat the pan on medium to low heat, oil it with abit of the vegetable oil just slightly. Careful not to add too much oil, otherwise you'll end up with fried eggs.
3. Pour approx a third of the egg mixture to cover the pan thinly. Tilt the pan if needed to get the egg mixture to spread evenly.
4. When the mixture looks slightly done, but not completely done, roll/fold the mixture from the back of the pan (furthest from you) towards you. Then push the whole thing towards the back of the pan again for the next layer.
5. Pour some more egg mixture to cover the pan thinly again. Repeat the rolling. It is important to push the rolled egg to the back of the pan when you are done rolling at each stage so that the next rolling can continue in the same direction. That will become obvious when you are doing it.
6. Repeat until you have no more eggs left. Try to keep the last layer prettiest.
7. If you want to use the tamagoyaki in your sushi roll, you'll have to wait for it to cool first, then slice it up. That's when I gobble up the unsightly corners (since we used a round pan instead of a square one) which are quite delicious.

This is very simple to make, and there are many ways you can play around with the recipe, such as introducing other ingredients to the middle layers while rolling the egg mixture. I have tried adding seaweed flakes which worked out quite well, or diced/sliced ginger, or spinach, or cheese. Play around with it!

I'll put up some pictures when I have the chance. Meanwhile, you can just google for tamagoyaki to see how it should look like.