My relationship to eggs is difficult. There are egg dishes that are absolutely boring, almost tiresome to eat, and there are insanely interesting egg dishes. For me, tamagoyaki belongs to the later. A silky consistency, quite sweet but savoury at the same time. This is probably the best way to transform eggs into something exciting. Give it a try!
You may know tamagoyaki as a topping used for “egg sushi”, but in Japan you can find it almost everywhere: as a filling for maki, in almost every bento box, sometimes as a topping for ramen or other soups or stews. It is a really popular dish and you can find it in every supermarket in different sizes and shapes.
Traditionally it is a type of omelette, carefully fried in a rectangular pan, folded repeatedly to give a nice, geometric shape. As much as I love cooking, I hate fiddling around with ingredients only for the sake of beauty. You may see it sometimes in the pictures I use for my posts, which typically aren’t the most beautiful to behold. I focus on taste and as long as the dish isn’t outright ugly, I’m fine with it. And I suggest you do the same: just get it done! At least during the week, when nobody got time for anything, just get it done.
Therefore I switched from the fiddly omelette-style tamagoyaki to a more time efficient way to achieve a similar result: I bake the egg mixture in the oven at low temperature. You will need to adapt the recipe a little to your oven, your size of eggs and the size of your tray, but my recipe should give you a nice starting point. In the worst case you lose a little of the silky consistency. That’s not a problem, next time you will do it better.
Ingredients
- 28 eggs
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp mirin (if not available, you can leave this out and use a little more sweetener)
- Sweetener to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 140°C. Get a big bowl and crack the eggs into it. Add all the other ingredients, season with salt, a little pepper, dried garlic and dried onion. You don’t have to use those spices, but I like them here to push the tamagoyaki more in a savoury direction
- Mix it up very well, but avoid incorporating any air. I like to use an immersion blender, but you could use a fork or a food processor. Take a tray of about 25x35cm and line with baking paper. Pour in the egg mixture.
- Put the tray into the oven and leave to bake for about 50 minutes. If the tamagoyaki is set and slightly wobbly, it is ready.
Tamagoyaki can be kept in the fridge for at least five days. It is also a great way to take advantage of any “eggy” deals at your local supermarket: often eggs get price reduced because their best before date is close and this way you can take advantage of the (stupid) system.
Eggs are quite rich in protein, but also heavy on fat, so make sure they fit your aims and/or macros. And yes, eggs are rich in cholesterol, but no, cholesterol is not necessarily bad for you, it might be even advantageous for strength trainees.
Beary Strong 