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(speaking Japanese)
- [Alvin] Hello, there.
Welcome back to another episode of Anime with Alvin.
Today I'll be making omurice
from "Gourmet Grill Graffiti", six different ways.
To make omurice, we will need eggs,
lots of them, like this one.
Hey, hey, come back!
Since I'm making six different types of omurice,
I'm gonna need a lot of fried rice.
So in a wok setup outdoors
with high heat and a little bit of oil,
I'm cooking equal parts chopped chicken thighs,
diced onions, carrots, and peas,
preferably the ones you get from the frozen aisle.
Those are the peas and carrots that I grew up with
when eating fried rice,
and the best part is they're already cut
into really small pieces.
Once everything starts to get a little bit of color,
I'm seasoning this with a hefty pinch of salt
and opening a well in the middle of this
for about 1/4 cup of ketchup.
This might seem a little bit odd,
but stir frying ketchup to bring out the flavors
and incorporate them into fried rice
is a pretty common technique around many parts of the world.
In goes our day-old rice.
I like to use the same amount of rice
as in what is currently inside the pan right now.
I like using day-old rice for fried rice
because it loses a lot of the moisture
and is a lot easier to stir fry and get individual grains.
After a few quality checks,
our batch of ketchup fried rice is done.
I'm starting with the "springtime omurice",
which in the show is made by using leftovers.
So I'm combining two cups of water,
a teaspoon of instant dashi powder,
a small can of preserved bamboo shoots in their juices.
This gets cooked until it starts to boil
and drained before returning the bamboo liquid
back to the pot.
The bamboo dashi liquid now gets thickened
with the cornstarch slurry,
made by combining a tablespoon of cornstarch
with two tablespoons of water.
Once this is thick, we move on to the next flavor.
This is the starter kit for a hayashi sauce,
which is what I'm guessing is the brown sauce served
with the doria-style cheese omurice.
That's a lot of words,
but essentially I'm making a shortcut demi-glace.
Following in the packet instructions,
I'm taking these what look like roux block cubes
and cooking them in water until thick.
According to some really good recipes online,
using red wine and tomato sauce as additions
will make the flavor more akin to demi-glace,
so I will do that.
I added approximately 1/2 cup of red wine
and two tablespoons of tomato sauce,
and, surprisingly, it does taste like the real thing.
I'll take that!
Next up, a sweet and sour omurice.
For the sauce, I'm combining four tablespoons of ketchup,
three tablespoons of vinegar,
four tablespoons of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of water,
and 1/2 teaspoon of salt until simmering.
This will again get thickened with a cornstarch slurry,
1/2 teaspoon of corn starch with two tablespoons of water.
Okay, moving on!
Remember when I said we're gonna need a lot of eggs?
I think 36 will do the trick.
After cracking 36 eggs into a large mixing bowl
with probably a few bits of shell in there,
I like to use an immersion blender to mix them,
just to make sure that there are no lumps
and everything is smooth,
as any streaks will show in the final product.
And, of course, a little bit of salt to season.
Now for the fun part!
To prepare the fried rice for the omurice,
we have an omurice mold that we got online.
I like to pack the rice in a little lightly,
just to make sure that the rice set in its shape
before ready to be placed in the center of our eggs.
In a non-stick pan over high heat,
I'm adding about two tablespoons of vegetable oil,
cooking one cup of the egg mixture,
stirring using chopsticks,
and making sure to scrape the bottoms in the side.
The goal here is to set the omelet into small curds,
while making sure the bottom is not overcooked.
Once the omelet is about 70% cooked,
I invert the now-set fried rice
from their mold into the center,
tucking in the edges and attempting to fold it around
into a nice oval football shape.
First one is always a little funky, just like children.
Which reminds me, it's time to put ketchup on their face.
Writing a message with ketchup
over an omurice is pretty common.
Here is a simple "hello!",
with the chunk of the omelet broken.
I'm sure you'll find ways to get creative with this.
Taste test number one, Nico seems to enjoy it.
I will take that as a sign of motivation.
Omurice number two,
we're using the same exact technique as before,
with the egg, folding in the rice,
and inverting onto a plate.
And after tucking the edges, it's now time for topping.
This one is an okonomiyaki-style omurice.
To match the namesake's flavor profile,
this one uses stripes of alternating sauces,
Bull-Dog sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise,
topped with the healthy pile of bonito flakes.
I'm curious on how the sweetness from the Bull-Dog sauce
the creaminess of the Kewpie mayo,
and the funkiness from the fish flakes will now pair
with the omurice.
Let's have Rachel taste test this one, shall we?
She really seems to enjoy this one.
She told me that the creaminess
and the acidity goes really well with the rice and the egg,
a combination that seems to make you
not want to stop eating.
Omurice number three is our "springtime omurice".
Similar technique as before,
but now topped with that bamboo dashi thickened glaze.
Toppings include little bamboo slices from earlier
and a sprinkle of chives.
This one is definitely on the lighter side.
Let's have Steve try this.
Steve is pretty happy with it.
He's so happy that he's now going to take this offscreen
and eat it by himself.
Good man.
Omurice number four is the doria-style omurice,
which is a reference to a gratin in Japanese cuisine.
To emulate the cheesiness of a gratin dish,
I'm cooking a cup of shredded mozzarella
in a non-stick pan over low to medium heat
until completely melted.
And once this is nice and smooth,
pouring this directly on top
of a finished assembled omurice.
That looks pretty good!
Nice. Ooh!
To finish, this gets surrounded
by the shortcut demi-glace from earlier
and a few sprinkles of chopped parsley.
Probably my favorite looking one so far,
and, well, because I am selfish,
I will eat this one for myself.
I'm pretty sure you can probably guess,
this one is really good.
The sauce is a great counterbalance to the cheese,
which is a great foil tooth omurice.
I are the whole thing.
Omurice number fives involves nothing
but simply pouring the sweet and sour glaze
on top of the omurice,
along with another sprinkle of chopped parsley.
Nico again will return to the fray
to taste test this once more.
He is not complaining, as he gets to eat twice.
He's also seemingly eating the whole thing.
My man!
And finally, omurice number six,
probably the most difficult one out of them all.
You might have seen a YouTube video or two
of a famous Japanese chef using this technique
to serve this in his restaurant.
Fun fact, I've actually been there.
He's a very good dude, and his techniques are insane.
I'm using 1 1/2 cups of the egg mixture this time,
but the tricky part
is that we have to turn this flat egg mixture
into a nice football shape omurice
that is seemingly molten in the center,
but yet sealed on all sides.
I'm not gonna go too much in depth on the detail
because, well, I really am not sure exactly how to do it.
After watching his YouTube video many, many times,
the first stage seems to be similar,
a ripping high heat in order to set the curds
as quickly as possible along the edges.
The goal after that is now to wrap the egg
into the football shape
without overcooking the edges or the inside,
which requires expert skills using chopsticks
and a non-stick pan.
The third, and probably one of the most difficult part,
is to invert this and flip this
onto the bed of already laid fried rice on the plate.
After a few failed attempts and many eggs,
I managed to get one seemingly passable one.
The little molten bag of egg is directly laid on top
and split right down the belly with a thin knife,
letting the insides beautifully open up
and spill down the edges.
Yeah, mine definitely is a far cry from the master's,
but one day, maybe one day, I'll nail this technique.
A healthy ladle of our shortcut demi-glace also goes on top
and finish with the sprinkling of chopped parsley.
The slightly acidic and sweet demi-glace goes well
with the creamy egg, which goes well with the rice.
Nothing to complain about,
as this entire thing was definitely finished
between all of us.
Just make sure that when you're attempting this one,
you're either, one, very hungry
or, two, have many hungry mouths to feed,
as there will be lots of egg and rice left over.
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(mellow R&B music)