Omurice is a comfort food for me. It reminds me of grade school days when my mom would cook up fried rice with spam and colorful chopped veg and top it off with a thin circle of fried egg (almost like a hobo satchel made of egg). For veg, she included things like onion, carrot, and peas (bleck, I picked those out).
Omurice (sorry, I forgot to snap pic before digging in)
During Covid-19 I get that people are in different stages of stocked vs empty pantries. I had a chance to go grocery shopping last week (after holding out for about 3 weeks without going out) so I had a little more veg than usual but am making substitutions based on what I have/like.
At the very least, I think this dish needs rice (or noodles), eggs, and ideally some kind of meat (or veg). I’ll include the ingredients I used and suggest some substitutes at the end.
2 cups cooked rice (cooled)
1/3 cup of cubed spam (can substitute bacon, canadian bacon, sliced hot dog/sausage, or another flavorful meat)
2 eggs (whisked), per serving
4 Tbsp olive oil (or cooking oil); half for rice and half for eggs
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
2/3 cup of blanched broccoli (optional)
1/2 cup of shredded green cabbage (optional)
2 stalks of green onion, sliced (optional)
soy sauce (or oyster sauce) (optional)
I wanted to reduce the dishes and so cooked in this order (for one person) but if you are cooking for a family, it is better to finish cooking the rice and spam first, then cook the eggs (serve each bowl right after the eggs are done).
Heat frozen rice in olive oil. If you have sesame oil, adding a teaspoon adds a nutty flavor. Put the rice in a bowl.
Heat olive oil in the same pan. Make a thin omelette. Cook until the top is almost set. Here I typically fold the omelette in half so the top can finish cooking off the heat (but this is not the traditional omurice presentation). Move to a plate.
Fry the spam until the sides are slightly browned and crispy looking.
Combine rice with spam and toss together over low heat. Add green onions if you are using them.
Serve fried rice with broccoli sprinkled on top. Add a small layer of green cabbage.
Place the omelette on top of the rice. Squeeze ketchup over the omelette.
(optional) I like to spoon about 1-2 teaspoons of soy sauce over the omelette as something to flavor the veg. But the spam is pretty salty already so if you are watching your salt, you can skip this step.
If you don’t have any meat whatsoever to add, I am thinking maybe to heat up some anchovy (a couple fillets) in oil until it kind of melts and use that as a flavor base for the fried rice. I’ll try this next time instead of spam.
When I don’t have spam or salty meat on hand, I actually really like to flavor the rice using a couple tablespoons of oyster sauce (then omit the soy sauce at the end). When in season, I also like to put sauteed green beans (or chinese snow peas or sugar snap peas, cut into bite-sized pieces) instead of the broccoli.
