Thursday, 29 April 2010

English Breakfast Omurice

A recent spate of outings and days spent dining out had a significant impact on my expenses, forcing me to be a bit more creative when preparing meals for myself. The photo below illustrates what I was down to when preparing dinner.
Research has shown that eating protein-rich eggs for breakfast reduces hunger and decreases calorie consumption at lunch and throughout the day. Unfortunately, I had this in mind when I ate breakfast at work every day last week, and so was unable to make myself an omelette for dinner, since that would be too many eggs consumed in one day. This week however, I have managed to stay off eggs for a long enough period of time to bring you today's recipe.

I first encountered Omurice when I went back home for a visit. A Japanese idea, it involves some form of fried rice wrapped in egg, hence the name. Apparently, rice fried with ketchup is quite common, although anything else is possible. The idea of having tomato-based rice wrapped in egg led to thoughts of the full English breakfast, and so, with a tin of Basics mushrooms and one Basics sausage, we proceed to create the dish featured today.

Start by washing 0.5-0.75 cup of rice, enough for one person, and then pour the chopped tomatoes and juice into the rice cooker. Meanwhile start cooking the sausage in the oven.

A word of caution: you might end up with burning at the bottom of the rice cooker pot. Under these circumstances, hope that the person who owns the rice cooker would not mind your misadventures in the kitchen and that his future spouse would not yell at you for the same.
Take sausage out of oven and cut into pieces. Heat oil in pan.
Saute mushrooms and sausage together. I found the Basics tinned sliced mushrooms to be relatively alright, though not anything of particular interest. I suppose it would be good for those who like me, love their mushrooms but cannot buy fresh ones because they don't cook regularly enough.
Add in the tomato rice, and season with herb mix. Drain the liquid from the tinned mushrooms, and slowly add bit by bit to the pan, ensuring that the liquid gets boiled away before adding the next bit. Set aside.
Now beat the eggs. You might want to add the mushroom liquid to thin it out and hence make a slightly bigger omelette, but this will come with a bigger risk of the omelette falling apart when folding it. Season with pepper if desired.
Add the eggs to the pan.
Now, add the fried rice to the centre of the eggs when it is partially set, and try to fold it to make an omelette.
If you fail, tell yourself there will always be next time.
At the very least, the large quantity of food more than made up for anything. The tomatoes tasted a bit sharp and overpowering, but overall the meal was still enjoyable. Omurice may actually be a good meal idea to rapidly use up unwanted eggs and leftover rice.

DescriptionPrice per UnitNo. of servingsTrade-up PremiumTrade-up Benefits
Sliced Mushrooms in Water£0.49290g+£0.38Not known

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