Monday, November 06, 2006

Project Dashimaki Tamago -1-


Dashimaki tamago

Yes, I finally bought a tamagoyaki-pan the other day. (Must be a stress-induced impulsive buy. :P) Here's my not-so-successful dashimaki tamago.
Mmmmm... Definitely needs improvement.

There you go. This is my tamagoyaki-pan (copper). And I'm practicing rolling the eggs with chopsticks, not a turner. It is a common practice for beginner Japanese chefs. Of course I don't mean to be a chef in the future or anything, but just wanted to be able to do that because that looks cool.

Now, I can roll dashimaki tamago, at least, with these chopsticks. But my dashimaki doesn't taste good at all. So I guess I need more experimenting with the amount of dashi and other seasonings...


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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

obachan, I love tamagoyaki too, but I find it hard to get the right amount of sugar, tashi and egg combination. I'm still trying to get the perfect amount, haven't been able to match the real taste with the one that's in my mind.

Anonymous said...

looks good!

Pinkity said...

Looks good enough and it's cute that you stress buy a tamagoyaki-pan. Other girls would prolly buy something like a LV bag. :0

catherine said...

do real tamagoyaki pans have those ridges? can i see apicture of the pan?!

Chubbypanda said...

Did you remember to strain the eggs before cooking?

I like my tamagoyaki both savory and sweet.

- Chubbypanda

Anonymous said...

I LOVE TAMAGOYAKI!
That looks absolutely delicious, and I am going to teach myself how to cook one. Problem is, I can't seem to find a rectangular pan for making tamagoyaki here.....but I will keep on searching for it! :)

ghanima said...

I'm having the same problem trying to find a suitable square pan. It seems North America's selection of square pans is limited to grill pans. :(

Do you add soy sauce to your tamago, obachan, or are you just seasoning with sugar, salt and dashi? The recipe I use calls for soy sauce, but I don't like the mustiness it brings to the egg, so I think I'm going to omit it. I also dislike the brown tint it brings to the tamago.

Anonymous said...

It looks good enough to me. I wish I can roll the egg perfectly like you did.

Anonymous said...

I usually put a ladleful of dashi, a tsp of shoyu, a tsp of mirin and a tsp of sugar. I also use a spatula and chopsticks to roll the egg nicely.

obachan said...

rc
Oh, that’s exactly my problem, too. This is going to be one of my long-term projects…
Here in Japan, many say that the most simple and effective way is to use the store-bought mentsuyu, but I don’t want to give in…

k & s
Thank you (but this is not what I really want…)

pinkity
Hahaha. Tamagoyaki-pan is much cheaper and gives me more chance to experiment. What would I experiment on with LV bag anyway? ;)

sweet
OK. I uploaded the photo. What do you think? It looks like a square pan in the photo, but it’s a rectangular one.

chubbypanda
THAT is exactly one of the things I need to improve next time. I didn’t forget -- I didn’t think it was that important, because only a few online recipes/instructions mentioned it, so just skipped that procedure. And I ended up with the white chunks in my dashimaki… :(
Yeah, I like both savory and sweet versions.

kurogoma
Good luck with your search. Hey, wait a sec., where do you live? You mean you can only find square pans over there?

ghanima
Have you tried this site?
Yep, I add soy sauce. First I tried dark soy, then thought it was not salty enough while making tamago look browner, so changed to light soy sauce. I also use mirin.

The thing is, there are two types of dashimaki recipe in Japan: Kanto (eastern part of Japan) style and Kansai (western part of Japan) style. Kanto style dashimaki recipe is sweet-type, using sugar, while Kansai style is savory-type typically with dashi, salt (soy sauce) and mirin. And I think the taste I have in mind is a cross between these two types… but like rc, I still can’t find “my perfect amount.”

sue
Oh, that’s sweet of you. (This is not really perfect, though.) Actually the shape is not the problem as far as you use makisu to shape the dashimaki tamago into a nice rectangular shape.

k & s
And you use 3 eggs for that?

Anonymous said...

sorry, for 2 eggs.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I am from Singapore, and I can't find either rectangular or square pans here....yet. But I will keep searching.

obachan said...

K & S
I see. TKS! :)

kurogoma
Really? I went through your site real quick before posting above comment, and thought you were living somewhere in Japan. (I guess those pockies gave me that idea. Too bad your Isetan does not sell tamagoyaki-pan.)
Good luck with your search!

Anonymous said...

WOW - that looks really good Obachan! I have been practising making them too - using chopsticks to turn them. Getting a little better, but even yesterday I had a disaster. Ended up making scrambled eggs after the second turn! I made a video about this dish, but in it my obachan (!) doesn't really roll it, but folds it in half only once. I think that is to make a bigger one for the customers. I have been doing it as yours - but the ratio of dashi to eggs is really difficult to get right!

obachan said...

Oh, so nice to hear from you, CG. :D
Yeah, I saw your dashimaki post, but couldn't see the video. Too bad!
BTW, when turning dashimaki with chopsticks, the key is the angle of the chopsticks.
Check this out. I always ended up with scrambled eggs before, but when I tried this, it worked like a miracle, and I haven't had too much trouble rolling dashimaki since then. (The problem is the taste...)