Mentaiko Soft Scrambled Eggs (Japanese Spicy Pollock/Cod Roe)

Often you'll find mentaiko being used in noodles, rice balls, or even as a spread on bread. Some also serve it straight, kind of like a salty side dish accompanying rice or even just with a few drinks (don't drink and drive).

Last time I used some mentaiko in a rice ball recipe and was left with one unused roe. So why not utilize that as a salty seasoning for scrambled eggs? Sounds like an easy yet delicious idea, and here's the result.

Mentaiko soft scrambled eggs - 

Ingredients?

• 6 eggs
• 1 medium small mentaiko fish roe
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon drinkable water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

How?

Destem and chop the scallion, separate the white and the green sections. Remove the mentaiko from the membrane, some call it the sac. I simply doing so by cutting a small opening on the end then squeeze out the roe inside.

Break six eggs to a bowl. Also add in 1 teaspoon of drinkable water along with 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. You can use either the western style mayonnaise or the Japanese kewpie mayonnaise. 

Beat till the eggs have been mixed evenly. Don't worry about blobs of mayonnaise floating on top. As long as the mayonnaise has been breaking into smaller chunks then it won't be an issue later on.

Drizzle 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to a non-stick pan and switch to medium heat. It's easier to cook soft scrambled eggs with a non-stick pan. However, if you're using stainless pan, just remember to bring up the heat first before adding oil.

Add in chopped scallion whites and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Stir-fry till aromatic but not over-browning the scallion.

Pour in the egg mixture. Cook it like you are making a French style soft scrambled eggs, but it doesn't have to be super velvety. Just aiming for semi-soft texture instead of fully-cooked eggs in the end.

Also try to keep the eggs in bigger chunks. Do not over stir-fry the eggs, otherwise you might end up with tiny bits of cooked eggs in the end.

Once the egg mixture starts to set a little, mix in the mentaiko. Gently flip around the ingredients till about evenly blended together.

Quickly plate the eggs and garnish with some chopped scallion greens. The actual cooking time for this egg recipe happens really quickly, especially eggs get cooked and hardened very fast. A few minutes the most I would say.

Note that I only added small pinch of salt here, since mentaiko can be quite salty already. It's totally up to you though, if a lighter taste is preferred, omitting the use of extra salt should work fine also.

By the way, I served this scrambled eggs as one of the side dishes to eat along with some rice. However, I suppose adding that with soft white toast could be a great option too. Perhaps also slice some avocado on top to make it an even better fit with the bread.

Extended reading:

• Mentaiko scallion and sesame seeds onigiri

Steamed Clams with Smoked Bacon in White Wine Parsley Sauce

My initial plan was to use chorizo for this clam recipe, but somehow all the imported chorizo were banned in Taiwan. So I guess I won't be seeing imported chorizo for a long while. Good thing that the substitute - thick cut smoked bacon worked really well too.

Steamed clams with smoked bacon in white wine parsley sauce - 

Ingredients?

• 380 to 400 grams clams 
• 100 grams thick-cut smoked bacon
• 1 big bulb shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small bundle flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 yellow lemon
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Some salt
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

How?

First let's "clean" the clams first. Rinse and roughly clean the clam shells. Fill a medium pot with some room temperature water, mine was about 600ml of water with 3 teaspoons of salt added.

Add in the live clams and just let them sit there, don't go peeping too often in the beginning nor moving the pot. These movements might disturb the clams and then will have their shells tightly shut. 

The image I have here was only like 10 minutes into the soaking process. I would suggest wait for one hour, and make sure you do see the clams purged out the sand. It's actually quite fun to watch them doing that. Once all set, drain out the liquid and the clams will be ready to use.

When the clams are about ready, let's prep other ingredients. Slice the bacon to medium size chunks. Peel and chop the shallots and garlics. Separate the stem and leafy part for the parsley, chop the leafy part and section the stems. Slice the lemon into wedges.

Have a stainless pan ready, the reason why I specifically said stainless is that we will be adding in the clams, and the stainless material won't be damaged by the clam shells moving around.

Turn to medium or medium small heat. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and add in the bacon chunks. Sear till some fats have been rendered and the meaty part turns a bit browned.

Add in shallots and cook for about 30 seconds. Then add in chopped garlic, parsley stems, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Toss and cook for another 30 seconds.

Add in the clams and give it a quick mix. Pour in 1/2 cup of dry white wine.

Swirl a little then cover the pan with a lid. Use medium small heat and let it "steam" for about five minutes, or till the clams just opened up.

Remove the lid, pick out parsley stems and discard any clams that are still tightly closed. This time around, add in chopped parsley leaves. Squeeze in some lemon juice, about 1 tablespoon. Give it a quick mix.

Plate and add one or two extra lemon wedges on the side.

Note that I only posted the clam dish here. But there is definitely one other thing you can do to boost up the dining experience. Serve the dish with some toasted baguette. You can enjoy the clams and bacon chunks with the bread, also further soak up all the juice on the plate using the bread.

Nothing goes to waste, especially all that juice was like the essence from the clams, super flavorful and packed with umami. Even if you don't have any bread on hand, at least cook up some pasta or rice, just pour the sauce all over. It might sound weird but once you took a few bites you'll know what I'm talking about.

Other wine-friendly recipes:

• Nectarine and Serrano ham crostini
• Less oil fried cream cheese wontons
• Crostini with Serrano burrata and hot honey