Stronger Tasting Nori Tamagoyaki With a Brush of Sesame Oil

Have you ever tried nori sheet? Also known as roasted seaweed? It's a popular ingredient in Japan, let it be used in cooking or just a simple snack. You can also find all sorts of varieties such as a big square sheet, smaller rectangular pack, threaded, powdered form, and more.

For this tamagoyaki recipe, I think the rectangular shape snack pack should be the easiest to work with. Otherwise take the big nori sheet and cut to desired size yourself, wouldn't take long and you can enjoy the trimmings while making the tamagoyaki.

Stronger tasting nori tamagoyaki with a brush of sesame oil -

Ingredients (for one serving)?

• 3 eggs
• Some dried nori sheet
• 1 tablespoon Japanese tsuyu (I used quadruple-condensed version)
• 1 teaspoon chicken stock
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Some sesame oil

How?

Take a bowl and break in three eggs. Also add 1 tablespoon of tsuyu, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of chicken stock. Beat till evenly blended.

Trim the nori sheet if needed. It has to fit inside the tamagoyaki pan you're using. Remember to cut it slightly smaller than the inner edge of the pan.

Prepare a small bowl and drizzle some sesame oil inside. Fold a paper towel to smaller squarish piece. Also have a set of chopsticks or tongs ready by its side. 

We are going to use the paper towel as oil absorbent and use the chopsticks or tongs to handle it, then brush the oil to the pan during the cooking process.

To begin, soak the paper towel with some sesame oil and evenly wipe the surface of the tamagoyaki pan. Switch to medium heat and pour in some egg mixture, the amount used should be enough to form 1mm thickness layer of seared egg.

Once the bottom is about semi-firmed but the top still somewhat soft and semi-cooked looking, lay down the nori sheet.

Then from outer side towards yourself, start rolling the egg in. That means you'll have a rolled egg close to you and showing most of empty pan on the other side.

Brush more oil to the empty area. 

Pour a bit more egg mixture over. Gently lift first rolled egg so the newly added egg mixture can flow underneath. Once cooked and firmed up, these two batches will then stick together.

So again, when the second batch start showing semi-firm bottom and slightly soft top, add more nori sheet and this time roll the egg roll from yourself outward.

Repeat one more time. In the end, make sure the final rolled up egg seemed slightly browned on the top and bottom. Then carefully move to a clean cutting board.

Use a sharp knife and slice the tamagoyaki to serving size pieces.

It's uncommon to make the tamagoyaki with sesame oil, but why? The result was so delicious, and the aroma paired so well with nori sheet. In fact, sometimes you'll even find nori sheet snack sold in sesame oil flavor, especially in Korea, so the combo totally makes sense.

My recipe only calls for small portion of tamagoyaki. But do keep in mind that three eggs gives you about such amount showed in my pictures. So I guess it's safe to say that one egg will yield about one big bite. 

Extended reading:

• Kanikama and shiso tamagoyaki 蟹肉棒紫蘇玉子燒