One of my childhood favorites is "oh jian" or Malaysian style oyster omelette. It is one of the hawker delights and usually we would order this in addition to our dinner (usually fried or soupy noodle). It has a gelatinous texture and kind of gooey with crispy edges. Normally serve with sambal. In Taiwan, they have their own version too which is called "oh ah jian" but theirs was ladle with a lot of sauce. This starch mixture recipe of mine came from a Taiwanese cooking show. I adapted their flour ratios and played with the water amount. I failed the first attempt which created a hard starch and not gelatinous.
Okay, now you should have noticed mine is "hei jian" (shrimp) and not "oh jian" (oyster). Well frankly I loved the eggs and the gelatinous texture but not necessarily the oyster, also I wanted the convenience of eating it whenever I feel like it and not rushing out to buy the oyster. But of course you can substitute the shrimp with oyster or simply use both. But this shrimps omelette pancake (虾煎) can definitely satisfied my cravings.
One think I need to note though. It is not easy to fry an excellent omelette, it takes skill. I still need to play with it some more as I don't have the feel yet. Since I love the gelatinous texture, I might want to add more, but more doesn't means good as the outcome with eggs won't come out great. It needs to have a balance and I haven't gotten it yet. I got the starch mixture right but I haven't gotten the technique right yet, I still need lots of practices. If you know how to fry a killer Malaysian style oyster omelet, please share your technique with me. Thank you in advance!
Taiwanese style, but theirs would be covered with a brown sauce.
~Yield about 8 shrimp omelets.
Ingredients:
- 24 large shrimps, shelled, cut into 4 small pieces or leave whole, I put 3 in each omelet
- 8 large eggs, 1 egg in each omelet
- 5 scallions, diagonally slice, to suit
- Dried chives, to suit
- White pepper to suit
Watery batter
Starch Mixture:
- 1/8 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- Pinch of salt
- 1 3/4 cup cold water
- Garnish with cilantro if desired
- Serve with Thai's sweet chili sauce
Malaysian Method:
In a large bowl, whisk together all starch mixture. You will have to whisk again when ready to cook to loosen the starch.
Heat up a nonstick pan, add a little oil. When hot, add in cut shrimps, pan-fry until almost cook. Add in a scoop of the starch mixture. Let it set a bit. Stir-fry to one side, break in an egg, break the yolk, add in chopped scallion, dried chives and white pepper. Stir-fry the egg with the starch mixture. You can let the side slightly crisp up. Serve with Thai's sweet chili sauce. Like 1st and 2nd pictures.
Taiwanese Method:
Heat up a nonstick pan, add a little oil. When hot, add in cut shrimps, fry until almost cooked. Push to one side of the pan. Add in starch mixture on the shrimps side. Let it set while break in an egg on the other side of the pan. Break the yolk and add in chopped scallion, dried chives and white pepper (you can add beansprout and/or lettuce). Cover the lid. Open the lid and fold the egg side onto the starch side like folding an American omelette. I served it with Thai's sweet chili sauce. Like 3rd picture above.
8 comments:
This looks yum! Is there a reason to use part cornstarch and part potato starch? Could I use all cornstarch? Or maybe tapioca starch?
Oh wow - this is so my kind of dish!! The flavors!
I definitely prefer Hei Jian to Oh Ah Jian. :)
I heard 中筋面粉 may help in a soft-sticky batter when mix with other flours but I am definitely not an expert. I only recalled my friend made some kind of chives 煎 before and she mix wheat flour, 中筋面粉 and water and the result was almost like Oh Ah Jian texture.
i don't know way to find the fresh oyster, never see selling in wet market/pasar..you are very smart to replace it with shrimps..
Though we are big eater of shrimps but we do enjoy it from time to time. The Taiwanese version is new to me, so its going to be one that I will wanna try out.
Ginger and scotch, for sure you can't use all cornstarch since the potato starch gives the gelatinous texture. I know you can either use glutinous rice flour or wheat flour (AP flour), either one is to gives the sticky texture to the omelette. I have seen people use tapioca starch too, so perhaps you can substitute potato starch with tapioca starch. But if you change the ingredients, I can't promise the outcome.
My kind of dish too Belinda!
High five Tigerfish! Yes! 中筋面粉 or the glutinous rice flour is to give the soft-sticky texture. 中筋面粉 is all-purpose flour right?
Thanks Sonia. :)
Good Nava.K, I don't have the Taiwanese sauce recipe, if you want it real authentic, just do a search for the recipe. Might be able to buy it as a bottle sauce too.
LCOM, I love that gooey texture on your 1st omelette (though my hubby complains that it looks like something coming out of ones nose during cold season).
I love oh jian, but haven't had it since my last trip back to KL/LA.
Now that my son is allergic to shellfish, can't even have your version ... Hei Jian.
But I'm keeping your recipe in my back pocket hopefully, I can make this in the near future!
Haha Tricia, your hubby has great imagination! Well, you can do a chive/ vegetable version instead of shrimp or oyster (Tigerfish mentioned her friend made her a chive version before). You can use bean sprout and lettuce!
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