Celeb Recipe: Jesseca Liu & Jeremy Chan's Comforting Kimchi Omurice
The popular Japanese dish gets a Korean twist.
If you follow actors Jeremy Chan and Jesseca Liu on Instagram, you’d know that the couple love to cook. During the Circuit Breaker, the pair, who sometimes call themselves #MrAndMrsChefJ, took the opportunity to explore new recipes, and would regularly share therapeutic cooking videos from their kitchen. While they aren’t so much complete recipes but just a display of how a dish comes together, the soothing videos, which have a dreamy and calming feel to them, are beautifully shot and edited. We found ourselves looking forward to them every week, not just for inspiration, but also as a way to relax.
Alas, with the end of CB and the dine-in ban lifted, the avid home cooks have stopped posting their culinary exploits online. Perhaps it’s because they’ve been eating out more often, or maybe they needed to go on a diet after all the CB feasting — Jesseca tells 8days.sg she put on 6kg in quarantine weight, though we can’t tell from this pic of her svelte bod. But after some prodding, they agreed to share one more recipe with us: kimchi omurice.
What is omurice?
Omurice simply means rice omelette in Japanese. It’s essentially fried rice draped with an omelette, preferably one that’s soft-set and creamy on the inside. When the omelette is sliced open, it should ideally unfold in a luscious, creamy cascade. A staple in Japanese home cooking and family restaurants, omurice became a worldwide sensation after a video of Kyoto’s Kichi Kichi restaurant’s chef (pictured above) expert whipping up of the Instagram-worthy dish went viral.
Giving omurice a Korean twist
Instead of the usual chicken and ketchup fried rice typically featured in most omurice recipes, #MrAndMrsChefJ gave their dish a Korean twist with kimchi fried rice, adding a hint of tang and spice. The idea came about when they realised they had some leftover kimchi in the fridge. “We often make kimchi fried rice and are also fans of omurice, so we decided to combine the two,” they say.
The kimchi fried rice is made with a recipe they found online, but the couple gave it their own spin by substituting some of the ingredients with what was available in their kitchen, like Taiwanese sausages. In keeping with the Korean theme, they served their omurice with a gochujang-based (Korean chilli paste) sauce instead of the customary ketchup or demi-glace sauce.
Creating the eggs-plosion
Now comes the most challenging part: the omelette, which should be creamy on the inside but still held together by a cooked exterior that’s a pale yellow and not brown. While the couple nailed the omelette on their first try, they admit that it takes practice to perfect it, and they weren’t always successful. Jesseca shares: “The omelette-making process is very quick, so you have to be precise. When you first cook the omelette, you have to stir it quickly and continuously [with chopsticks]. And when the egg starts to set, transfer it into a bowl and continue stirring. This is to ensure that when you return it to the pan, it will be more evenly cooked.”
She continues: “And when you cook the omelette the second time, tilt the pan [and slide the omelette to the edge] so it is easier to control its shape.”
While all that sounds daunting, don’t worry if you can’t nail the omelette as they claim “it does not make or break the dish”. At least their version of omurice. “Instead, it is the sauce that you have to pay attention to,” warns Jeremy. “If it is too thick or too thin, it will affect the mouthfeel [of the dish]. If it is just right, it will be go perfectly with rice.”
JEREMY CHAN & JESSECA LIU’S KIMCHI OMURICE RECIPE
Serves 2 pax
Ingredients:
For the sauce:
1/2 tbsp cooking oil
1 boneless chicken thigh, diced
1 tsp oyster sauce
11/4 tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp corn starch
For the kimchi fried rice:
1/2 tbs cooking oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 Taiwanese (or dried Chinese) sausages, sliced
3 cups cooked rice
1 tbs gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1 cup kimchi, chopped into small pieces + 2 tbsp kimchi juice
For the omelette:
6 eggs
2 pinches of salt
Method:
For sauce:
1. Heat a clean frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add cooking oil.
2. Add chicken, oyster sauce, and stir-fry until meat is lightly browned.
3. Mix gochujang with water in a bowl and add mixture to chicken. Stir thoroughly.
4. Add cornstarch and stir until gravy thickens. Remove from heat.
For the kimchi rice:
1. In a wok, heat oil over medium heat. When wok is hot, add onions and stir-fry till fragrant.
2. Add sliced Taiwanese sausages and fry until half-cooked.
3. Add rice and gochujang sauce, stirring constantly until the rice is well coated with the sauce. Be sure to scrape any rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan.
4. Add kimchi and kimchi juice, mix thoroughly.
5. Dish rice onto plates (shaping it into a rough oval form) and set aside.
For the omelette:
1. Lightly beat eggs with salt in a bowl till well blended but not foamy.
2. Heat non-stick pan over low heat. When pan is hot, add 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Swirl pan to ensure the entire surface is evenly coated with oil.
3. Add half the beaten eggs to the centre of the pan. Using chopsticks, stir the eggs vigorously in the centre while shaking pan back and forth on the stove top. Once the egg sets at the edges, nudge the cooked bits to the centre of the pan.
4. As soon as a semi-sold mass starts to form, pour eggs into a bowl. Continue stirring with chopsticks for a few seconds.
5. Pour eggs back into the pan and repeat step 3.
6. When omelette is half-cooked, spread out the curds and stop stirring. Let the egg sit for around 10 seconds.
7. Use chopsticks to loosen perimeter of omelette from the pan, then fold it into thirds. Tilt the pan away from the handle, allowing omelette to slide towards the edge. Carefully flip it on top of a plate of rice.
8. Use a knife to slice omelette open along its length — it should drape nicely over the rice.
9. Top omelette with saucy kimchi chicken.
10. Repeat process again for the rest of the eggs. Serve immediately.
Photos: Jeremy Chan and Jesseca Liu
Watch Herman Keh attempt the recipe on #JustSwipeLah.
