$628 vs $12 Omelet: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients

[grater scraping]

[Emily chuckling]

Either I am doing this very wrong,

or I'm doing this incredibly correctly,

and everyone can be impressed.

[pleasant music]

Hi, I'm Yuji. I'm a professional chef.

These are my $628 omelet ingredients.

Hi, I'm Emily.

I'm a home cook, and these are my $12 omelet ingredients.

Bye-bye.

That's right. Go.

I never loved you anyway.

One, two, three, four, five, six ingredients.

Less is more.

[Yuji chuckling]

What?

I don't know what this is.

For my omelet, I was going to make uni and unagi on rice.

This is a very popular way of eating omelet in Japan.

I had unagi, which is Japanese freshwater eel.

Oh, it's an eel, 'cause it's not...

I thought that was the shape of its body,

but it's, like, wrapped a little.

[Emily chuckling]

[Yuji] And abalone, both imported from Japan.

Uh, is it like a scallop, maybe?

I'll find out the hard way.

I was going to cook this with a maitake mushroom

to make a lovely rice base.

Oh, ketchup.

Okay. This one I know.

[Emily chuckling]

For my omelet, I had a Hokkaido uni,

pasture-raised egg, plus homemade dashi

made with kombu and then katsuobushi.

Bonito flakes I know. That I've used before.

[Yuji] I had a sake, honey, and aged balsamic vinegar

for unagi kabayaki demi-glace sauce,

all toped with grated daikon radish and an ikura,

which is a salmon roe.

This is maybe a giant parsnip?

It was going to be very delicious,

and at the same time, very, very difficult.

Good luck, Emily. You're gonna need it.

God, are you there?

With Emily's recipes, I have simpler ingredients.

You might find these in your pantry

or at local grocery store, but with a little technique,

we can make them ever better.

If I have to guess, these will probably cost me about $12.

I got it? [cash register bell dinging]

Yes.

If I had to guess how much this would all cost,

I would say $192?

What the [beep]? [cash register bell dinging]

How?

[pleasant music]

So this is Chef Yuji's recipe book,

and this is what I'm gonna be making today.

Unagi and umi omurice.

It's, I think, pretty famously difficult.

[Emily chuckling]

But, like, that's what we're here for. Right?

For this omurice, Emily is going to have a mountain

of rice, and then she's gonna have a very runny omelet

on top of it, and then she's gonna cut it,

and then it opens up,

and then the egg kind of runs over the rice.

It's very cool but technically challenging.

[Yuji chuckling]

So the first thing I'm gonna do is prep my seafood.

I need to butcher and roast my eel and butcher my abalone.

This is gonna be great. This is gonna be fine.

I'm actually not worried.

We should probably get started right now, though.

All right. So, let's just flip this sucker over.

Ah, wet.

[Emily chuckling]

Well, that's brainy, looks like a lobotomy.

So when you pick up abalone,

you wonder how to get the meat out.

Don't worry. It's very easy.

And you're gonna try to put the spoon

right in between the shell and then the meat.

And then, you're gonna go under the meat.

Well, this is definitely a first for me.

But you know what?

I think that this is gonna go great.

I am choosing to maintain a positive attitude.

[Yuji] As soon as you separate the muscle,

the whole thing will come out.

Look at this shell.

Oh wow. That is very pretty in there.

It's kinda iridescent.

And then, you'll see there is a liver attached to it,

so you're gonna remove it.

I'll hand-deliver this back to Chef Yuji

as a thank you present for this moment in my life.

After that, you are going to salt

the abalone pretty heavily for about five minutes.

What it does is it actually remove all the slime

that is in the abalone,

and it will make it much easier to clean.

All right. My abalone is doing its thing.

So now, I'm going to focus on the eel.

Emily's working with this beautiful eel from Japan.

It comes already cleaned with a filet,

but the head is attached to it.

So she's gonna have to separate the head from the filet.

And then, she's gonna roast the head

and actually bone together to make the demi-glace sauce.

We're going to use every party of the eel.

I like the way the head feels.

Maybe I should have a pet eel.

[Emily chuckling]

Weird thought to have right now.

[Emily laughing]

I'm just going to broil this and roast the bones.

How long do bones roast?

I'll check it in five to seven minutes

and then see what happens after that.

All of the seafood that you prep will be made into dice.

Abalone, a little bit smaller,

and then the eel a little bit larger.

My eel is diced.

I'm gonna move back to my abalone.

You wanna make sure that you clean it

until all the black slime is completely off the abalone.

And then, it's ready to cut.

This was not on my list of things

I thought I'd be doing today.

We've got, like, the soft, scallopy middle bit.

And then, there's, like, the chewy outer bit.

I'm gonna, I don't know. I don't know what I'm...

I don't know what I'm gonna do.

But we're gonna figure it out together.

The texture is very crunchy when it's sashimi,

but when it's cooked, it's gonna be very tender.

A lot of surprising textures going on in here.

You might think to yourself,

oh, I know what that feels like.

But I don't think you do.

All right. Abalone done.

I'm just gonna put it in a bowl,

and I'll move onto my sauce.

Emily was going to make a traditional Western omelet.

The kinda thing you could get

at your grocery almost by accident.

I'm gonna do something else.

I'm going to make smoked ham hock dashimaki tamago.

Dashimaki tamago is a traditional Japanese roll egg omelet

with dashi and then the eggs together.

Dashi is traditionally made with a combination of kombu,

which is kelp, and then bonito flake.

Since I don't have a dashi to work with,

I'm going to work with ham stock.

At first, I'm going to separate the skin, meat, and bone

from this ham hock.

I actually never worked with a ham hock before.

It smells great.

Ham hock is a pork knuckle that is cured and smoked.

My goal is not to waste any part of this knuckle.

So I'm going to use some of the skin for garnish,

some of the meat for the omelet inside,

and then the bones for the stock.

So now, I'm gonna make my demi-glace.

[Yuji] Demi-glace sauce is a French sauce

that is usually used for omurice.

But instead of making demi-glace sauce,

I wanted to show a traditional way of making kabayaki sauce.

I'm gonna add my kombu,

and my bay leaves, and my eel bones.

By roasting the bones of the eels,

and then reducing it with soy, sake, mirin,

and then a little bit of honey, and then balsamic vinegar.

The balsamic and honey, I think, you'd usually stir in

close to the end if you're gonna use them in a sauce.

So I'm gonna, like, let them hang out for a bit

and figure that out later.

And then, I'm just gonna keep reducing this

until it is closer to the general thickness of a demi-glace,

which is gonna be reduced by,

like, another half to, like, 2/3.

So I have broken down the ham hock in four pieces.

Ham hock skin, and then the meat,

bone, and then the sinews and tendons.

Bones and tendons are going to be used for my stock.

I'm going to add some of my skin as well.

Then, I'm going to be adding scallions.

Often, people throw away the root,

but I'm gonna use it for stock.

So, simply, I'm just gonna add water,

just enough to cover the ingredients.

I'm gonna just cover this pot,

and then, I'm gonna turn the heat high.

For the rest of the ingredients,

I'm gonna use it all for my omelet.

I'm just adding the rest of my honey in

and the rest of my balsamic.

Give it a little stir.

My eel head looks nice and glazed, weirdly enough.

[Emily laughing]

All right. My demi-glace looks, I think, reduced.

So, I'm gonna strain it.

When it's done, it will be just thick enough

to sit on top on the rice when it's poured over.

Voila.

Probably what I was supposed to do.

So it's been about an hour since the stock started,

so I'm gonna check how it is.

Wow.

The broth looks so creamy because of the collagens

from the skin and also the tendons.

[Yuji sipping]

Wow.

So much flavor. Yeah, I love it.

Ham hock stock is straining.

I'm gonna just curl this off, and then this is gonna be

a really great addition to my egg omelet.

All right. Time to make my dashi.

I have some of this in my freezer.

So this I actually know.

I've got some soaked kombu here,

and I'm going to put it in my cold water

and just boil it for, like, a while.

So the dashi is going to be mixed with the egg

to make extra layer of umami flavor,

and also it will make it a little bit easier

to make the egg a little bit runny.

All right.

So my kombu has fully infused this water with its goodness.

So now I'm going to cut the heat

and add my katsuobushi, my bonito flakes.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Is there a clock? Oh, there is a clock.

[Emily laughing]

All right. I think it's time to strain this.

So, let's do it.

Boom, baby. Oh, sorry.

Dashi made, and it smells great.

Hey. Dashi.

So I'm going to make special garnishes for my egg omelet.

This is the scallion white part.

So I'm going to cut them into very thin julienne pieces.

So, as you might know with omelets,

they don't really sit around all that well.

So I thought we'd talk now about the garnish.

So I have my uni.

Hey look, it's my rent in a box.

The uni that Emily's going to use is from Hokkaido, Japan,

which is the most precious uni in the world.

I have my salmon roe, which again will just be popped

on top as, like, a garnish, but check it out.

Beautiful.

And then, the last thing I need to do is grate some daikon,

especially given this very interesting tool

that he's left for me.

I feel like this is sort of maybe

what it's supposed to look like.

I'm gonna add this into water.

Saltwater is gonna make the scallion crispy

and also less bitter.

And after this, I'm going to strain it,

and then let this dry out.

So I feel like that's kind of

what grated daikon could look like.

Right, guys, friends, world, internet, Uncle Roger?

所以我的萝卜是好看,

I think, but it's a little bit wet.

So I'm just gonna strain it

to see if I can get a little moisture out.

Those are my garnishes. Done.

I'm gonna prep my ham hock skin,

cutting this into julienne shape as well.

I'm gonna add oil to a pan,

and then the skin will be dried,

and it will be super crispy.

When I stop seeing these bubbles from each,

I'm gonna just take it out.

It's pretty thick,

but it really adds nice, crunchy textures.

Pork skin is crispy and ready.

And also, the scallion is dried out and curly.

My garnish is ready to go.

Just gotta get ready.

Gotta stay loose, you know?

Fried rice time.

So, Emily, it's time to make rice.

You're gonna have an egg omelet on top of it.

I'm gonna add my oil to the pan.

So I'm adding my mushrooms first,

and then I'm just gonna season these a little bit.

All right.

Those are starting to kinda brown a little,

so I'm gonna add my onion.

Okay, so now I'm adding my garlic.

I'm gonna cut the heat, and then I'm just gonna put this

back in this bowl.

And then, I'm gonna do my seafood separately,

'cause I don't wanna burn my garlic.

All right. Eel going in.

[Emily chuckling]

All right. So I'm starting with my eel,

and then, I'm gonna add my abalone after,

'cause it is what we in the business call smaller.

So I guess I should probably add the abalone.

Let's just add the abalone.

I'm gonna put my veggies back in here,

and I'm gonna grab my rice.

And bing, bang, boom, we're on our way

to Having This Done Town.

Emily, I heard you love ketchup.

I got my very favorite Japanese ketchup this time for you.

I hope you like it,

because you're gonna be using a lot of it.

So this is Japanese ketchup,

and very much an actual ingredient in Chef Yuji's recipe.

I did not go rogue on this.

Well, I actually do think that this looks right.

I'm feeling good.

When the rice is done, you're gonna put the rice

into a very pretty mold, and then you're gonna put the mold

into the plate.

So you open up, the rice will be perfectly shaped.

Hm.

I hope I wasn't supposed to,

like, spray this down with anything first.

I'm sure it'll unmold.

Okay. My rice is molded and ready for action.

Now, I'm going to prepare to make omelet.

The first thing I'm going to do is I'm gonna

cut the scallion, the ham meat, and bell pepper.

I'm gonna make it pretty small so that I can roll it

when I roll omelet.

I'm not really a big bell pepper fan,

but I'm gonna work with it.

All the other ingredients are gonna make it super delicious,

and it probably is gonna be the best bell pepper

I will ever have.

[Yuji chuckling]

So I'm gonna just melt the butter.

I'm gonna just cook the vegetables

until they're just soft enough to eat.

The ham is already cooked, so I'm gonna just add it

at the very end to just warm it up.

I'm putting these ingredients into a paper towel

so that the excess butter will be absorbed.

This part of my filling for egg omelet is finished.

I'm going to move onto the next step.

Time to make my omelet. This is the hard part.

Emily, this is where it gets a little bit challenging,

but you can do it.

No difficult techniques,

but it is more time-sensitive technique.

This alone was a new and exciting technique

that I'm gonna try.

I am coating the pan with a little bit of oil

using an oil-soaked paper towel,

which Chef Yuji recommended.

All right. So, oil in the pan.

I'm going to start cracking some eggs.

Just a sploosh of dashi, not a lot.

Give it a mix.

I'm looking for, like, a uniform consistency in these eggs.

To medium.

And I am gonna go a little lower than they would tell you to

because it's gonna give me more time to not freak out.

Between you and me.

The type of egg omelet I'm making right now

is called dashimaki tamago.

Dashimaki tamago means traditional dashi egg roll omelet.

I have a special pan designed to make dashimaki tamago.

So this is designed so that the thickness of the roll omelet

will be even all the way.

These are my chopsticks.

They came from my apartment, and I just noticed

there are a lot of smiley frogs.

Yeah, I didn't even realize

there were frogs on my chopsticks.

They're cute.

[Yuji laughing]

Very encouraging. Yeah.

I have a very strong memory

with this specific type of egg omelet

because my mom always put this in a bento box every morning,

and my wife does it every morning now for my son.

Three egg.

So this amount, I think, is perfect for the size

of the pan that I have here.

And then, I'm going to add ham stock.

This is gonna make the mixture a little bit more loose.

Some people add heavy cream into it,

but I think this kinda does similar things.

添加一个组合你的火腿、韭葱和ll pepper.

Okay. So the mixture is ready.

This is the oil. You just wanna spread it evenly.

如果我做挤压瓶,不均匀。

I'm gonna just roll it.

The first one will be just simple roll.

Okay. So this is the first round.

And I'm gonna push it up.

Going to pour more.

Then, I'm gonna add this cheese this time.

Number two is done. Then, I'm gonna do finale.

More cheese.

I'm very focused right now.

[Yuji laughing]

We're good, we're good, we're good, we're good.

Nobody panic. We're okay.

And then slowly, you're gonna start seeing egg

is getting set, and then the outside

will be a little bit more crunchy.

And then, that's when you start rolling.

Okay, my thought is once I know I can start folding it,

I'll put the uni down the middle,

do the other fold, get it on there as fast as possible.

Before you roll it completely,

you're gonna add uni in the middle.

The trick here is you're gonna have to move quickly,

because it's very time-sensitive to make the egg right.

Gotta go fast. Gotta go fast.

That's a good amount of uni.

Uni's very expensive.

Don't break, don't break, don't break.

Okay, okay, all right.

It's not the best, but it's not the worst.

This is actually the perfect height.

So I'm rolling this up in a sushi rolling mat

so that the egg will be in a perfect shape.

So I'm going to put this in the fridge

for about a half hour so that it's gonna be chilled,

which will make it easier to cut.

[soft music]

I just took it out of the fridge, so it's naturally chilled.

It looks good, actually. Yup.

都不错的厚度round.

I see some cheese coming out.

So I'm gonna cut this in six pieces.

Oh nice. That's kinda cute.

Now I'm gonna add cheese.

Next, I'm gonna add a little fire.

[flame hissing]

So it's gonna melt it, and it's gonna make a nice char,

and I think it's gonna add a really extra flavor.

And then, I'm gonna just add the scallions,

crispy ham hock skin.

Then, I'm gonna finish with the black pepper.

Wow, that's awesome.

Right, and gently, gently, gently.

Okay, I don't know if it's perfect, but it is something.

Ta-da!

[Emily laughing]

And this is my take on Chef Yuji's omurice.

[Yuji] This is my take on Emily's omelet.

It looks great.

I actually love how it's looking.

Yeah, it's very unique.

[soft music]

Hey, how's it going? Hey. Nice to see you.

How's it going? Nice to see you.

Yeah, very excited to see what you got.

I'm very excited. Yeah.

So I have an omelet ready to go here.

So we should probably do that.

[Emily laughing] Yeah, yeah.

Whoa.

Nice.

Whoa. Yay. [Emily laughing]

It looks great.

[Emily] Listen, I'm not gonna stand here

and tell you it's perfect, but it's not the worst.

So I have some toppings

that I'll put on real quick. Yes.

Wow, that looks great.

[Emily] Mm, carefully, carefully.

[Yuji] Nice. It stays on top.

Yay! Yay. Good job.

Thank you.

[Emily laughing]

Yes. Whew.

This is not easy at all, but this looks great.

Yeah, this is exactly what I imagined.

Nice.

Do you wanna dig in? Yes, I wanna do it.

Okay.

Mm.

That is so good. Mm-hmm.

You get the flavor of the ocean,

不过它也是,扑鼻,甜,salty.

The texture of the eel is so firm,

so everything else is so soft too.

Mm-hmm.

So that's the kind of contrast that I wanted to create.

And then, I think you did very good.

[Yuji laughing] Thank you so much.

This looks so different from what I was gonna make.

[Yuji] Dashimaki tamago is a rolled egg omelet with dashi,

but I didn't have bonito or kombu.

Right. So I made a dashi stock

with ham hock skin, sinews, tendons, and bone.

Mm. Mm.

You get, like, that smokiness of the ham hock in it.

Mm. In a way that I feel like

you wouldn't just get, like, in a Western omelet.

I'm really impressed with how you reinvented

those six very pretty simple ingredients.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

When I thought about the dish that I gave you,

I thought it was gonna be really difficult.

And I honestly thought that you wouldn't be able to make it,

but this is so good.

And it's beautifully made. Thank you.

And the flavor is so good too.

I'm very happy this came out. Yeah.

Well, I'm honored.

Well, maybe next time you can make me the omurice

and I can make this.

No. No, no, no.

I'm not gonna take that kind of pressure.

[both laughing]

It's so hard to make.