How to make a Japanese Rolled Omelet

It's time for another how-to post here, and this time it's a Japanese-style omelet.

But of course, I gave it a twist. In this case a Mexican twist. If you want to find the ingredients for a traditional Japanese omelet, you'll find plenty of recipes online. If you want to have some fun with rolled omelets, this it's pretty easy. And fun.

I found that three large eggs was about the right size for my purposes and my pan, but you could make yours larger or smaller, depending on what you like. I added a tablespoon of a green salsa to my three beaten eggs, to add a little flavor.

Heat the omelet pan on medium or medium-low heat. If the pan is nonstick, you probably won't need any butter or oil.

Have the beaten eggs standing by. Having them in a measuring cup is handy, for pouring. I also had some grated cheese that I used for a filling.

Pour in a small amount of egg. Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan with a thin layer, like a crepe. Left the pan and move it to let the egg coat the entire bottom of the pan, then return it to the heat. I added just a little bit of cheese on top of the egg.

Cook on medium or medium low so the egg cooks but doesn't brown. If there's excess egg in the pan, you can lift the edges of the omelet and let the liquid egg pour underneath so it all gets cooked through. It's fine if it's a little soft and custardy, but you don't want we egg squishing out when you roll.

When the egg is set and the cheese is melting, start at the curved end of the pan and use a thin spatula to begin to roll the egg, like a jelly-roll sort of thing. Keep rolling until you reach the opposite end.

It's fine if the first roll or two are a little ragged looking. When you reach the opposite end, slide the roll back to the curved end of the pan. Add another thin layer of egg and lift the pan to coat the bottom as you did before. Lift the roll to make sure the egg gets under there as well.

As before, I added a little more cheese.

Roll as you did before. Slide the roll back to the rounded end of the pan.

Continue adding thin layers of egg and rolling until you have no more egg left. Remove the omelet from the pan and slice to serve.

When I've made these without cheese, the slices were more round, but the filled ones don't roll quite as tight, so they're a little more oval when they're sliced.

Once you've made a few of these, I'm sure you'll think of plenty of things to fill the omelet with, and lots of fun things to add to the egg. Yes, it's a Japanese omelet shape. But you can certainly make it your own with any flavors you like.

You can certainly use a regular saute pan to make rolled omelets, but they'll be fatter in the center and thin and floppy on the ends. So they won't be as pretty, but you can still do it. If you want a pretty, even roll, then a square or rectangular traditional Japanese Tamagoyaki pan is what you need.

The pan used in this post was supplied to me at no cost.