Mandrake Omelet

 Oh! DMM's!  I didn't see you there.  I was too busy thinking about eggs.  Just one of the best foods.  High in protein, multiple ways to prepare and there is no conclusive evidence that they raise cholesterol in the human bloodstream.  Yes, they really are great.  Indecently, the egg council freaks got to me years ago!  That's why I'm a fat cat blogger.  But this is great because this week is an OMLETE!  Not just any omelet...no....a Mandrake Omelet!

Right off the bat we can see that this is Omurice.  For those unfamiliar omurice is a Japanese dish in which an omelet is kinda folded over rice.  The anime fan knows this dish all too well as the dish that makes us all wonder "wait, I thought they were having dinner."  It's a mind blower but it appears other cultures have eggs all day!  An egg sandwich...at night? Whatever you say, other cultures! I'm game.

Back to the task at hand I'll admit that I'm very nervous about this one. Omurice isa personal bane of mine.  As anime introduced us all to Omurice at some point we try to make it ourselves.  Try as I might...I cannot seem to get the fold down.  It always looks terrible.  Tastes great, looks like I spilled egg on the floor.  Will this time be different?  History says no but that won't stop me!

Eggs are only one part of the dish.  The main event is the Mandrake!

Lovely, isn't it?  A real plant that has a ton of mystical stories applied to it.  Since it is based on a real root we have to cover one major issue. That it is...hold on so I can scream for those in the back....HIGHLY TOXIC!  DO NOT...repeat..DOOOOO NOT EAT REAL MANDRAKE!  You will not have a great time.  Take a look at the real deal, however.

Okay, I can see why ancient people believed this looked human.  And when you have anything that looks human you want to believe that it is.  That's why Steve the Toaster Oven is my favorite guy after I glued googlie eyes on him!  But what to do?  This isn't a fictional food like some of the others.  No, this is something I could grow in my backyard....my kooky backyard!  Luckily there is another root that looks similar and is also toxic!  Just in far, far less quantities.  Let me introduce you to the Yuca Root better known as the Cassava!

What a beauty! This is one fibrous root so we'll need to peel, peel, peel.  With a vegetable peeler.  I'm not cool enough to peel with a knife alone.  

It's actually pretty easy to peel!  And just a little slick.  What you are looking for is a little root that runs down the center.  It's not edible and very thick.  Here is a small sliver.

How did I pull this out?  Well...with grace...beauty...style....

Fine...FINE! I hacked it to pieces.  Luckily I was able to get most of the little root out.  The next step is to parboil.  My final plan is to fry them up and I've found luck in parboiling first with other fibrous roots. So it should work here.  Right?  Just drop these bad boys into some boiling water for twentyish minutes.  Just enough to soften them up.

Boil, boil, toil and...uhh...pasta pot...boil in the pasta pot.  Ah, Shakespeare.  And as The Bard also said, "Once you're done parboiling, pat dry and wait for them to cool."  Words to live by. And time to dice.

They are looking a little like a cross between an apple and a potato?  Unfortunately I come to you with my hat in hand.  We are about to hit my first major mistake.  How did Senshi fry up his mandrake?

Bacon fat!  Remember, bacon wasn't originally exclusively for eating.  It was used as a great way to add grease to a pan. Still is!  I keep a small jar of bacon fat in my fridge just for these situations.  However I got into a groove, wasn't thinking and..well...

Used olive oil ><.  I let you down. I let you all down.  And have regretted it for days.  That good aside they did fry up nice a quick!

Now they REALLY look like fried potatoes.  They kinda taste like an unsweet sweet potato?  Very crisp and creamy.  I'm hoping to make french fries with them some day!  But for now we are on omurice duty.  As such it's time for the egg part of the Omurice.

As I said earlier, I can't seem to ever get Omurice correct. So this time I tried mixing with chopsticks and a new technique that I read online!  Straining the eggs.

This is supposed to make the eggs silkier and maybe a little smoother?  I can say this step is so slow going.  The eggs really block up the mesh quickly.  After cleaning out the strainer a third time I was tempted to just skip this step.  Then I remembered what Senshi would say:

Just like him cutting the heads off the mandrake rather than letting it scream out the impurities I wanted to skip a new step because it was taking too long.  So let's soldier on!  Before the main event let me point out a little issue I had with Senshi's cooking.  Look at what he does here.

Sensi just pours the eggs over the mandrake!  That's more of a Western Omelette rather than Omurice...right?  For Omurice you cook the eggs, add the ingredients on top and then fold the eggs over.  So I decided to just make both! The key differences are I did not strain the Western omelette and I added a tablespoon of water.  That way we can see the difference.

Now for my second large blunder.....I had to focus on making the omelettes so much that I did not take any photos of that step! 

Look, I'd understand if you started seeing other blogs cooking through the Dungeon Meshi storyline. It's fine. I deserve that.  Especially when you see the final product!

Oh man...I could live to be 200 and I'll never get omurice to plate correctly.  But what about the Western omelette? 

Messy but nice.  You cook the two rather similarly.  The Omurice you wait until the center is just a little wet.  Then add the ingredients and fold.  The Western omelette is a typical shake and set.  Just wait until it looks done and there you go!  I didn't do it for this omelette but a cool trick taught to me by a cool friend is pop it under a broiler right before it's finished.  Just a few minutes.  That'll finish the omelette off and make look like you did the "flip" but didn't!  FUN!

I'll give the straining credit, the Omurice really did come out silkier and way smoother than the Western omelette.  What a great trick to have in my back pocket.  I want to try that with the Western omelette the next time I make one.  And the Yuca was a fantastic choice!  I was so happy with how well it worked with eggs.  Very similar to home fries but far creamier than potatoes.  I also have a lot more root left so I can make some other dishes if I want ^^.

Looks aside I was thrilled with how this dish turned out.  I love using a new ingredient that I honestly had zero knowledge of just three weeks ago.  And while I may never, and I mean NEVER, successfully plate omurice I do love making it.  Now I want eggs.  But it's late at night as I type this and as stated earlier, eggs be for breakfast!  

That's it for this week, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs!  Thank you again for your time and feel free to reach out with any question, comments or concerns.  Be sure to come back next week because I get to make fried chicken in my most favorite way!