Oyster Omelette

And again something from my memories of Beijing. When my parents visited me there and my Hong Kong Chinese boss treated us for a nice meal in some posh restaurant, one of the dishes was oyster omelette. My mother and I both love fresh oysters and thought using something so luxurious in a “simple omelette” is almost decadent! And I’m sure it added to the taste, this decadency. We both loved it.

Still I would never use fresh oysters for this dish. I tried tinned oysters a few years ago, but I think tinned oysters are horrible. I still have two cans in my cupboard, waiting to expire so I can throw them out. And then, not so long ago I saw this big bag of frozen “fresh oysters” at my oriental supermarket.

They looked surprisingly nice. Big and fat, all frozen seperately. I had almost forgotten about oyster omelette, so my first reaction was “yuk, who would want to eat frozen oysters instead of fresh, live oysters?” But then I remembered this chinese clay pot recipe that combined pork, tofu and panfried oysters. Or deepfried oysters in a panko-batter. Or indead, oyster omelette!!!

Browsing the internet I understand there are different versions. I can’t remember it with sauce, so my version has no sauce.

 

RECIPE

7 fresh or frozen oysters
1 teaspoon of cornstarch

Defrost the oysters by just rinsing them with water.
Drain them as well as you can. Cut into 2 or 3 pieces.
Then dust them with the cornstarch.

Whisk in a bowl:
2 eggs
2 T shaoxing rice wine
1 T light soysauce
2 T chopped fresh coriander
1 spring onion, chopped
salt & white pepper

Heat a small frying pan steaming hot, add
2 t oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Stirfry for about 10 seconds, then add the dusted oysters.
Quickly stirfry for about 20 seconds.
Add the egg-mixture.
Turn down the heat a bit. Add a lid to contain the warmth.
When the bottom is getting brown and the sides get a little bit loose from the pan, transfer to a hot oven to set the top. This way you don’t have to flip the omelet over.