It's a wrap!

Dashimaki tamago translates roughly ‘broth-rolled egg’, which doesn’t make much sense, but then neither does the dish really. Not only is it one of those items that manages to be sweet and savoury at the same time, but it seems unnecessarily fiddly to make. It involves a special rectangular pan (a makiyaki nabe), which is rendered redundant and sits at the bottom of the pots and pans drawer until one feels the need to roll up some eggs again, begging the question: why not just make an omelette? Indeed the dish is usually translated something like ‘Japanese rolled omelette’ but this does not do it justice.

When I was young I couldn't stand eggs, and when I came round to them at university, I handled them with the help of an electronic omelette maker (whip, pour, plug into wall, wait). This time round, I had to be attentive throughout the process: first pour a third of the sugar-broth-egg mixture into the pan (bought specially – and hurriedly - 15 minutes earlier), watch for nascent bubbles and puncture them pronto, then roll the whole flat layer up (with chopsticks) once solid enough and before it burns. This is shoved to one end of the pan and the process is repeated twice, each time making sure the mixture reaches under and binds to the growing roll. The first time two times I browned the underside a little too much, and as a result didn’t let the last layer set enough, so it clung on reluctantly when wrapped around, leaving eggy bald patches.

Actually, part of the reason for the browning was another accident: in adding my dashi, I forgot to dilute it to the appropriate concentration. While dashimaki is usually a nice soft pastel yellow, mine was verging on a darker French toast sort of colour all over. However both my husband and my guest thought it was tasty, as I did, whilst remarking on the slightly unusual colour. The daikon oroshi (grated daikon) accompaniment helped I’m sure to flatten out any potentially overpowering flavours.

The dashimaki accompanied:

• Yamato imo (using it up from last week) and pork salad with sesame dressing (a trusty Nintendo DS recipe and very good)
• Miso Soup with burdock root and carrot
• Komatsuna Age (One of the few Japanese dishes we have regularly at home – a leafy vegetable cooked with fried tofu in a soy/sake/mirin sauce)
• Genmai (Brown rice)

And for pudding were strawberries with condensed milk from a tube, a ‘traditional’ Japanese strawberry condiment. This was all washed down with Moet, generously brought by my guest, friend and editor C. Originally sake was on the menu, but when the champagne arrived there was no contest. I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, only mildly spoilt by all the washing-up after (Japanese cooking involves so much crockery).

So why not just make an omelette in a big round pan? For one thing it wouldn’t fit so neatly into bento boxes, and besides, as an anthropologist I suppose I should know the significance of wrapping in Japan, even of an egg.