Cheese Tamagoyaki on Toast

There's nothing like starting the weekend with a hot, savoury breakfast and coffee. On Saturday, for a slight variation, I added a slice of cheddar cheese to the egg as I rolled it up. Although the egg wasn't a true Japanese tamagoyaki, (as it was just beaten egg with a little salt), I cooked and rolled it up as I would a tamagoyaki. I served it on top of half a piece of toast (we had to share the one slice of bread left in the house!) and some honey roasted turkey breast on the side. With a cup of  hot, black coffee, of course!




(Light) Scrambled Eggs

The traditional method of scrambling eggs involves adding milk or cream to the eggs. However, my mother always used to make scrambled eggs without milk or cream. To me, it tastes better this way, and it is a lot more healthy than the cream version. Naturally, the freshness of the eggs you use is important here.

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(Light) Scrambled Eggs

1 or more eggs (the freshest you can find. Organic is good)
dash sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
light olive oil (or butter, if you want)

1. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. 
   
2. Add 1/2 tsp of water per egg used. This prevents your egg mixture from becoming too thick, and also stops the eggs from weeping moisture as it cooks.
   
3. Add a dash of sea salt and black pepper. 
   
4. Beat eggs lightly with a fork or small whisk until yolks and whites are combined.
   
5. In a small frying pan or small saucepan, heat up a small amount of olive oil on medium-low heat. If you want to give yourself a bit of a treat, use some butter instead.
   
6. Add the beaten egg.
   
7. Allow the bottom to cook slightly, then gently lift and fold the egg mixture with a spatula until the eggs are cooked. 
   
8. Serve on toast, on their own, or with sausages, bacon, etc.
   

Tips:

Give the scrambled eggs a boost of flavour (and a more gooey texture) by adding 1Tbsp of (lowfat) shredded cheddar cheese per egg. Mix the cheese into the beaten egg before cooking.

Use a small frying pan or even saucepan. If you cook one scrambled egg in a large frying pan, the egg mixture will spread out and cook too quickly, causing your scrambled egg to become dry.

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Ode to Hokkaido Weekend

Every now and again, one of the supermarkets in Hong Kong called City Super, will promote a certain country/place, and will bring in extra goods from that place to sell. Often, there will also be stalls set up within the supermarket selling cooked food from the country being promoted. Last Friday, I went there and discovered they had started a Hokkaido Promotion! As Hokkaido is one of my favourite destinations in Japan, guess who went a little mad?

Hokkaido is famous for their fresh dairy produce, potatoes, seafood and ramen, so with very little prompting necessary, I proceeded to buy up a lot of the items in the promotion area. I ended up with sausages, cheese, dried seafood snacks, fresh ramen (in a packet) and freshly fried potato korroke.

The result of all this shopping madness was an Ode to Hokkaido Weekend! The first meal was our Hokkaido Breakfast on Sat morning -

Hokkaido Breakfast

We had 2 pan-fried Hokkaido onion-flavoured pork sausages, scrambled eggs (Japanese eggs), 2 slices of Hokkaido milk bread (bread made with milk from Hokkaido), a chunk of Hokkaido apple-cider washed cheese, 3 cherry tomatoes from Hokkaido (they were a bit too ripe), and a cream corn potato korroke. We washed everything down with Ringoworks apple juice from Japan (Aomori region, not Hokkaido) and coffee (not pictured) and we also dipped the bread in some Japanese honey (also not pictured).

It reminded me of the western-style breakfast we ate when in Hokkaido... pretty decadent, though!

Next meal - Sapporo Ramen!


Sapporo Ramen Lunch

To continue the Ode to Hokkaido weekend, we had ramen for lunch on Sunday. Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido, is famous for ramen, although you can really find ramen all over Hokkaido, and each region often sells their own particular style (miso-based, soya sayce based, etc.) The packet of ramen I bought was not like an instant noodle packet - instead, the noodles are fresh, not dried, and there is an expiry date on the packet! The sachets of flavouring for the soup weren't dried powder, but pouches of a moist, thick red miso. When I poured out the miso, the fat in it had congealed and separated, so I scooped the fat away. It didn't make a difference to the flavour, it just made me feel better about it (as really, there was still a lot of oil left). I topped the ramen with grilled pork, bamboo shoots and corn.

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Bacon & Egg Muffin

If you like the breakfast muffins at McDonalds, but question their fat and nutrient content, it's really easy to make your own at home. I don't actually mean to make the muffins yourself (that falls under too much work) but if you can buy some nice English muffins, you're all set. It is really simple to do, and the homemade version does taste better.

Bacon & Egg Muffin

English Muffins

Eggs (1 per muffin)
Back Bacon (1-2 slices per muffin, depending on the size of the bacon)
Cheese (1 slice per muffin)
Butter for the muffins (optional)

1. Trim any fat off the back bacon, and fry it (without or with very little oil) in a frying pan. Set aside.
   
2. Fry one egg per muffin.
   
3. Split each muffin into two and toast it lightly in a toaster.
   
4. Make up the muffin by buttering it (optional), and placing the egg, bacon, and cheese inside the two muffin halves. Season with some freshly ground black pepper and salt.
   

Tips: 

Melt the cheese by placing a slice on top of the fried egg just before the egg has finished cooking.

For added taste, you can also spread a little bit of mayonnaise on the muffin.

For the sausage and egg version, substitute the bacon for sausage. Fry a good quality sausage and slice it up diagonally.