Omurice with cute-face rice balls 오무라이스

I have been in Korea for a year and a half (yes, that long already!) and I had never even made an omurice ...until this week!  I'm pretty sure that Omurice originated in Japan, but either way it is still a super popular dish in Korea.  It is basically as it sounds - an omelet filled with fried rice.   Unfortunately for vegetarians however, it is often filled with ham as well as veggies (as things always are here!).  So, just like with the mandu last week, I decided to make my own and share the joy with you lovely people reading this. 


Traditionally, Omurice does not come with cute face rice balls (everybody say ahhhh).  It's just I found this really cool seaweed face stamper in a shop that same day and really wanted to use it!  

Usually ketchup is squirted on the top, but I don't like detest the horrible minging red stuff so I used bbq sauce instead.  To be honest, no sauce is just as good if your filing is yummy.

Ingredients (makes 2):

3 or 4 eggs

Splash of milk

Rice - I can never measure rice correctly so just do what you want!

Onion - I used spring onion and garlic chives, but regular onion is more traditional.

Carrot - chopped finely

Rice seasoning (if you want more flavour - consists of salt, pepper, seaweed pieces and dried veg)

Splash of soy sauce

A teaspoon (or less) of crushed garlic

Chili powder if you want a lil' kick

Butter.
If you eat meat, then either add chicken or ham for best results.

Chopped veg

Directions

• Dice the vegetables 
• Fry the vegetables with some butter until soft (not healthy, but tastes goood!).  Then add the already cooked rice and soy sauce / chili powder and stir fry.  Set aside.
• Mix 3 or 4 eggs together with a sprinkle of salt and pepper
• Add butter a pan and when it is really hot, add the egg.  Make a thin omelet.
• Pile the veg in the to center of the omelet and then fold up each side.   Ideally it should be folded in to a half-moon sort of shape like this.  
• Flip the omurice over on to your plate and squirt on a bit of sauce.  Hey Presto!

            

Stir-fry the rice and veg

Pile the rice in the middle of the omelet before folding

To make the rice balls, just squeeze some cooled down rice in to balls and add seaweed shapes to make a face.  You can buy special seaweed stamps for this purpose if your're not feeling very artistic!