Chinese cooking is not difficult at all. What you see in the restaurant is not what we eat at home. Basically Chinese people stir fry everything.
This is what I do when I have a small bunch of basil leftover and can't make it into a proper recipe. This is also a stable dish at any traditional night market or street stand.
Ingredients:
- Basil (any amount)
- Eggs, scrambled (any amount)
- Ginger, sliced thinly (any amount)
- Sake (I don't know if alcohol is required in the traditional recipe, and I'm too lazy to look it up, and I have sake on hand. So sake it is.)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Sesame oil*
Steps:
- Tear basil into tiny pieces, or do the fancy chiffonade.
- Mix the basil with the scrambled eggs. Just scramble enough eggs that you think it's a proper amount to cover over the basil. It doesn't matter because this is home cooking.
- Sake, salt, and pepper into the egg/basil mixture, to taste. How do I know if it's salty enough before the egg is cooked? I don't know, because I usually throw in a 1/4 teaspoon and don't taste it. This is home cooking; it doesn't matter.
- Thinly slice ginger. Peel or not, you decide. My family doesn't peel ginger because we're a lazy bunch. Also today I didn't have fresh ginger on hand so I used ground ginger powder. It doesn't matter, because ginger here is not for eating; it's for fragrance and to give the oil a kick.
- Pour sesame oil into a pan and put the ginger slices in. Wait until the ginger is sizzling*. You will smell the amazing ginger cooked in sesame oil. It is one of the most delicious smells in the world.
- Pour the egg/basil mixture into the pan. Cook to the desired doneness and the desired omelette style and shape.
- Serve.
*Disclaimer: Chinese cooking actually requires a specific kind of sesame oil. It is specially made for high-heat cooking. Most of the sesame oil sold in the supermarkets are not the high-heat type. So watch out for the pan and don't overheat the sesame oil.
Home cooking, so the picture is ugly.
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| Basil Omelette |