Minced Meat Omelet

When I was a child, we had a nanny who came in during the day to watch my sisters and I while our parents were at work. She was a Chinese lady who had married a Punjabi. I don’t remember much about her but I remember the way she looked. She’d always wear a Punjabi suit and her black hair is pulled back and braided into a long pigtail hanging down her back. I think she was the first Chinese I had ever seen to be dressed in clothes from another culture. Of course, the world is a village now and just recently one of the keyboardists in my church wore a Punjabi suit and she’s a white North American. 🙂

The other thing I remember about the nanny was that she cooked a delicious, and in my 8- or 9-year old mind, the best minced pork omelet ever. It was meaty and savoury and we would eat it as a sandwich, put between two slices of white bread and drizzled with ketchup. Her way of cooking it was to  mix the ground meat with the beaten eggs before pouring it into the pan. I remember my mum saying she was concerned that the meat may not be fully cooked that way. So in my recreation, I will first cook the meat before adding to the eggs.

Well, my memory of the omelet my nanny made did not include its actual taste so I couldn’t compare but my omelet passed the judges’ taste test with flying colours. I got “yum” and “yummy” and thumbs up signs!

Minced Meat Omelet

About half a pound ground chicken or pork
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Dash of ground white pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small shallot, chopped
4 eggs

1. Marinade the ground meat with the light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and pepper for 10 minutes to half an hour.

2. Heat some oil in a frying pan and sauté the garlic and shallot until fragrant. Add in the ground meat and fry till cooked, breaking up large clumps of meat as you cook. Dish up and set aside.

3. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat, adding a trickle of light soy sauce and a dash of pepper. Pour in the cooked meat and stir to mix.

4. In a non-stick pan, heat up some oil and tip in half the egg and meat mixture. Let the omelet cook over medium-low heat until it is almost set and you can smell the aroma of fried eggs before flipping over to finish cooking the other side.

5. Repeat with the remaining egg and meat mixture. Serve immediately with dipping sauce of your choice e.g. ketchup, chilli sauce, soy sauce.