Singapore Oyster Omelette

Oyster Omelette (with a little Baby Bok Choy)

After visiting Singapore I was tasked with learning how to make Oyster Omelette as good as the hawker stands (we had it at Chomp Chomp).

I found a recipe link @ HighOverHappy Blog and started to collect ingredients.

Original recipe was:
Oyster Omelet Recipe

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch
• 2 tablespoons rice flour
• ¾ cup water
• 4 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 8 fresh oysters
• 2 sprigs of cilantro (or spring onion)

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in the griddle or a flat frying pan to high heat. Mix the flours with water. Pour flour mixture into the pan. Cook for about 30 seconds to let some crust form on the underside.
2. Break four eggs over the flour mixture. Spread the eggs without breaking the flour ‘pancake’ underneath. Using the edge of a spatula, divide the mixture into 3 or four pieces, and turnover each piece separately. Cook until the egg is slightly crispy – about 30 seconds.
3. Make space in the center of cooking surface by pushing aside the omelet. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil, then the garlic. Add the oysters. Cook for about 20 seconds. Pour the fish sauce. Then break-up the omelet and mix with the oysters. Serve immediately with cilantro/spring onion and sambal (chili sauce).

Of course I’ve never been very good at following directions so this is what I did differently.

• Use a 13″ cast iron pan (later tried a 9″ pan and it didn’t work nearly as well), preheat until hot.
• I only used about 2 tablespoons of oil on the pan, it still looks like alot but works well.
• When in singapore I kept getting told it was sweet potato flour instead of tapioca, I’ve tried both and can’t really taste the difference so use whatever you have.
• The first few times I made it with dungenous crab meat instead of oysters, just because I had some (and didn’t have any oysters), it’s different but still good.
• The oysters I can find around here are about 5x the size of the oysters in singapore (they have small ones like a can of smoked oysters, the fresh oysters in jars marked petite are huge, I just put about half a jar (5 or so) and then after they cook a bit I chop them into smaller pieces
• It took a lot longer than 30 seconds for me to get the batter to be slightly crispy (maybe 2 minutes), maybe I need a more powerful burner.
• We used scallions instead of cilantro, tasted great.
• We used sweet chilli sauce plus a little sarachi for the sauce.

Crab version

Crab Omelette

Now the only problem is that my wife wants me to cook it every night…