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–+ servings

Tenshinhan (Japanese Crab Meat Omelette on Rice)

Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Soaking time25 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 portions

Ingredients 
 

Prep

Glaze

Tenshinhan (egg)

Instructions 

  • Soak 2 dried shiitake mushroom in 250 ml water, 45 to 60 minutes for whole caps or 20 to 30 for pre-sliced. No boiling water. Use this time to cook your rice, you will need 300 g cooked Japanese short-grain rice.
    Two dried shiitake mushrooms in a jug of water weighed down with a small glass bowl to rehydrate the mushrooms and make shiitake dashi
  • Lift the shiitake out, trim the stems, slice the rest thin, and pat dry. Strain the soaking liquid, you should have 200 ml shiitake dashi from earlier. If not, top up with a little water until you have the right amount.
    Sliced shiitake mushroom next to a bowl of shiitake dashi
  • Shred 50 g imitation crab, finely chop 3 tbsp Japanese leek (naganegi), and mix 2 tsp cold water with 2 tsp potato starch (katakuriko) together in a small bowl to make a slurry.
    shiitake dashi in a jug next to a slurry made with potato starch and cold water in a small glass bowl, and a silver prep plate with shredded imitation crab sticks, shredded shiitake mushrooms and finely diced Japanese leek (negi)
  • In a pot, boil the 200 ml shiitake dashi from earlier with 1 tsp Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder, 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), and ½ tbsp light brown sugar over medium heat. Simmer for 1 minute and taste, adjusting with a drop of soy sauce or pinch of salt.
    Making sauce for tenshinhan in a saucepan on the stove top
  • Off the heat, stir the slurry again and pour it in slowly while stirring. Return the heat to medium-low and gently bubble 1 minute. Do not stop when it first thickens. Once it clears to translucent and glossy, the starch has gelled so you can take it off the heat for now.
    Pouring slurry into tenshinhan sauce to make it thick and glossy
  • Beat 4 eggs with ⅛ tsp salt, 1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise, 1 pinch ground white pepper, and ½ tbsp sake, then fold in the leek, sliced shiitake, and crab.
    whisked eggs, imitation crack, chopped leek and shredded rehydrated shiitake mushrooms in a mixing bowl
  • Heat a nonstick pan on high with 2 tbsp cooking oil. When it shimmers, pour in the eggs and fold to the center 3 or 4 times with a spatula.
    frying crab omelette for tenshinhan
  • Drop to low for about 45 seconds, or until the edges set and only the center trembles. Turn off the heat, cover, and rest for 30 to 60 seconds.
    Reheat the sauce if needed. Off the heat, stir in ½ tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu), 1 tsp grated ginger root and 1 tbsp unsalted butter.
    frying crab omelette for tenshinhan in a frying pan on the stove top
  • Press the rice into a bowl and mound onto the plate. Slide the egg over it, whole or split across 2 plates.
    crab omelette over domed rice to make tenshinhan
  • Pour the sauce over the egg, drizzle with 1 tsp toasted sesame oil over the top, and scatter 1 tbsp green peas. Enjoy!
    tenshinhan made with plain rice, crab omelette and a glossy homemade sauce and topped with green peas.

Notes

Stir the butter in last, off the heat: Heat burns off aroma and acidity. Once the starch has gelled, add the rice vinegar, then ginger, then unsalted butter. The milk fat wraps the aromas so they lift gently and gives the most gloss.
Add the potato starch slurry off the heat: Pour it into boiling glaze and each grain gels into a skin, sealing water from the powder inside, the cause of lumps. Kill the heat, stir the settled powder up, pour the slurry in slowly, then reheat.
Hold the thickness a full minute: Stop the second it thickens and water seeps out as it cools, slackening the glaze. Hold it at a gentle bubble until translucent and glossy. Push far past that and the swollen starch breaks down and thins.