Taiwanese Preserved Turnip Omelet
The first time I tasted this was at lunch at a rice farm: the farmer, in addition to his experimental rice farm, also runs a country restaurant. I’ll post the details, pictures, address, etc separately.After that, the omelet appeared fairly often, all similar, delicious, and slightly different as well.
Everything we ate at that lunch (and for the entire week following) was beautifully prepared, but this omelet….this omelet i fell in love with:so simple: so western, like a fritatta, yet filled with nuggets of utterly Asian diced preserved turnip, tossed in garlicky oil. A combination of all of my favourite Eastern and Western tastes: oily, salty, crunchy, soft, crisp.
Preserved turnip is available in Chinese and other Asian groceries: its salted dried daikon, sort of chewy, soft-hard pliable, and very salty.
I soaked it a little bit here to get rid of too much salt, but i use them in other things without soaking, such as meatballs, or dumpling fillings. it smells a bit funky so might take you awhile to get used to it–i found that once i did, i felt a near addiction to it–having it on hand is a necessity in my kitchen!
The omelet has a lovely hit of garlic so i guess falling in love with it was inevitable. its one of those things you can make without thinking, and since i’ve been moving around in a world hazy with jetlag, i’ve been whipping this up pretty regularly. it brings the taste of taipei right into my home, kitchen, plate.
piece of dried turnip being put into water to soak
dried turnips, in their package
Preserved Turnip Omelet
Serves about 6 as part of several dish meal; or two as the main plate.
1-2 ounces (50-60 grams) preserved turnip
about 1 tablespoon oil, more if you like
4 eggs, beaten
5-6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
about 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander) or thinly sliced green onion
1. Rinse the preserved turnip for a few moments, or place in a bowl and cover with cold water for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from water, wipe well with a paper towel. When dry, chop coarsely and set aside.
2. in a small to medium sized frying pan (depending on how wide or thick you want your omelet) heat about half the oil and stir fry over medium low heat the chopped turnip and the garlic; don’t brown, just enhance their aromas!
3. Remove the mixture and add it to the beaten egg; mix well.
4. pour remaining oil into pan, heat a few moments, the pour the eggs and turnip into the pan, spreading it out, tipping the pan, etc to form a flat fritatta-like omelet. Cook over medium low heat until the eggs seem set and the egg is golden underneath, then flip by placing a plate on top of the pan, flipping, then sliding the omelet back into the pan.
5. Continue cooking a few moments, raising heat if needed, until the bottom layer is golden browned, only a moment or two.
6. Serve on plate, cut into wedges and sprinkled with either cilantro (coriander leaves) or chopped green onions.
With over 70 cookbook titles (including contributions) to her credit, Marlena conjures up flavours and dishes from the Mediterranean to Mexico, California to France to the Italian islands and single subjects such as chili peppers, olive oil, mushrooms, to a book on classic Jewish food from all over the world.
Judy, the turnips are dry but not brittle, looking something like a paler colour of dried mango, but bigger, pliable, but firm. i’m going to post some pics of them before soaking!
marlena– what do the daikon look like dried?