Oyster Scallion Omelet
A tasty, ridiculously simple riff.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of biting into the tender eggy mess of a Taiwanese oyster omelet (蚵仔煎 ô-á-chian) or a Korean seafood pancake (guljeon" (굴전) you will understand the cravings that inspired this recipe.
If you haven’t indulged in either of those dishes, I highly recommend seeking them out, and in the meantime, making this 5 minute dish.
Last weekend we had friends over for a steak-house style dinner, and our friend Shore Gregory, co-owner of Row 34 brought over way too many oysters… which I realize is the epitome of a champagne problem.
The last time I shucked and ate this many oysters, was on my last day as a server at the now shuttered Legal Seafoods in Harvard Square. As a parting gift, one of the food runners gifted me two dozen blue points, and I remember plopping down on my couch with a beer and a shucking knife, and annihilating a totally inappropriate amount of raw seafood in celebration of landing enough personal chef clients to quit waiting tables.
If you can forgive me for whining about too many oysters (I wouldn’t!) believe me when I say it was important to me to do the leftovers justice. So the day after the party — after shucking half a dozen in my pjs and slurping them down with a little squeeze of lemon — I attempted to make oyster omelets with the rest.
Most of the recipes I found for contain potato starch, which I managed to find at Whole Foods, but when I made the dish, the starch got quite gloppy. I probably should have watched a Youtube video to improve my technique, but I was hungry! I also tried to add chopped kimchi to the recipe, and tried topping the finished dish with sriracha mayo, but I found both additions over-powered the delicate oysters. In the end, I kept things very restrained, and served a little cabbage kimchi on the side.
And that ^ is the closest you’ll ever see me get to a Chris Kimball style recipe testing breakdown.
So the recipe below is truly the simplest of recipes: Beaten egg, a whisper a fish sauce, half a dozen oysters, and sliced scallion. Once the egg mixture was set up on the bottom, I placed it ever so briefly under the broiler until just cooked through — because no one needs to feel like a failure trying to flip a shellfish-packed omelet!
The results were decidedly in-authentic, but still quite good. The keys are:
Don’t over cook it!
A sweet tangy sauce like the Japanese/Korean BBQ sauces from Bachan’s or Momofuku are a perfect topper. Both are widely available at grocery and Target stores.
Make sure your pan is well-oiled so the omelet pops right out when it’s time to serve.
Wishing you an abundance of bivalves, and quick flavorful meals this week!
RECIPE
Oyster Scallion Omelet
Serves 2
Equipment:
Cutting board on a wet paper towel + garbage bowl
Chef’s knife
1 medium mixing bowl
Fork or small whisk
Small to medium cast iron or other non-stick oven safe pan
Heatproof spatula
Ingredients:
3 eggs
6 shucked raw oysters in their juice
½ teaspoon fish sauce
2 scallions
1 tablespoon neutral oil like avocado, grapeseed, or canola
Korean BBQ sauce to serve, (Momofuku or Bachan’s are delicious and widely available and Target and many grocery stores)
Kimchi to serve, optional.
Heat the broiler to high with an oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler. Thinly slice the 2 scallions.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oysters, fish sauce and half of the chopped scallions.
Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until oil starts to shimmer. Add the egg/oyster mixture and let it cook until the bottom starts to set about 1 ½ minutes
Transfer to the oven and broil for 1-2 minutes until the top is just set. Transfer omelet to a plate and top with the remaining scallions and Korean BBQ sauce. Serve with kimchi if you like
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This image of you shucking oysters on the couch with a beer is just so canonically New England!!
Love this!