Cookbook Countdown #5 : Ground Pork Omelette

Cookbook Countdown is a monthly cooking/baking event, which I'm co-hosting with Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray.  Everyone is welcome to join us. How does it work? To summarize, you may select a cookbook from your own cookbook collection, to cook or bake from each month. That selected book shall be your cookbook of the month. You may cook any recipes and as many recipes as you want from your selected book of the month. This is a fabulous way of using your cookbooks at least once! For more information on how to join Cookbook Countdown, please click here. 

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My selected cookbook for this month, 

Wild, Wild, East : Recipes and Stories from Vietnam by Bobby Chinn

Cookbook Countdown #5 : Recipe No. 1 - Ground Pork Omelette

Omelet is one of the favourite dish to serve at dinner time. We love omelet, a great dish to eat with rice along with other dishes. A simple and easy dish to prepare. This omelet has ground pork and cilantro, and it is very delicious. The ground pork is mixed into the egg mixture, make sure to break them up evenly, and then cooked over low heat until golden brown on both side and the ground pork is cooked through. According to the recipe, there's no seasoning in the egg mixture, but after the omelet is done cooking, it is served with fish sauce. I have however, prefer my omelet to be seasoned well. So I have added half the amount of fish sauce into the egg mixture before cooking. Go easy on the fish sauce as it is very salty. Test on the seasoning, by frying about 1 tablespoon of the egg mixture, adding more fish sauce to taste if necessary, before cooking the rest of the egg mixture. I have used much, much more, of the chopped scallions, about 1 very full cup!

A delicious omelet dish. The omelet is very tasty, so I have omitted the extra fish sauce during serving.  

Ground Pork Omelet (Trung Duc Thit)
(adapted from "Wild, Wild East by Bobby Chinn)
Serves 4
9oz (250gm) ground pork
4 scallions, chopped
6 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
dash of ground white pepper (my addition)
bunch of cilantro, to serve
1/2 tsp chopped chile, to serve
2 tbsp fish sauce, to serve

In a large bowl, mix the pork, scallions, and eggs well (with 1 tbsp fish sauce), breaking up the pork into smaller pieces; a fork is quite useful for this task, or chopsticks are traditionally used, whichever tickles your fancy.

Place a saute pan over medium heat and coat it well with oil. Slowly pour in the egg mixture. Move the mixture around by tipping the pan, ensuring that it cooks equally. Turn the heat down to low, cover the pan, and cook for about 5 minutes more. The eggs should be cooked, but check by putting the fork into the mixture; if it is still soft and undercooked, remove the cover and cook for another 2 minutes.

Using a spatula, free the eggs from the bottom and sides of the pan. It is key to make sure that nothing is sticking, so that it will be easy for you to flip it over onto the other side. If the eggs stick, just pour a little more oil into the pan to help it cook a little more, making it easier for you. If you do not have enough confidence to flip it over, simply place a plate above the pan and turn both pan and the plate over together, and then slide the eggs on the plate back into the pan, to cook the top side of the omelet. Continue to cook until both sides are golden brown and the sides are firm.

To plate, simply slide it out of the pan, and cut across in 5 slices and then again at right angles to the first cuts. Serve scattered with the cilantro and chile, and sprinkled with the fish sauce.

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by 

Kitchen Flavours and Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray

Cookbook Countdown has a new website :

We are happy to inform everyone that Cookbook Countdown has it's very own website blog, which you can find here. Effective from May 2016, please link your posts at the Cookbook Countdown new website, in the linky provided. We hope to see you there! Thank you!