Mentaiko Soft Scrambled Eggs (Japanese Spicy Pollock/Cod Roe)

Often you'll find mentaiko being used in noodles, rice balls, or even as a spread on bread. Some also serve it straight, kind of like a salty side dish accompanying rice or even just with a few drinks (don't drink and drive).

Last time I used some mentaiko in a rice ball recipe and was left with one unused roe. So why not utilize that as a salty seasoning for scrambled eggs? Sounds like an easy yet delicious idea, and here's the result.

Mentaiko soft scrambled eggs - 

Ingredients?

• 6 eggs
• 1 medium small mentaiko fish roe
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon drinkable water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

How?

Destem and chop the scallion, separate the white and the green sections. Remove the mentaiko from the membrane, some call it the sac. I simply doing so by cutting a small opening on the end then squeeze out the roe inside.

Break six eggs to a bowl. Also add in 1 teaspoon of drinkable water along with 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. You can use either the western style mayonnaise or the Japanese kewpie mayonnaise. 

Beat till the eggs have been mixed evenly. Don't worry about blobs of mayonnaise floating on top. As long as the mayonnaise has been breaking into smaller chunks then it won't be an issue later on.

Drizzle 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to a non-stick pan and switch to medium heat. It's easier to cook soft scrambled eggs with a non-stick pan. However, if you're using stainless pan, just remember to bring up the heat first before adding oil.

Add in chopped scallion whites and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Stir-fry till aromatic but not over-browning the scallion.

Pour in the egg mixture. Cook it like you are making a French style soft scrambled eggs, but it doesn't have to be super velvety. Just aiming for semi-soft texture instead of fully-cooked eggs in the end.

Also try to keep the eggs in bigger chunks. Do not over stir-fry the eggs, otherwise you might end up with tiny bits of cooked eggs in the end.

Once the egg mixture starts to set a little, mix in the mentaiko. Gently flip around the ingredients till about evenly blended together.

Quickly plate the eggs and garnish with some chopped scallion greens. The actual cooking time for this egg recipe happens really quickly, especially eggs get cooked and hardened very fast. A few minutes the most I would say.

Note that I only added small pinch of salt here, since mentaiko can be quite salty already. It's totally up to you though, if a lighter taste is preferred, omitting the use of extra salt should work fine also.

By the way, I served this scrambled eggs as one of the side dishes to eat along with some rice. However, I suppose adding that with soft white toast could be a great option too. Perhaps also slice some avocado on top to make it an even better fit with the bread.

Extended reading:

• Mentaiko scallion and sesame seeds onigiri