A simple meal full of nostalgia and bittersweet memories.
And seaweed, which I’m always trying to make people eat! It’s so sustainable. And it can be used in so many ways. You can buy a bag of dried seaweed and it lasts forever, because you need the tiniest amount to add flavour.
My dad was rarely responsible for cooking dinner. The only time he did so was when my mother was feeling poorly. During these occasions, he always made salmon scrambled eggs. So scrambled eggs tangled with the salty, rich, blushed flesh of canned salmon, served with white rice. It was not the most gourmet dinner we ate as kids, but it is a memory we cling to. During the 1980s, canned salmon, especially the red variety that my mother occasionally splurged on, felt like a treat, so a salmon egg scramble was, in many ways, an indulgent meal. This seaweed scramble is my vegetarian take on my dad’s signature meal – the seaweed imparts the scent of the sea and a lovely umami flavour.
SERVES 4 (Gluten free)
8 large eggs
2 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari
sea salt and white pepper
5 g (about 1 heaped tablespoon)
dried wakame, soaked in water for
20–30 minutes
extra-virgin olive oil
1 green onion (shallot), finely chopped
roasted sesame oil, to serve
1 tablespoon toasted white or
black sesame seeds
white rice, to serve
Subsitute • wakame: hijiki
Vegetable swap • wakame: rehydrated porcini or shiitake mushrooms
In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined. Add the soy sauce or tamari, season with about 1 teaspoon of sea salt and a few pinches of white pepper and whisk well.
Drain the wakame and squeeze out the excess water. If your wakame is in large chunks, roughly chop. If they are smaller pieces, leave them as is.
Heat a large frying pan over medium–high heat. When hot, drizzle with olive oil, add the wakame and stir for 1–2 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the wakame starts to char slightly. Pour the egg into the pan, allow to set for 10 seconds, then use a rubber spatula to push the egg around the edge of the pan in a circular fashion, tilting the pan to let the runny egg in the middle run out to the edge. Repeat until the egg is just set with a slightly wet centre – this should only take 20–30 seconds. Remove from the heat immediately and transfer to bowls.
Top the scramble with the green onion, a drizzle of sesame oil and the sesame seeds, and serve with white rice.
This recipe is from Hetty Lui McKinnon’s new book, Tenderheart, available now from your favourite independent booksellet. Published by Pan Macmillan.
It originally appeared in Issue 71 of Dumbo Feather, exploring Beyond Ego, alongside Kirsty de Garis’ conversation with Hetty. Purchase a copy of Dumbo Feather to read the story or listen to The Good Society #4: Hetty McKinnon on the Dumbo Feather podcast.
