Thai Omelette (Kai Jeow)

Beat the 3 eggs with 1 teaspoon of fish sauce and 1 tablespoon of water until fully combined, so that the water creates steam on contact with the hot oil and drives the puff from within. The mixture should be uniform and slightly frothy. There is no cream, no butter.

Pour enough oil into the wok to come 1 cm up the side and set the wok over maximum heat — the depth of oil matters because the egg must be partially submerged as it hits, blistering and puffing rather than simply frying flat. Watch the surface: the first thin wisps of smoke signal the correct temperature, and a drop of beaten egg added at this point must puff and expand on contact immediately. Dense smoke means the oil has gone too far; a gentle sizzle means it has not gone far enough. This is where the dish lives or dies — kai jeow cooked in insufficiently hot oil spreads flat, cooks through gently, and never puffs.

Pour the entire egg mixture into the centre of the hot oil in a single, uninterrupted pour — not gradually — so that all the egg meets the same fierce heat at once and puffs as a single mass rather than in ragged, uneven patches. The egg strikes the oil and an explosive, violent sizzle erupts immediately, and the egg puffs and expands within seconds. If the sound is gentle rather than sudden and loud, the oil was not hot enough.

Within 15 seconds the edges will be golden, lacy, and beginning to crisp; at this point either tilt the wok and fold the omelette onto itself — it folds messily, not neatly — or leave it flat and turn it once, cooking the second side briefly so it colours without losing the tender interior behind the crust. The surface should be bubbly and uneven, not smooth.

Remove immediately to a plate, as the residual heat of the wok will continue to firm the interior and strip away the slight tenderness that makes the omelette worth eating. The exterior must be golden-brown with darker, lacy edges; the interior yields under gentle pressure. Serve on rice.