Stir-fried crab omelette by Neil Perry

Dairy-free
30 mins
Serves 4

I've been making this omelette since it came on the menu at Sydney's Rockpool in 1989. Served with rice, it's a cracking meal. You can add whatever you like to the middle of it: seafood, barbecue pork or roast chicken. The key is that the oil must be super-hot, so the egg puffs up and forms a crust. If you make this once, I promise you, it'll become a regular.

5 eggs (approx 55g each)
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
200g spanner crab meat
100g beansprouts
50g snow pea sprouts
15 Chinese yellow chives, washed and halved
500ml (2 cups) peanut or vegetable oil
4 tbsp oyster sauce

Broth
150ml fresh chicken stock
3 tbsp palm sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1. To make the broth, combine all the ingredients except the sesame oil in a pot. Bring to the boil, pour in the oil and keep warm.
2. To make the omelette, beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl. Dissolve the palm sugar in the fish sauce in a small container. Add to the eggs and whisk well.
3. Place the crabmeat in a separate bowl, removing any cartilage and shell. Add the beansprouts, snow pea sprouts and chives, and mix well.
4. Place the peanut oil in a wok and heat until it's smoking hot. Pour in the egg mixture (it should puff up). Cook for 3 minutes, then place the crab mixture in the middle. Cook for a further 3 minutes and remove from heat.

5. Pour off the excess oil. Fold the omelette, and place it back on the heat for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and rest it near a heat source for a further 2 minutes.
6. Remove the omelette from the wok with a fish lifter (or an egg spatula) and place on a board. Trim off the ends and place in a large bowl. Pour over the hot broth and top with oyster sauce to serve.

Recipes extracted from Good Food New Classics, edited by Ardyn Bernoth, published by Simon & Schuster Australia, RRP $39.99.
Photography © William Meppem, Food stylist © Hannah Meppem