Savory egg custard - Chawan mushi

Ingredients:

1 dried shiitake

60 g boneless skinless chicken breast

6 baby shrimp, pre-cooked

2 stalks mitsuba. May substitute with coriander or flat leaf parsley

6 ginnan, pre-cooked and peeled. May substitute with edamame.

(optional) 3 slices of pink-skinned kamaboko, ¼ cm in thickness)

(optional, as a decorative element) 3 fu balls. May substitute with 3 carrot slices cut into a flower shape.

2 tbsp. sake, divided

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

½ tsp. soy sauce

Custard mixture:

2 small eggs

1 ¼ cups dashi broth

1 tsp. sake

1 tsp. mirin

1 tsp. soy sauce

½ tsp. salt

Serves 3

Time: 40 mins.

Directions:

1. Soak shiitake in hot water and sugar until they become soft (about 15 minutes). Reserve about 1 tbsp. of the liquid and cut shiitake into ¼ cm slices. Cut the mitsuba into 3 cm pieces. Set aside.

2. Remove any sinew from the chicken breast and cut into 6-9 bite sized pieces. Sprinkle with ½ tsp. salt and 1 tbsp. sake. Drop into boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove and set aside.

3. Sprinkle shrimp with 1 tbsp. sake. Set aside.

4. Using a large pot, make a water bath to warm 3 chawan mushi cups (medium-sized tea cups or ramekins will also do). The water should reach about half-way on the outside of the cups. Bring the water to a boil, then remove the cups. Alternatively, use a steamer.

5. Add 2-3 pieces of chicken, and 2 shrimp to each cup. Add the mitsuba stems, 1 ginnan, and half the shiitake to each cup.

6. In a small bowl, break the eggs and beat gently without frothing. Add all the liquid ingredients for the custard. Mix thoroughly, and pour though a strainer twice to remove any lumps and the connective tissue in the egg white.

7. Pour the liquid into the cups. Place cups in the water bath and cover the pot. Boil for 1 minute over high heat, making sure no water gets into the cups. Reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes.

8. When the custard begins to set, add and arrange the fu, (carrot or kamaboko, if using), mitsuba leaves, and the remaining, ginnan, and shiitake on top of the chawan mushi. Cover again and let steam for another 10 minutes or until the custard has completely set. Insert a toothpick to check that it is ready. Turn off heat.

9. Note that some of the dashi may separate and appear at the surface of the chawan mushi. Cover the pot and let the cups rest for about 15 minutes, allowing the dashi to settle at the bottom of the cups.

How things went down…

I’m not going to lie to you. I did not get this down on my first try. Here’s what helped the second time around:

·         Pre-warming the cups helped the custard set faster.

·         Pouring the egg mixture through a fine mesh strainer ensured that my custard didn’t have white spots from the egg’s connective tissue.

·         Lowering the heat after the first minute kept the egg from getting hard and ensured that the surface didn’t bubble or crack.

·         To make the chawan mushi look cute, I dropped in the “prettier” ingredients when the custard was partially set so they would "float" on the surface.

The verdict

I got the thumbs up from So, and did a victory lap around the kitchen. (Actually, it was more of a victory pirouette, since my kitchen is that small.) The result was a velvety chawan mushi, that looked cute and had a wonderful, delicate flavor.  Subtlety and refinement, baby! Who knew?