Chawanmushi: Steamed Egg Custard
Chawanmushi is a Japanese egg custard dish traditionally steamed in a tea bowl. Surprisingly, it is not a dessert: since it contains savory rather than sweet ingredients, this umami-packed specialty is usually eaten hot or cold as a dish in a meal.
Preperation time: 25 minutes
Advanced
Japan
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 600ml water
- 10g dashi powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sake
- 1 tsp mirin
Toppings:
- 4 peeled shrimps
- 4 slices of carrots
- 8 edamame beans
- 8 ginkgo nuts
- 8 slices of dried shiitake mushrooms
Kitchen tools:
- Cookie cutters
- Large steamer
- Bring 600ml of water to a boil and add the dashi. Stir well until the dashi has dissolved. Let it cool down.
- Defrost the shrimps and dry them with a kitchen towel. Slice the carrot and use cookie cutters to shape it. Soak the sliced shiitake mushrooms in warm water, then cook them for 15 minutes. Add the carrots and the shrimps in the last 3 minutes, and blanch them briefly on low heat.
- Crack the eggs in a measuring cup, check the quantity and multiply it by 3. Beat the eggs and add the dashi broth, sake, and mirin*. Mix well.
- * For example: 200 ml eggs x 3 = 600 ml. Add 400 ml in total, consisting of dashi broth, sake and mirin.
- Sift the mixture through a fine sieve. Divide the egg mixture over 4 same-sized bowls and remove the air bubbles. Put the bowls in a big steam pan and cover the bowls with foil. Steam the eggs for about 8 minutes. Then take the bowls out and put the toppings on the eggs. Then steam them for another 5 minutes.