Chawanmushi

Ingredients

• Eggs3
• Dashi480 ml
• Light soy sauce2 tsp
• Mirin1 tsp
• Prawns8
• Chicken breast100 g
• Shiitake mushrooms4
• Kamaboko fish cake4 slice
• Mitsuba or coriander10 g
• Salt1 pinch

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Beat the eggs with chopsticks without raising foam; the movement should cut rather than whip.

   5 min

2. 2

   Add the cooled dashi, soy, mirin and salt and stir without whisking.

   4 min

3. 3

   Strain the mixture twice through a fine sieve; that is the only route to smoothness.

   6 min

4. 4

   Divide the prawn, a piece of chicken, a mushroom and a slice of kamaboko between the cups.

   6 min

5. 5

   Pour in the custard, lift any bubbles off the surface with a spoon and cover with foil.

   5 min

6. 6

   Steam gently for fifteen minutes with the steamer lid propped open a centimetre.

   17 min

7. 7

   Test with a skewer: the liquid that rises should run clear. Scatter with herbs and serve hot.

   5 min

About the dish

The ratio is strict: one part egg to three parts dashi. More egg and it becomes an omelette; less and the custard never sets.

The mixture must be strained. Otherwise the chalazae — the white cords at the yolk — stay in the custard as knots and it never turns smooth.

The steam is kept gentle and the cups sit slightly ajar. Fierce steam froths the egg and the surface pits instead of setting like a mirror.

Worth knowing

• — The dashi must be cold or barely warm. Hot dashi scrambles the egg in the bowl and the custard sets in flakes.
• — The steam should barely rise. At a rolling boil the custard swells and collapses with holes — the commonest fault.
• — Chawanmushi is served hot and chilled alike. In summer the cold version counts as a serving in its own right rather than a shortcut.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

180 kcal

Protein

18 g

Fat

8 g

Carbs

5 g

More from Japan

• Miso soup — A soup of dashi and miso that takes ten minutes. Miso must never boil: boiling takes out both the aroma and the point of it.
• Katsudon — A breaded pork cutlet finished in sweet-salt broth with egg and slid onto rice.
• Shoyu ramen — Broth, tare and oil — three separate things assembled in the bowl rather than cooked together.