Chawanmushi- Steamed Egg in Teacups

Steamed Egg that is silky and smooth with a hint of umami flavor served in chawanmushi cups.

I came back from visitng my folks in Taiwan a few months ago with these chawanmushi cups securely wrapped in my carry-on. I was bringing back to France a piece of my childhood. These cups are just about as old as I am and that’s counting at least a few decades old.

Chawanmushi iliterally translated from Japanese is comprised of two words: teacup and steam. These cups are specifically used for this Japanese delicacy. It holds a celestial silky, steamed dashi egg mixutre that is just a palate pleaser for those who like a hint of umami in their lives.

I grew up with these ceramic cups.

My mum’s daily cooking duties were relinquished once retirement arrived but her cooking activies had already been reduced once my sister and I moved away from home. Those empty stomachs she once fed are now living abroad and salivating in retrospect of her cooking. I’m happy to see retirement suits her well and she’s happy to pass on remnants of her ceramics collection to anyone who will use them.

These are days of confinement as France goes into its eleventh day of lockdown. I am back to making meals 2-3 times a day and find myself bouncing between concocting a quick fix from the fridge or really taking my time to make something with meaning. So this is one of those meaningful recipes, to me at least.

Steamed Egg that is silky and smooth with a hint of umami flavor.

Mum used to make chawanmushi for breakfast, sometimes a much simpler version without all the optional fillings I listed in the recipe. When I reflect back to my childhood I think about all the love that went into those meals, the fragrant aroma of what’s cooking, and the morning hours she had to rise to in order to get those power meals on the table for us to start our day right, I find myself doing the same now but on a subpar level. Meals were not just deliciously served but aesthetically presented.

I don’t own all the pretty dishes like we had when growing up, especially dishware meant specifically to serve or to cook just one thing. If this seems like a frivolous purchase to you buying a set of chawanmushi cups for something you’ll make or try to make once a year you can certainly use ramekins or any heatproof tea cups you have in the house.

Owning these cups gave me the incentive to make this appetizing side dish and it brought me gratification to see my kids and husband tasting it out of the same chawanmushi cups I ate out of while growing up with my parents.

Chawanmushi

INGREDIENTS//Yields 4 servings

• 3 eggs
• 300 ml dashi
• 1 teasppon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION

Rehydrate the shitake mushrooms if you are using dried ones.
Soak the konbu for the dashi stock. Pre-cook, steam or blanch certain vegetable fillings that take longer to cook such as carrots, edamame beans, gingko nuts.

Fillings

• 80 grams of seafood, or poultry, cut up in small pieces (scallops and salmon work well)
• 20 edamame beans or peas
• 2 shitake mushrooms
• 2 tablespoon corn kernels
• Sliced carrots, gingko beans, and naruto (fishcakes) are used as tradtional garnishes.

INSTRUCTIONS

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk it by hand. Then whisk in the dashi stock, soy sauce and mirin.

Be careful not to overbeat it.

Take a sieve and strain the mixture into a bowl or large measuring cup.

Divide your choice of fillings and place them into the bottom of the teacup.

Pour the mixture into the 4 cups equally.

Cover each cup with aluminum foil.

If you don’t have a steamer, in a large pot (enough to hold and cover your teacups) place the bottom of a bamboo steamer or a metal steamer rack inside and add an inch and a half of water. Bring it to a boil on high heat.

Then carefully place your heatproof cups into the pot and steam for 8-10 minutes.

At this point carefully take out the cups (be careful, it’s hot! I wear kitchen mittens), uncover them, and add your garnishes so that they float at the top ( I added more corn kernals and mushroom slices in the photos shown) .

Recover the cups with the aluminum, reduce the heat, put the cups back into the steamer and continue to steam for another 15 minutes (approximately 25 minnutes altogether).

Take your cooked chawanmushi out of the steamer carefully and cover with the individual lids to set or just keep the aluminum on for another couple of minutes.

If you have the chawanmuwhi cups serve it with the lid so that the individual can uncover their heavenly surprise.

NOTE

If using edamame, peas, and carrots as choices for your vegetable filling I like to pre-steam them beforehand halfway into fully cooking through. Then, take them out and put it on the side until you add them into the recipe.

You can use ramakins if you don’t have teacups.

Katsuobushi Dashi

Ingredients for katsuobushi dashi stock.

This is a follow up on my vegetarian dashi recipe as most of the time dashi stock in Japanese cuisine is a blend of katsuobushi and kombu.  As mentioned in my previous post, you can have a variation between dried kelp (kombu), dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi), dried shiitake mushrooms and small dried fish for dashi. 

Katsuobushi is a Japanese dried, fermented, smoked skipjack tuna.  Back in the day, a block of katsuoboshi would be kept at hand and when needed; they would simply shave off what was needed on a wood plane.  If you are a die-hard traditionalist you can still purchase blocks of this tuna and make shavings for yourself at home.  Not only is it used for stock, it can be added to enhance flavors as a seasoning, topping, and stuffing.  It also has an aesthetic effect when placed on hot foods; the thin shavings start to move and and shrivel down.

Katsuobushi Dashi Stock

Katsuobushi is easily found in the Japanese and health food stores and its flakes are usually sold packaged in a transparent sealed bag.  It's also rich in umami flavors especially when combined with kombu in this stock.

Katsuobushi Dashi

INGREDIENTS//Yields approx. 1 liter

•  1 liter water
•  1 piece kombu (about 12- inches long)
• 10-15 grams katsuobushi

PREPARATION
In a bowl, steep your kombu in a litre of water overnight or at least 15-30 minutes beforehand.

INSTRUCTIONS

Fill a large pot with the llitre of water and the steeped kombu.

Bring it to a simmer and just before it comes to a boil, fish out the kombu.
 
At boiling point, quickly add the katsuobushi and turn off the heat.

Let it sit for 10 minutes or until the katsuobushi sinks to the bottom.

Strain the stock for use right away or let it cool and pour it in a container, seal tightly, and then refigerate for another time (holds up to 3-4 days).

NOTE

Such as the Kombu dashi stock recipe, the ingredients can be re-used right away to make a second stock referred to as niban dashi.  The first stock is usually stronger in flavor and is referred to as ichiban dashi.

 

Vegetarian Homemade Dashi

Steeped Kombu

Dashi is the base of many Japanese dishes.  Found in many noodle soup bases and dips; one of my favorite Japanese noodle dish is zaru soba, the cold buckwheat noodles dipped into tsuyu sauce—such a hot-weather treat.  I've learned to make my own dashi over the years recalling how my mum did it when I was a kid.  Mostly, I remember eating the kombu (dried kelp) after it was pulled out of the stock and laid aside.  Maybe it was intended for the trash bin but it always ended up in my stomach.  I've always loved the taste of the sea and maybe that's where it began...in the kitchen.

Kombu Dashi Stock

This is a great vegetarian stock.  It is a light broth that is rich in glutamates, thus producing more umami (pleasant savory taste) flavors.  If you buy the packaged dashi which sells in powdered or granule form, and also packaged like tea sachets, they usually contain MSG.   So if you are allergic to MSG or just wince at the acronyms, you can whip it up at home naturally in large stock and freeze it for future use.   Just so you know MSG is synthesized to replicate the naturally occurring glutamates in kombu, so it's a synthesized flavor enhancer. 

 Kombu, dried bonito flakes, dried shiitake mushrooms, and small dried fish are other elements to making dashi.  The kombu used alone is the most basic dashi and a great vegetarian option.  Stay tuned for the next post on how to make katsuobushi dashi which is a fish-based dashi.

Homemade Dashi
 

INGREDIENTS//Yields approx. 1 liter

•  1 piece kombu (about 12 inches long)
•  1/2 liter water

PREPARATION

In a medium size glass mixing bowl, steep your kombu in the water and put it in the fridge overnight.  You can cut it down to fit your bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS

Take your bowl of steeped kombu and transfer it into a medium size pot along with the water.

On medium heat, simmer the kombu until boiling point.

Quickly fish out the kombu (set it aside for a second stock) and turn down the heat.

Turn off the heat and let it cool down.

Refigerate the stock in a tightly sealed container for use up to four days to a week. 

NOTE

The kombu can be used again (right away) after the first stock to make a second stock referred to as niban dashi.  The first stock is called ichiban dashi.