Chawanmushi

I love chawanmushi. It probably will seem a little weird at first if you've never encountered a savory custard before. But it's delicious, kinda soothing in a way, and once you have the basic technique down, you can make all kinds of little variations, so as long as you've got eggs, you're in business.

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm broth
• 3 eggs

Directions

1. Warm the broth gently. Your liquid should be a little warm, but not hot enough that it cooks the egg. You can use any clear broth you have on hand. Dashi is the most common, but chicken stock works great to. I've even used tomato water (basically just tomato puree, filtered to a clear liquid).

2. Get a steamer setup going on just barely a simmer. You'll need to be able to put the heat-safe container that you plan on using to serve your chawanmushi into the steamer, so you need it to have some room and be stable. You don't want a full boil, because it might break your custard or it could end up leaving little bubbles in the surface.

3. Whisk the broth into the eggs. Check the flavor. You might want to add a little salt or soy sauce or something. Obviously, this is raw egg. I don't mind consuming a little raw egg personally, but if you have concerns, skip this step, or make sure you season before adding the egg.

4. Pass the egg/broth mixture through a fine strainer. I actually like to pass it twice. In my experience, this step helps ensure that the egg is fully incorporated. Otherwise you can end up with some weird little strings of egg in your custard.

5. Now pour the mix into a heat-safe dish. You serve it in the container it was cooked in, so you kinda want a nice little ceramic dish of some kind.

6. Cover your container with a little foil. This mostly helps avoid possible dripping from the lid of your steamer into the custard, which will mess up the surface.

7. Place your dishes into the steamer. Let them steam for about 8 minutes. This is a little tough. Cook time will vary depending on the container you use, the depth of your custard, and the temperature of your steamer. You'll have to check it out to see if it's done. But if it's done, it's easy to tell. The surface of your custard should be sealed.

8. There you go. It does take some practice to get these babies to set well reliably.

bon appetit