Chawanmushi

Last week, I had this random thought wound up in my head as I was driving home one day. “How and when did I start cooking?” It was so vague that I couldn’t recall the exact moment, but I knew that I was pretty young. I remembered having to climb up on a chair to plate some vegetables and to stir potato salad in a bowl that was bigger than my head.

I also remembered around six to seven years old, I was dragging a dining room chair next to a bookshelf, reaching for my mom’s cookbook when only my sister and I were home. I liked looking at pictures of pretty food and instructional illustrations.

One of the first things I helped my mom make was Chawanmushi. Beating eggs with chopsticks, adding dashi, and stirring more with the chopsticks were fairly easy tasks for a clumsy child. I didn’t get to chop vegetables and to touch the kitchen stove at first, but I always stood next to my mom and watched how she did it. It was fascinating and much more exciting than wiping the dining table and aligning chopsticks neatly for everyone, just before the meal, each and every time.

Chawanmushi is a very common dish both at home and outside homes, making it to restaurant menus and even to school lunch tables in Japan. Everybody makes it differently and I secretly had an affair with the one served at school. Back then at the single digit age, I didn’t know exactly why I didn’t lump them with more ordinary foods. What made them taste so different? Was it the spinach used? Or the shrimp with the tail still attached? Or perhaps, it was the ginkgo nuts that my mom snuck in? Thinking back clearly, it was all those things and something more.

There was a certain something else that I realize now which gave the whole dish that umph, because while the subtle eggs were just eggs, the primary ingredient, albeit the finest, and the others extra players had their role in raising the dish, the dashi was what permeated it all and brought it all together in harmony. What my tongue was trying to put a finger to was the umami from kombu and bonito in the egg custard. And on top of it, because of course, when you have the best base, you might as well go all the way and use the best supporting ingredients. That is, if they are reasonably found.

Typically, mistuba is the choice of herb for chawanmushi, but unfortunately I couldn’t find them even at the Japanese grocery store. So, I changed up a little bit and used daikon sprouts instead. I also wanted to make something that resembled my mom’s humble home-style (save for the boost of dashi), so I kept the rest of the ingredients as simple.

If you’re a vegetarian, you can replace the shrimp and fishcake with other vegetables like spinach or carrots. If seafood isn’t your favorite, you can try using chicken breast, too. And if you are a vegan, I’m sorry. I’ll have something else for you, maybe next time. Happy holidays, everyone!

Recipe of the Day - Chawanmushi

Ingredients (make small 6 cups):
2 large eggs
300 ml dashi stock
½ tsp soy sauce
½ tsp mirin
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sake
3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
herb – mitsuba, daikon sprouts, or shiso, etc
Other optional suggestions: kamaboko, wakame, shrimp, chicken breast, yuzu peel, fu (wheat gluten), carrots, ginkgo nuts, etc.

Stir the eggs in a bowl (try not to create bubbles too much). Add dashi, soy sauce, mirin, salt and sake, and continue to stir, gently. Run the egg mixture through strainer or cheese cloth and set aside.

Divide ingredients into prepared cups. Slowly pour egg mixture into the cups evenly.

Steam chawanmushi for about 10 minutes or until the egg mixture becomes opaque and solid. (If you are not using a steamer, you can fill a couple of inches of water in a large pot, place them gently, cover the pot with a lid and steam them over medium heat. The water should be simmering and never let it boil.) Remove from the heat. Serve warm.