Chawanmushi

Chawanmushi (lit tea cup (Chawan) steam, "steamed in a tea bowl") is an egg custard dish found in Japan that uses the seeds of ginkgo. Unlike many other custards, it is usually eaten as an appetizer. The custard consists of an egg mixture flavored with soy sauce, dashi, and mirin, with numerous ingredients such as shitake mushroom, kamaboko, and boiled shrimp placed into a tea-cup-like container.

Chawanmushi can be eaten either hot and cool. When udon is added as an ingredient, it is called odamaki mushi or odamaki udon.

Unusually for a traditional Japanese dish, it is commonly eaten with a spoon.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup dashi soup stock
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp soysauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sake
• 1 chicken thigh
• 4 shiitake mushrooms
• 1 oz mitsuba (trefoil)
• 2 oz. kamaboto fish cakes

Preparation:

Cut chicken into small cubes. Slice kamaboko and shiitake mushrooms thinly. Beat eggs in a bowl. (*try not to bubble the eggs.) Add dashi soup stock, soysauce, salt, sake, and sugar in the bowl.

Strain the egg mixture. Prepare four cups and put shiitake, chicken, and kamaboko in each cup. Pour the egg mixture into each cup. (*fill each cup to the third-forths.) Place mitsuba on top of each cup. Cover the cups with lids. (*use alumiun foil or plastic wrap if you don't have lids.) Preheat a steamer on high heat. Turn down the heat and carefully place cups in the steamer. Steam the custard for 15 min. Poke the custard with a bamboo stick. If clear soup comes out, it's cooked.

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