It's getting cold here in Japan! When it is cold, we can't think of anything better than eating a warm dish. Today we introduce how to cook Chawan Mushi. What is Chawan-mushi? Is it easy to make?
Well, let's take a look!
What is Chawan-Mushi?
Chawan-mushi (茶碗蒸し) is one dish for Japanese traditional style meal called “Kaiseki Ryori”. It looks as though it is custard pudding, but it is not sweet. You can put any ingredients in the dish and suprise your guests or family. : ) It is easy to make for everyone at home. We use a special steamer pot for it, but you can cook them without it. You can cook them in a oven too. I cook Chawan-mushi with a large pan in this recipe.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 and 3/ 4 or 2 cups dashi flavor water (1cup= 200cc)
- 8 slices kamaboko (cooked grated white fish)
- 4 pieces of chicken( breast meat)
- -pinch of salt and a little sake
- 4 wheet gluten cakes (fu)
- -water
- 8 stalks mitsuba (trefoil)
- 3 eggs
- dashinomoto (fish flavor)
- mirin (sweet sake)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
Preparation: (4 servings)
- Wash dried shiitake mushrooms and soak them in water until soft.
- Take out the mushrooms and put a side. Put 1 and 3/4 or 2 cups water (# 1 water) into the pan and add a little dashinomoto, a little mirin,1tsp say sauce and 1tsp salt. Cook it over heat and let cool.
- Remove Shitake mushroom’s steams.
- Cut chicken breast meat into bite-size slices and sprinkle them with a pinch of salt and a little sake.
- Cut Mitsuba like in the picture.
- Slice Kamaboko.
- Soak 4 fu in water until soft.
- Beat 3 eggs lightly with chopsticks and add #2 broth. (If the broth is still hot, egg will be cooked. So make sure it is not hot). Pour the mixture through fine strainer to ensure a smooth custard.
- Place the chicken, Kamaboko, fu and Shiitake mushroom in individual cups. Pour in #8 egg mixture to each cups a little by little. Take out bubble from surface of mixture with a spoon to ensure a smooth surface custard when they are cooked.
- Place cooking paper on the bottom of the pan and cups with lids in large pan 1/3 filled with water. Cover the pan with a lid. Boil the water over hight heat first and steam them over law heat for 4 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, but keep the pan with the lid. Steam it for 20 minutes. Insert bamboo skewer in the center of custard to test if it is done. If clear soup comes out, it’s cooked. If it is not, continue steaming. Garnish with mitsuba. Serve hot with lids on.
Tips
★ Don’t steam them over heat for too long otherwise holes appear on top.
★ You can try other ingredients : shrimp, bolide beans and etc.
★ If you don’t have lids for chawan mushi-cups, please cover a pan’s lid with dishcloth or handkerchief. (To prevent from dripping water from the lid of pan on the egg custard).
★ You can use fresh Shiitake mushrooms too. (Flavor will become only fish flavor.)
★ When you cook chawan-mushi with an oven, cover cups with aluminum foil. Cook them like when you cook custard pudding.
Enjoy Japanese cooking!!
Thanks
Thanks to Chisako Higashiya for her article on Japanese Cooking. You can find more information on her Blog: Japanese Home Cooking Shizu
