Chawanmushi

Known to most people who had ever dined at a Japanese eatery, chawanmushi is a tasty soup-custard served in a cutsy looking lidded Japanese tea cups. However, from the little that I have read so far of Japanese cookery, I think that chawanmushi literally means tea bowl steaming. So, I wonder which part of the three word description says anything about soup-custard? Maybe this how our steamboat may sound a foreigner.

Together with Hubby (yes, we spent Valentine's Day together cooking in the kitchen at 12.30am!), we whipped up a two stir-fried vegetables, miso soup and also chawanmushi. I was quite happy with the taste of my chawanmushi except that I didn't have a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the boiling water in the steamer, hence my chawanmushi cooked too quickly and had pock marks on the surface.

Here's my pock-marked chawanmushi in a ramekin.



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Chawanmushi
(adapted from The Japanese Kitchen)
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::: What you need :::
1 boneless chicken breast fillet
4 shrimps, shelled and deveined
2 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted and halved
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp shoyu (light soy sauce)
1/2 tsp mirin
3 med eggs, gently beaten
1 1/2 cups dashi (fish stock)
Parsley to decorate, optional

::: How to :::
, Rub the chicken fillet with 1 tsp of salt and sit for 15 mins. Wipe away any juiced exuded. Cut into bite-size.
, In a small pan of boiling water, blanche the chicken cubes, shrimps and mushroom for 10 secs. Remove to a bowl and add in shoyu. Sit for 15 mins.
, In a measuring cup, combine eggs, dashi, remaining salt and mirin. Stir gently to combine.
, Portion the chicken cubes, shrimps and mushrooms into ramekins and pour the egg mixture over. Fill to 3/4 of the ramekin.
, Steam over gentle heat for 13 mins or until the juice runs clear.
, Decorate with parsely leaves before serving.