Chawanmushi: An Easy-to-Make Japanese Steamed Egg Custard

In Japanese, "cha" is tea, and "chawan" is a teacup. This savory egg custard has the consistency of soft tofu. In Japanese restaurants you can get it as an appetizer for lunch or dinner, but I like to make it for breakfast.

Ingredients:

• Eggs (one per person)
• Water
• Salt
• Pepper
• Soy sauce
• (optional)  a small amount - about a tablespoon per person - of bits of cooked salmon or gravlax, small bits of chicken, a couple of small cooked shrimps, sliced shiitake mushrooms. Or whole fresh parsley leaves, small amount of fresh thyme or sage, chopped scallion, etc. This is not the same as making an omelet - you only need a small amount of extra ingredients, if any.

If you don't have chawanmushi bowls with lids, you can use a teacup, a ramekin or a porcelain bowl. If you don't have a lid, fashion one from aluminum foil. You can even steam them without lids. You will also need a saucepan that will hold all of the teacups while they are steaming.

Boil water in a teakettle. You will need enough water so that the boiling water will come up halfway up the sides of the teacups when they are in the saucepan.

Meanwhile, make the egg mixture. Beat the eggs thoroughly.  Add a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, and a splash of soy sauce for each egg . If you have dashi powder (Japanese fish stock powder) add a small dash of that.  Then, you need to add the appropriate amount of water to the beaten egg. This is what makes the egg custard light, with the consistency of soft tofu.  I have two ways of doing this. The first method is to distribute the beaten egg into each teacup, then add whatever solids you may be adding (if any), then add water to each teacup until about 90% full, then stir the egg and water together in the teacup.

The second method is to fill one of the empty teacups with water, then measure the volume. Say, for example, the teacup holds 3/4 cup of water and you are making four of them. So you will need a total of 3 cups of egg and water mixture. Beat the eggs, then add enough water to get 3 cups.  To the extent you are adding solids, like bits of salmon or some sliced mushroom, you will need less.

Put the teacups filled with the flavored egg/water mixture into the saucepan on the stove.  Add boiling water to the saucepan till it reaches halfway up the side of the teacup.

Now -  very important - heat the saucepan on high for just 1-2 minutes.  Then lower the heat to low, and cook for another 13 minutes. You may want to use a kitchen timer (I always do).

For years, I steamed my chawanmushi for 15 minutes in an electric steamer that my brother had given me for Christmas.  The chawanmushi, while edible, always turned out kind of hard - nothing like the soft, silky custard I had tasted in Japanese restaurants. Then, I read in a Japanese cookbook that cooking on high heat makes the custard hard. When I tried the 1 minute/13 minute approach, it always turned out soft.

Tree Dilworth is the owner of Comtesse Therese Bistro and Le Clos Therese Vineyard in Aquebogue.