Chawanmushi

I tried my hands at Chawanmushi today. It was really easy to make.

The chawanmushi cups with lids can be purchased from Daiso for only $2. I got mine from the Simei Eastpoint outlet. Alternatively, you could use chinese tea cups covered with aluminium foil.

Equipment
4 Chawanmushi cups with lids
Measuring Cup
Large Bowl
Strainer
Chopsticks
Large Pot
Metal Trivet (Or you can just use a steamer if you have one)

Ingredients
(Ensure that everything is at room temperature during preparation)
4 eggs (medium sized)
2 1/2 cups of dashi (Japanese Kelp Stock) or chicken stock (1 cube of Knorr chicken cube completely dissolved in 2 1/2 cups water)
1 tbsp of Japanese soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp mirin (or chinese rice wine, but a little bit lesser to avoid having too strong a taste)
Small chicken bits

Method
1. Place the metal trivet in a large pot filled with water (up to just below the trivet) and bring to a boil.
2. Break eggs into a large bowl and stir gently in a cutting motion with a pair of chopsticks. Stir until well mixed. Avoid beating as that will introduce air bubbles which does not give you the smooth, beancurd like texture of chawanmushi.
3. Using the chopsticks, gradually stir in the stock into the eggs until well-mixed. Stir gently to avoid introducing too much air.
4. Gently stir in the soy sauce and mirin to the mixture.
5. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a jug (or anything with a snout of sorts) for easy pouring. Running the mixture through the sieve helps to remove any lumps in the mixture.
6. Pour mixture into chawanmushi cups until ¾ of the way. Add chicken bits, cover and place in pot to steam. (You must cover!)
7. Steam for 2 minutes on high heat and then turn down the heat to low for another 10 minutes.
8. Remove chawanmushi cups from the steamer and set aside to cool for 2 minutes – uncovered.

You can adjust the amount of stock so that the egg is at your desired firmness. If you want something more firm, use less stock! If you are preparing stock using chicken cubes (like I did), use the non-concentrated proportions. Ideally, use the dashi stock. You can buy dashi in powder / cube form from the japanese aisles in most major supermarkets. NTUC Finest has them along the Japanese / International foodstuff aisle. I also find that mirin is more suitable than the rice wine.