Chawanmushi

I SUCCEEDED!!!!!! Hooray!!!

I have tried to make chawanmushi all my life. But always fail. Either custard turns out dome like a cake... or too hard... or watery wet... either way, it is NEVER quite what you get from the Japanese eatery. Very frustrating.

I chanced upon this at All That Matters. And decided to give it a try. Afterall, she sounded like a Japanese, though I can not be sure. Do you know?

Anyway, like she said, the ratio of Egg to Liquid should be 1:150ml. I based it on 120ml because I had some other ingredients in there which may release water during steaming.

And most importantly, is really to watch the fire! The steamer, or rather, the water cannot be bubbling boiling hot like the way it should be when you steam a fish. Instead, the flame should be gentle and the water bubbling just slightly. So I boiled water separately in my water flask, and pour it in to fill up my steamer wok and keep it boiling further with a l-o-w flame.  And it works!!!!!!

Wahahahaha... Look at the texture. So happy! The custard really is that of a real chawanmushi. However, the taste is a bit different probably because I didn't use dashi stock. And I didn't use Shimeiji Mushroom. Instead, I used chicken breast bits and dried mushroom.

Man and boys like it, except they thought it was a bit salty. I shall remember to dilute the chicken stock with water next time, and use proper ingredients now that I know how this works! Hurray!

Maybe crab sticks,.. gingko nuts, mushroom,... Japanese fish cake,... prawns,... chicken breast... Will definitely do this again... and again!

Here's what you'd need (serves 4):

* 4 eggs
* 480ml Chicken Stock (I will reduce it further to 400ml chicken stock with 80ml water next time)
* Chicken breast fillet (sliced to strips), seasoned slightly with pepper & pinch of salt
* Some dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked, softened and cut to strips)

This is what I did:

1. In a bowl, beat the eggs very lightly. Pour in 480ml of liquid (Stock + Water, in your desired proportion). Stir and mix well.

2. In the individual cups / bowls, place in the chicken fillet and mushrooms. Sieve the mixture into the cups/bowls.

3. Cover the cups / bowls with aluminum foil (to avoid water droplets from dripping onto the custard, so as to achieve perfect smooth surface).

4. Steam on low fire for about 20mins. Check doneness by tapping the custard gently with a chopstick.

5. Once done, turn off the fire. Leave the cups / bowls in the steamer to keep warm till ready to serve.

Psst psst... 
* I have no ramekin bowls, so I steamed my chawanmushi in the typical Chinese soup bowls.
* Why only 480ml? Since ratio should be 1:150ml, then I should be using 600ml for 4eggs. So why 480ml only? Coz I had some chicken bits in there, and chicken do excrete some water when steamed. So I based it on 1:120ml. Essentially, it is said that if you only have eggs in there with no other ingredients, then base it on 1:150ml.