Sous Vide Chawanmushi
Speed - 98%
Simplicity - 98%
Tastiness - 97%
98%
Delicious!
The custard ended up really smooth and perfectly set as expected from cooking it sous vide. Warm, rich, and totally comforting.
Ingredients
- 2 Teaspoons Dashi Granules
- 2 Cups Warm Water
- 4 Pieces Eggs
- 4 Sticks Imitation Crab Meat chopped
- 1/4 Cup Spring Onions chopped
Instructions
- Whisk the eggs in a bowl.
- Dissolve the dashi granules in warm water. Let cool.
- Whisk the dashi stock into the eggs.
- Strain the custard through a fine sieve.
- Fill the serving cups with crabsticks, spring onions, and custard.
- Cover each cup with plastic wrap.
- Cook for an hour at 176F.
This savory egg custard of Japanese origin couldn't be simpler to make. It's just a mix of eggs, dashi stock, some whole ingredients of your choice, all combined and steamed in tea cups as the term Chawanmushi(“tea cup steam”) directly translates to.
Let's begin by stirring the eggs. Whisk them just enough to evenly incorporate the whites and the yolks. Traditionally, this task would be done with chopsticks, being careful not to incorporate too much air into the eggs. The reason for such caution would be that these air pockets would make the texture of the custard less silky.
In a separate bowl, dissolve the dashi granules in warm water. This stock would be the flavor base of our custard and by which you aren't strictly limited to either. Any flavored stock will do. Some kombu, bonito flakes, and soy sauce would keep the flavors Japanese but turning to other cuisines for inspiration would totally be fine as well.
Who said savory egg custards should be based on a dashi stock? Any flavor would definitely work – curry, cream, fresh herbs, wine reduction, cheese. . . they just wouldn't be called a traditional Japanese Chawanmushi though.
Time to put the stock into the eggs. Again, stir gently as to not incorporate any air into the mixture.
By the way, make sure that your stock has cooled down to room temperature to keep it from curdling those eggs.
Once the stock and eggs are smoothly blended, pass this custard base through a fine sieve to get rid of any particles which may render the cooked custard “rough”.
Pretty much the same as making a creme brulee right? Well, both dishes are measured by how silky-smooth they turn out.
Time to fill your teacups, with anything you like. Crabsticks, spring onions, unagi, corn. . . I suggest however to keep your choice within ingredients that need very little to no cooking, since these custards will cook for only an hour.
I've used teacups to hold my custard for aesthetic reasons and nothing else. It'll be easier to use mason jars with good-fitting lids, saving you the hassle of having to cover each teacup with plastic wrap tediously.
Now fill the cups with the custard mix. Again, go slowly so as not to get any air pockets in.
Now, build a platform for your teacups to rest on so they stay at a perfect level with the water in your sous vide bath. I've simply used soup cups which I've inverted onto the bottom of the pot.
See, you won't have to go through this step if you've chosen to use resealable jars as receptacles. Just get them fully submerged, simple.
Put the teacups carefully into the pre-heated water bath and cook for about an hour, adjusting your cooking time according to the size of cooking vessels you've used.
You may notice that I haven't covered mine with plastic wrap. I did cover them with good-fitting saucers instead. Oh, and when's the last time you updated your immersion circulator? You can get some new ones for under $100, or even some really advanced ones with wifi and apps for about $200 instead of the $600-$1000 they used to cost!
The custard ended up a lot silkier compared to a traditional version cooked by steaming.
Ingredients
- 2 Teaspoons Dashi Granules
- 2 Cups Warm Water
- 4 Pieces Eggs
- 4 Sticks Imitation Crab Meat chopped
- 1/4 Cup Spring Onions chopped
Instructions
- Whisk the eggs in a bowl.
- Dissolve the dashi granules in warm water. Let cool.
- Whisk the dashi stock into the eggs.
- Strain the custard through a fine sieve.
- Fill the serving cups with crabsticks, spring onions, and custard.
- Cover each cup with plastic wrap.
- Cook for an hour at 176F.
Stephen Casto says
May 14, 2018 at 6:12 pmIt doesn’t look like Chawanmushi, it looks more like a creamy soup. One of the main (and most important) distinctions of Chawanmushi, is the silken tofu like texture, which breaks away cleanly, from the rest of it, when scooping it out. It should leave behind a non-cloudy broth when you scoop it out too. You can cook it in the method meanchined on this page, since it mimics the one of the traditional water dish oven methods to make it, but you need to cover the top to keep the uniform texture and to keep moisture from condensing in ise the bowl. The cooking times and temperatures all depends on the bowl size, it’s material, the cooking method and outside air temp and humidity. Since you can’t stick a thermometer into this while it’s cooking, this takes a few times to get it right for each setup you choose to cook with.
Also, what is the cheese looking stuff on top?
Stephen Casto says
May 14, 2018 at 6:17 pmMeanchined? LOL, it’s “MENTIONED”