In this video, I am showing how to make Chawan-mushi. It is a typical and rather traditional Japanese home cooking dish. This is served always as a side dish and has very light but at the same time rich flavor of egg and Dashi, since both are rich in Umami. You can be creative of what you put inside; chicken/pork/beef, shrimp, fish, Shiitake or other mushrooms, Surimi (Kamaboko), spinach, zuccini, edamame, corn, etc. In the video, I am making Dashi stock from scratch, but you can be lazy and use Dashi powder instead (which is how I usually make for myself).
In my Channel, I show step by step of alternative but authentic Japanese home cooking, which can be made with the ingredients that are easily available outside of Japan.
Ingredients for Chawanmushi (2-3 portions): Egg mixture: - Egg 2 (approx. 100 ml) - Dashi stock 300 ml - Salt a pinch Dashi: - Water 2 cups - Kombu kelp 5 g - Bonito flakes 10-15 g Possible ingredients to put inside Chawanmushi: chicken/pork/beef, shrimp, fish, Shiitake or other mushrooms, Surimi (Kamaboko), spinach, zuccini, edamame, corn, etc.
Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make chawanmushi. So I think
chawanmushi is one of those dishes that everybody knows in Japan but barely known outside Japan.
And this is also more of like a home cooking and I think there are very little restaurants that
serves chawanmushi as a dish. So the name chawanmushi comes from chawan which means
cha as tea and wan is a bowl so chawan is a tea cup. And then mushi comes from musu which means
So it directly translates steam teapot dish. And what it is is dashi stock mixed with egg
and that's steamed. When eggs are heated then they firm up and we also often put in different
ingredients inside. And today I'm going to show you a very typical and very simple variation of
it but you can also be very creative what you put inside. And it's also a simple dish if you
follow the right ratio. And it might be a little bit difficult in the first run to get the right
ratio and the right timing but once you get the hang of it it's not that difficult. So I hope
this video kind of gives you a new idea of what you can make in your repertoire. Then let's get started.
Here are the ingredients for chawanmushi. So today I'll be making authentic dashi
using kombu kelp and bonito flakes. Then I have eggs and also to put inside the chawanmushi
I have here cut up chicken meat, shiitake mushrooms, shrimps and also garden cress sprouts
just as a condiment. In Japan we usually use mitsuba but I think outside Japan it's very hard
to find so I have these sprouts but it's not crucial. I have here three ingredients. These are
kind of like the typical topping but you can be creative with it and put in whatever you like.
Now let's prepare the ingredients. This chicken thigh meat is already cut up. Whenever I buy chicken
meat I usually buy a little bit more than I need. I have it frozen and I leave it in the freezer in
case I need a little bit of chicken meat. So I can make oyakodon or use it as a topping for udon noodle.
For me it just kind of comes handy. And these are already cut up so I don't need to prepare anything
for that. And let's prepare the shiitake mushroom. A lot of people cut up the whole stem. These are
also good to eat. A little bit fibrous but I personally like that. The bottom part is a little
bit darkened so I'm going to cut just the tip of the bottom off and then cut this up in four pieces
like that and also here.
And these mini shrimps. You don't really need to prepare them but you want to make sure that
the intestines are gone so make a slit. Yeah these are gone. Sometimes when they're not prepared well
enough like this make sure you want to get rid of these intestines because that will really ruin
the flavor. So you can kind of see through like this. You want to get rid of that definitely.
So that is very poorly prepared so you want to make sure you get rid of that intestines.
And if the color of the intestines is kind of spread out like this you might want to just
kind of get rid of that too because that probably is not going to taste very well.
Then this is also finished preparing and for the garden cress I don't need that much.
That'll be more than enough so I'm going to quickly wash this.
That's enough of that. Let's finish preparing all the ingredients. Let's start cooking. Now let's
make the dashi. If you want to be lazy you can use these kind of dashi powder. That's also perfectly
fine. When I cook for myself I usually use these but if you use kombu kelp and the bonito flake to
make an authentic dashi it tastes really so much better. You'd be surprised how rich the flavor is.
I suggest you give it a try once and if you want to see a really detailed explanation on the dashi
then please watch my other video on how to make dashi. So this dried kombu kelp you need to let
it soak in water for at least an hour preferably overnight. So that's what I have here. So here I
have about 500 milliliter of water or two cups of water with about this much of kombu kelp. It's
about five gram of kombu kelp. So I'm going to put this water in the pot with the kombu kelp. I'm
going to turn the heat to medium and bring this almost to boil because you want to take out the
kombu kelp right before it comes to boil. While we're waiting on the water to be boiled I'm going
to measure the bonito flakes. So for about two cups of water I'm going to use about 10 to 15 grams of
bonito flakes. Okay so about that much. So as you can see the bubbles starting to form so I'm going
to take out the kombu kelp. I'm going to let it come to boil. Now as it comes to boil it starts
out building a little bit scum. I'm going to take that out as well and now here I'm going to turn
the heat off. Then this I'm going to put in the bonito flakes. And to this I'm not going to do
anything and just wait for one minute. So a minute has passed so this is ready. Now we're going to
strain this using a paper towel. And don't squeeze this but instead you want to let it kind of drip
on its own weight. And then we have here authentic dashi. Then I'm going to give it a little try.
Excuse me for slurping. Oh so savory, so rich in flavor. So this is finished for the dashi stock.
If you mix this with egg directly right now the egg is going to get cooked. I'm going to leave
it to the side and let it cool off. And for the leftover of the kombu kelp and the bonito flakes
I suggest not to throw them away. You can make another dish out of it, a type of tsukudani. If
you want to know how to make that you can watch my other video on that. Now the dashi is cooled off
let's make the egg mixture. So I'm going to crack the egg open. For making this egg mixture I usually
use a measuring cup like this so I can measure the amount of eggs directly. Usually one egg is about
50 milliliter and so I have two eggs so it's about 100 milliliter. And for chawanmushi it's very very
important that you have exact measurement. And how you want to mix it you want to mix the egg to
the dashi with one to three ratio. So I have 100 milliliter of egg and to that I'm going to add in 300
milliliter of dashi. And here I'm going to put in 300 milliliter of dashi. So all together 400 milliliter.
Okay so it's at 400 milliliter. I'm going to go to mix. Make sure you mix this really well.
And in this I'm going to put a pinch of salt. Really a pinch like this. Now let's put in the
ingredients together. So in each I'm going to put in two shrimps and then also a little bit of chicken
meat and also shiitake mushroom. Now let's add in the egg mixture. And when you do this use a small
colander like this and then strain them. Let's do it. Because with the egg it's inevitable to have
these kind of I don't know exactly what they are like kind of like umbilical cord. I don't know
whatever they are. This kind of ruined the texture of the chawanmushi. And in Japan many families own
a special cup that is designed to be used for chawanmushi. The way they have a matching lid.
But of course I don't have that so I'm just going to use tinfoil and to cover it.
This is just to prevent the water dropping inside while we're steaming it.
Now these chawanmushi is ready to be cooked. So typically chawanmushi is steamed. Many households
will have a big steamer. And so if you have a steamer great use that. But today I'm going to
show you an alternative where you don't have to use a steamer. Have a kind of like a big pot like
this and put about a centimeter of water on the bottom. And then I'm going to put these cups right
in here. Like this. And then put the lid on and cook like this. So I'm going to turn the heat to
high and bring for us the water to boil. So once this comes to a boil I'm going to turn the heat to
simmer. I'm going to cook this for about 10 to 15 minutes. So depending on the size of the bowl
you're using for the chawanmushi or also depending on how much you're putting in you just have to
vary the time. If you have a bigger bowl then of course it takes longer time to cook. If you have
a smaller bowl less time. So for this I'll be cooking about 10 minutes or so and see how much
it gets cooked. We're going to see if we have to cook longer. So the 10 minutes has passed.
Let's see how it's turning. I'm going to turn heat off. Okay this is looking pretty good. So you can't
really see if it's cooked through in the middle. So to check that put in a skewer like this and
poke it. Make a small hole and if out of that comes a little bit cloudy water just like this. So I'm
guessing this is not cooked through all the way in the middle. The liquid is a little bit cloudy.
So I'm going to put this lid back on and turn the heat to simmer again and let it cook for another
two minutes or so. So let's see how this turned out. Let's check the other one. Give it a little poke.
The liquid that's coming out of that hole is very clear. So that's a sign that this is finished.
And if you happen to overcook it then it'll puff up like this. That's something you want to avoid
but you just have to try a couple times until you get it right. And so don't give up too soon just
give it a try a couple times. And it's all finished. Let's eat. When you're picking these up please use
some kind of cloth over it. These are very hot so please be very careful so that you don't burn your
fingers. So this is finished. I'm gonna put in the condiments on top. So these are finished. Let's eat.
Okay let's eat this. So this may look like a pudding for many of you guys. It's pretty much
the same thing. Instead of milk and sugar we use dashi stock and salt. And of course there's no way
you can eat this with chopsticks. So I'm gonna use a regular spoon. Itadakimasu.
Oh perfect. So delicious.
Really great. A little bit with the chicken meat.
Oh also with the shrimp. Very good. Oh this is so tasty. All the flavor is really subtle
but really rich in flavor. Oh so delicious. I love chawanmushi. And as you may see this
will never entitle as a main dish. It's always like a side dish. You could have a main dish,
another vegetable dish or something and then this would go with that. So delicious.
Oh that was so savory. So delicious.
Oh that was delicious. Whenever I make and eat chawanmushi I always think of my grandmother
and her hell at the time. Because she made it very often and somehow my mother never
made it for us. And so for me chawanmushi is like my grandma's dish. As you saw making chawanmushi
is probably not the easiest dish in my channel. But it's not that complicated. And also depending
on what you put inside you can definitely make this vegetarian. And so if you're up to
something new I hope you give this a try. If you like what you saw I'd love it if you could hit the
like button so that this video can be spread out to many people. And if you have any feedbacks I
always love to read your comments. So please feel free to write anything down there. And if you have
any requests I'm always open for that. Otherwise I look forward to see you in the next video. Bye.
