Japanese Savory Pudding, Chawanmushi(茶碗蒸し)
When you are asked what type of Japanese cuisine you know or like, most people would definitely answer that it is Sushi. Yes, Sushi is now popular worldwide and I would also choose it as my first meal when I go back to Japan. But, have you also seen Chawanmushi that usually comes with Sushi? It is a savory pudding served as a classical appetizer with silky custard with some toppings on it such as chicken, a piece of processed fish products, beans, and mushrooms. In Japanese, Chawan means a bowl used for rice and Mushi means steam.
My grandmother always serves this for our family every New Year's Day, so it is like a special celebration meal for me, and I love her Chawanmushi has a great combination of salt and sugar.
Make your guest welcome with this Japanese cuisine to get started perfect course of Japanese cuisine.
Here is a recipe for Chawanmushi.
Ingredients (for 2 coups)
- 1 egg
- chicken 30g
- 1 piece of mushroom
- Carrot for topping
- processed fish, Kamaboko (optional)
- Soup
- Dashi (power or liquid) 1 pack
- Water 50mil
- Salt
- Sugar (optional)
Recipe
- 1. Make Dashi Soup: If you have Dashi power, it's easy. You can mix the 20g of power in the water. If you have a filter type of Dashi, put it in the 200mil of boiled water and leave it for 4 minutes until the flavor of Dashi comes out. Remove the filter powder after 4 minutes. Leave it til gets cold.
- 2. Mix gently egg and 50 mil of Dashi Soup, try not to make any bubbles.
- 3. Filter the 2 of Dashi soup to make it more silky and creamy. And pour it into the cups.
- 4. Put a piece of chicken, beans, and mushrooms. Topping can be anything.
- 5. Steam it for 5 minutes with high heat, and rest it for 10 minutes with minimum low heat. Put a towel between the cups and cover so that water drops would not make halls on the surface of the pudding.
- instead of steam pan, Flat cooking pan can be an alternative.
- 6. Decorate pudding with carrot garnish and green leave.
- Meshiagare!
