What the $*&# is Chawan Mushi?

A couple of months ago, I found myself trapped in a hotel room with very little to do, so I flipped through a couple of cookbooks.  (Yes, I know this is rather pathetic, but such is my life.)  On one page, I saw a very interesting looking savory Japanese egg custard, dismissed it as being weird, and moved on to things more familiar.  But I never forgot about it.

Fast forward to last night.  Sitting on the couch, I thought about what to make for dinner tonight.  Nothing really seemed to make sense, or get me all that excited.  Suddenly, my brain returned to a weird savory Japanese egg custard, and I thought to myself, what the heck?  So today I attempted the weird looking, weird sounding, and weirdly named chawan mushi.

I topped mine with an ahi poke made with cilantro, jalapeno, srirocha and lime for some needed texture and substance, but this is basically what a chawan mushi is: a savory egg custard made with dashi (a cooking stock made from dried bonito flakes), egg, mirin (rice wine) and soy.  The texture is creamy, a la flan, but it has a flavor almost miso-soup-esque, if you like that sort of thing, which I do.

Chawan Mushi
3 eggs
2 cups dashi
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
Start by preparing your dashi.  Strain out the bonito and chill the dashi until it gets to room temperature so as not to scramble your eggs.  In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs, making sure not to get too much air whipped in, as whipped air becomes bubbles in a custard.  Stir in mirin and soy sauce, then the dashi.  Divide the mixture into four ramekins, then cover the ramekins with foil.  Place the ramekins in a bain marie or other large oven-safe dish and add water to the dish, making sure nothing splashes into the ramekins, until the water reaches about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the side of the ramekins.  Put in a 425 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until the custards set, then remove from bain marie and chill until serving. 

Top this with your favorite raw seafood preparation, and you have yourself a nice light meal or a nice heavy appetizer.