Chawanmushi

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs (about 165g out of the shell)
• 500ml dashi, cooled
• 1 tsp usukuchi (light-coloured) soy sauce
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 100g boneless chicken thigh
• 1 tsp sake
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 4 raw prawns, peeled
• 2 fresh shiitake mushrooms
• 4 slices kamaboko fish cake
• 8 ginkgo nuts, optional
• A few sprigs mitsuba or 4 slivers of lemon zest

Before you cook

• Cut the chicken into 1.5cm pieces and toss them with the teaspoon of sake and half teaspoon of soy sauce.
• Devein the prawns and cut each in half if they are large.
• Slice the shiitake caps thinly and discard the stems.
• Make sure the dashi is completely cool, because warm dashi will start to cook the egg the moment they meet.
• Set out four heatproof cups or small bowls of about 200ml each.

Steps

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and cut through them with chopsticks held flat against the base, dragging back and forth rather than whisking, so you loosen them without creating bubbles.
2. Stir the cooled dashi, usukuchi soy sauce, mirin and salt into the eggs.
3. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug, and push any stringy white through with a spoon.
4. Skim off every bubble on the surface with a spoon or drag a strip of kitchen paper across it.
5. Divide the chicken, prawn, shiitake and kamaboko between the four cups.
6. Pour the custard slowly down the side of each cup until they are about four fifths full.
7. Cover each cup tightly with foil or its own lid.
8. Bring 3cm of water to a boil in a wide pan or steamer, then lower the heat until the water is only just moving.
9. Set the cups into the steamer, leaving a chopstick under the lid so a little steam escapes and the temperature stays low.
10. Steam for 3 minutes on medium heat to set the surface, then turn the heat to low and steam for 12 minutes more.
11. Test a custard by pushing a skewer into the centre and watching for clear liquid rather than cloudy egg to seep out.
12. Give it 2 or 3 minutes longer if the liquid is still cloudy, but stop as soon as it runs clear, because overcooking makes the custard weep and turn honeycombed.
13. Lift out the cups and lay a sprig of mitsuba or a sliver of lemon zest on each surface.
14. Serve warm with a small spoon, either at the start of a meal or alongside rice.