Ingredients:
Dashi
1 litre of water
30gm Kombu
30gm Katsuobushi
Chawanmushi
2 eggs
200gm dashi
Salt
Soy sauce
Mirin
Optional Ingredients Any savory ingredients can be combined with the custard, such as spinach, chicken, crab, shrimp, bamboo shoots, lily bulb, ginkgo nuts, shiitake mushroom, truffle or fishcake.
Directions
Dashi 1. Combine water and kombu together in a pot and heat it gently at 65 deg C for an hour. 2. Remove kombu and bring the liquid to a boil. 3. Remove from heat and add katsuobushi to infuse for one minute. 4. Strain mixture through a fine sieve and leave to cool.
Chawanmushi 1. Combine and whisk egg, dashi, salt, soy sauce and mirin together. 2. Pass the mixture through a sieve. 3. Place any optional ingredients into a chawanmushi cup or a bowl. 4. Gently pour egg mixture into the chawanmushi cup or bowl without creating bubbles. Instead of covering the ingredient completely with the egg mixture, leave some ingredients exposed so it will be visually pleasing when cokked. 5. Put the lid on or cover the bowl with plastic wrap and steam for 13 minutes, at 90 deg C or gently place the chawanmushi cups inside the hot water (it should NOT be “boiling”) and cover the pot with the lid. Cook for 25-30 minutes on the lowest heat. If you are not adding shrimp and/or chicken, the cooking time should only be 15-20 minutes. Insert a skewer in the center of the cup to check if the egg is done. Serve warm.