FAMOUS FOOD AROUND THE WORLD "CHAWAN MUSHI"

CHAWAN MUSHI "JAPAN"

Chawan Mushi steamed savory custard has a soft, smooth texture with rich umami, and is served in small individual cups. The dish is prepared by placing bite-sized pieces of chicken, shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and kamaboko steamed fish cake, as well as gingko nuts and mitsuba (trefoll), into each cup. A mixture of beaten egg, dashi stock, soy sauce and salt is poured over these ingredients, then the cups are covered and steamed. This method prevents overcooking, while preserving natural flavors and nutrinets

Chawan Mushi has a long history. Nagasaki's tojin yashiki compound, built it for Chinese merchants in the seventeenth centuury during the period of Japan's self-imposed isolation, was a source of cultural and culinary influence. The origins of Chawan Mushi emerged during the eighteenth century, and can be traced to Nagasaki's Shippoku Banquet cuisine, consisting of an abundant array of both Chinise and Western foods. Chawan Mushi is both delicious and versatile: nowadayas, it not only appears in Kaiseki-ryori, Japanese haute cuisine, but is also made and enjoyed at home. ChawanMushi usually eat by chopstick long time ago, but right now we used spoon for eat that.

So here's the Chawan Mushi Recipe

How To Prepare

1. Start by beating the eggs in a bowl gently, try and make sure that the eggs do not froth up at all. You can also start soaking your shiitake mushrooms in water while you are preparing the next few steps.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the dashi stock, soy sauce, cooking sake, salt and sugar. Add this mix to the egg while stirring contantly to get a good mix. Once you have mixed everything together, strain the mix through a very fine sieve to make sure that the mixture is perfectly smooth.
3. Drain the shiitake mushrooms from the water, remove the stems and slice in half. Add two of the sliced halves of shiitake, one large prawn and two slices of kamaboko to a small cup or bowl for each person. Then fill the cups with the egg mixture to near the top.
4. Preheat your steamer, add the cups to it and steam them on a low heat for approximately 15 minutes. You can poke a toothpick in the chawanmushi to check if it has set. If the toothpick still has egg mix on it, allow them to steam for a little longer.
   Serve as an appetiser to any traditional Japanese meal.

Tips and Information

- You can use a rice cooker as a steamer. Simply fill with a few cups of water and place the chawanmushi on a metal grill inside the rice cooker so that they don’t touch the water then run the normal cooking setting.
- You can use tsuyu concentrated dashi stock instead of dashi if you prefer. If you do this, you can eliminate the soy and cooking sake as tsuyu already has these ingredients included.
-  For traditional chawanmushi, we use chicken. If you fancy an extra taste why not try using chicken thighs as well.

Sources :
http://www.japanesecooking101.com/chawanmushi/ 
http://www.kikkoman.com/en/foodforum/japanese-style/29-4.html