Chicken and egg
Since I've had a few requests for this recipe, I thought I might as well post it here. The original was by David Fokos on alt.food.sushi, but I've adapted it slightly.
Chawanmushi
Ingredients
For the custard:
4 eggs / 5 eggs / 6 eggs
2 ½ cups / 3 ⅛ cups / 3 ¾ cups dashi (warm water + dashi powder to taste) or chicken stock
2 tsp / 2 ½ tsp / 3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp / 1 ¼ tsp / 1 ½ tsp mirin (sweet Japanese rice cooking wine)
Other ingredients:
Whole peeled prawns and/or scallops sprinkled with sake
Small cubes or thin slices of chicken sprinkled with soy sauce
Thin slices of kamaboko (Japanese fish cake)
Mushrooms (enoki, dobin, shiitake cooked in dashi with soy sauce and mirin)
Ginkgo nuts (cooked)
Thin strips of spinach or lemon rind for decorating on top
Procedure:
1. Add all the custard ingredients EXCEPT the eggs to the dashi. A little of this can be used to cook the mushrooms and/or ginkgo. Put the cooked mushrooms and/or ginkgo aside and return the remaining dashi to the bowl.
2. Break the eggs into a large bowl. Beat them lightly to avoid bubbling.
3. Pour the warm (not hot) dashi into the eggs and mix. Strain through a sieve.
4. Line up the chawan. Chawan are small ceramic cups with lids. If you don't have chawan, you can use ordinary coffee mugs.
Distribute the other ingredients at the bottom of the cups. Don't try to fill the cups, just leave some nice surprises.
Pour the egg mixture into each cup, leaving about a quarter inch at the top. Criss-cross a couple of thin strips of spinach on top of the egg mixture then cover each cup with a piece of foil or the lid.
5. In a wide pot big enough to hold all the cups, boil about 1"-2" of water, about half the height of the cups.
6. When the water boils, place the cups in, lower the heat to medium low. Cover the pot and steam until the custard has set (i.e. a bamboo skewer will come out clean) – about 10–15 minutes. Leave lids on until ready to eat.
Here's another recipe that's got me great feedback. It's really my grandmother's, but I'll set it down here for posterity! Estimate your own proportion of ingredients.
Marinade for grilled/roast/BBQ chicken
* Premium dark soy sauce (generous amount to get a better colour)
* Ginger juice (from freshly grated ginger)
* Shaoxing rice wine
* Sesame oil
* Maggi seasoning
* A generous amount of salt
You get the best results by marinating the chicken (whole or pieces) overnight. I like to salt my chicken really well, which also helps to produce a crisp skin. Alternatively, you could put less salt in the marinade, and brush on more salt before cooking - that should give you a crisp skin without the flesh becoming too salty.
For the record, my other favourite marinades for roast chicken include Nando's extra hot peri-peri sauce (will have to try making my own someday), and tarragon-garlic (minced garlic, chopped fresh tarragon, olive oil, lots of salt - to go under the skin as well as on).
