Steamed Egg Custard Soup

== Description ==
Rev. Saito was a great cook. We enjoyed his cooking. He loved to treat people by making sushi, steamed fish, and steak. During one Buddhist retreat he made the largest chawan-mushi (steamed egg-custard soup) I had seen in my life. Ignoring the traditional method, which involved a small soup cup, he used a huge pot into which he put dozens of eggs. When he cooked, I used to cut vegetables for him. Thanks to him, I am now not so much a Buddhist scholar as a kitchen helper. My wife Tomoko is very grateful to him because he domesticated me and taught me how to cut vegetables and cook.
== Ingredients ==
* 80 g boned chicken thigh, cut into small bite-sized pieces
* dash of sake and light soy sauce
* 4 prawns, shelled
* dash of salt
* 1 sea eel (commercially grilled), cut lengthwise into halves and again cut across into 1 cm wide strips
* ¼ lily bulb, flaked and lightly boiled
* 8 ginkgo nuts, shelled with soft skin removed
* ⅓ bunch of Japanese honewort, discard the leaves and cut the stalk into 1.5 cm sections
* 400 cc dashi
* 15 cc mirin
* 15 cc light soy sauce
* ½ tsp salt
* 2 eggs, well beaten until smooth
* ¼ yuzu, rind cut into several pieces
== Directions ==
# Boil the Chicken pieces until white on the surface. 
# Soak in cold water and drain. 
# Sprinkle with sake and light soy sauce the evenly coat using fingers. 
# Set aside for 5 to 6 minutes.
# Make a shallow cut on the dorsal side of prawns to devain. Sprinkle with salt and rub well. Rinse in water and drain. Cut into halves.
# Put dashi, mirin, light soy sauce and salt in a mixing bowl and blend thoroughly. 
# Add already beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
# Strain through a narrow meshed strainer for a smoother texture.
# Place Chicken, prawns, sea eel, lily bulb, ginkgo nuts and Japanese honewort into small heatproof bowls and pour in the egg mixture. 
# Cover and cook in a preheated steamer over high heat for the first 3 minutes. 
# After checking that the surface of the egg mixture has a whitish hue, reduce the heat to low and cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. 
# Pierce a bamboo skewer through the center of the egg custard to check whether soup is clear. 
# Remove from steamer and top with yuzu rind.
Category:Chicken Recipes
Category:Citron Recipes
Category:Dashi Recipes
Category:Eel Recipes
Category:Ginkgo nut Recipes
Category:Japanese Soups
Category:Mirin Recipes
Category:Mitsuba Recipes
Category:Prawn Recipes
Category:Sake Recipes