Matsutake "chawanmushi" savory egg custard 松茸の茶碗蒸し

I have posted "chawanmushi"  茶碗蒸し or Japanese savory egg custard before. "Chawan" means "bowl" (more literally "tea bowl" but this word is usually used to just mean a generic bowl) and "mushi" means to steam. Although this is a very popular dish in Japan, only rarely do you see it served in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. Since I got fresh matsutake from Oregon mushroom and I posted most of the ways I can think of to serve matsutake before, I decided to make chawanmush with matsutake.

Although I have traditional lidded containers specifically designed for chawanmush, I have been using a set of 6 small bowls for chawanmush for sometime (picture below). I am not sure where I got this one but probably by mail order. This must have been for export, since the traditional Japanese set is either 5 or 10. In any case, three eggs make the perfect amount for these 6 small bowls. The two important tips to make good chawanmushi is the ratio between the eggs and the broth and how to steam it.

Matsutake: I had two relatively large matsutake left. After I cleaned it, I sliced it. 

Eggs: I used 3 large eggs. Since the size of eggs is not uniform,  I measured the amount after lightly beating the eggs (this time, it was 150ml).

Broth: I made dashi broth using a dashi pack (kelp and bonito kind). The amount of liquid should be 3 times of the eggs. (In my case, the final broth should be 150ml x 3 =450 ml). I first measured about 400ml of the broth and I added light colored soy sauce or "usukuchi shouuyu" 薄口醤油 (1 tbs) and mirin (1tbs).  (Taste and if the saltiness is not enough, add salt instead of soy sauce to prevent further darkening the color of the custard. I did not need it this time). I added more broth to make it exactly 3 times of the eggs (in this case, 450 ml).

Egg mixture: I mixed the broth and the eggs trying not to make too many bubbles on the surface. It is important to strain the egg mixture through a fine sieve. If not strained, Chalaza and other chunks of egg white will congeal in chawanmushi producing a very unpleasant white hard spot.

Other ingredients: Since the main feature of this chawanmushi was matsutake, I only used a few other items in this dish; ginko nuts (prepared, in a can, 5-6 in each bowl) and thinly sliced chicken tenderloin (2). After I placed the ginko nuts and the chicken meat in each bowl, I poured in the strained egg mixture. If I had it, I would have used mitsuba 三つ葉 for granish but instead, I had to settle for thinly sliced (on a slant) scallion.

Steaming: I used an electric wok. I started on medium high heat with continuos steam for 2 minutes or so and turned it down to low intermittent steam. After 5 minutes when the surface became lighter yellow and congealed, I placed sliced matsutake and scallion on the top and continued steaming for another 15-20 minutes until a clear liquid started coming or from the custard.

I have to admit the difference between using fresh shiitake mushroom (my usual) and mastutake is subtle but there is a sublime subtle aroma and flavor of matsutake. This dish is so delicate only cold sake could be our choice of libation. Over the next few days I served the remaining chawanmush cold (I could have made cold broth which can be poured over it but I did not). Even cold, it is very good.

New Year's Eve: Champagne and Chawanmushi with sea urchin and salmon roe 大晦日夜 シャンパンと雲丹とイクラのせ茶碗蒸し

This was the last day of 2011. According to the old Japanese system for counting a person's age called "Kazoe-doshi" 数え年, everybody turned one year older on New year's day and New Year's Eve was referred to as "Otoshitori" お年取り meaning to be a year older. Although eating soba noodles or "toshikoshi soba" 年越しそば on New Year's Eve appears to be popular, this was not the custom in our household when I was growing up. I think eating soba noodles is more a custom for trades people who simply did not have enough time to make an elaborate dinner on New year's eve. My mother used to give us a feast for New Year's Eve akin to Christmas dinner.

In any case, New Year's Eve has very important (added personal) significance to us. We opened a bottle of Champaign. To go with the bottle of vintaged Champaign, my opening salvo was a chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し or Japanese savory egg custard topped with California gold uni and salmon roe (ikura).

My chawanmushi recipe is the same as before; three parts seasoned dashi broth and one part whole egg. To accommodate the special toppings, I did not use all the ingredients I usually use such as shiitake mushroom and shrimp. Instead I used only ginko nuts (from a can), shimeji mushroom, small pieces of chicken and sliced (on a slant) scallion. As ususal, from 3 eggs (about 150ml) plus seasoned dashi broth (450ml), I made 6 small containers (a small cup for dipping soba noodle) as you see below.

I let it sit after steaming was completed for 10 minutes so that the chawanmushi was not too hot and topped it with the uni and ikura. This was the ultimate--perhaps only surpassable with the addition of foie gras but I have not tried that yet!. This dish went so well with this Champagne. Although we are not champagne connoisseurs by a long shot, this particular one had a pleasant yeastiness with a fruity finish that went very well with the richness of the dish.

This was followed by a small sashimi (tuna and uni) and pickled herring in cream sauce (the white stuff in the picture above). The pickled herring was a nod to my wife's tradition of eating herring on New Year's eve. She claims this came from growing up in Pennsylvania Dutch country. She admitted, however, that the herring was too harsh a flavor compared to the subtlety of the sashimi.

As a small grilled fish dish, I served fatty belly of salmon (harasu ハラス), simply salted and cooked in a frying pan accompanied by namasu daikon (daikon in sweet vinegar) garnished with ikura. After a few more dishes including a small hand roll of salmon skin as a shime dish, only thing we had to do was stay awake until midnight to see in the new year.

Party platters from Tako Grill タコグリルからのパーティープラター

On our last trip to Japan we, of course, visited my mother. We offered to take my mother and her two sisters (my aunts) out for lunch, but she said it was easier and more relaxing if we just stayed in and had the get-together at the house. My mother then produced a flyer she had just received from a chain sushi restaurant called "Kaisen-maru" 海鮮丸. Although she had not tried them before, she suggested that we order a sushi platter for our “aunts’ luncheon party. Just one phone call and a few hours later, a very polite and professional young man appeared at the front door with a large sushi platter and an order of chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し(still warm). (The choice of '”side” was miso soup or chawanmushi). He collected the money (a very reasonable price) and said "please leave the empty sushi-oke and bowls outside the front door when you finish". He added that he would come back later and collect them; which he did--they quietly disappeared soon after we put them out. The degree of service was just amazing (the sushi came in real "sushi-oke" 寿司桶 not a disposable plastic plate and the chawanmushi came in real porcelain bowls). My mother made miso soup using baby clams which happened to be one of my Aunt’s absolute favorite. The quality of sushi was pretty good considering it was a delivery from a chain sushi restaurant. We had a quite a feast and a very relaxing good time.

March is a busy birthday month for us with 3 to celebrate including our best friends. Using the Aunt’s party as a prototype my wife suggested we order a sushi platter from our Tako Grill for a “March Birthday” party. To “increase my enjoyment and relaxation” my wife forbade me from cooking for the occasion.  So we ordered a sushi platter from Tako Grill.

Since one of the guests was a vegetarian, I asked Mr Segawa of Tako Grill to include more vegetable rolls than usual.

It was very nicely presented and even the "gari" ginger was arranged like a yellow rose. California roll in the front and "kankyou" maki かんぴょう巻き (vegetarian)  in the back (above picture).

As you can see, sushi included tuna, yellow tail, flounder, eel, mackerel, salmon roe, California roll and few interesting vegetarian rolls. In addition to the sushi platter, we also asked Mr. Segawa to prepare Japanese-style appetizers.

The above is konnyaku dengaku (vegetarian) こんにゃくの田楽; the darker one are with peanuts sauce and the lighter ones (right) is more traditional miso sauce.

In the back, these are very nice and crispy chicken kara-age 鳥の唐揚げ, the front right are  pork and onion kushiage 串揚げ and the front left are grilled marinated cubed steak サイコロステーキの串焼き. Mr Segawa also gave us asparagus dressed in tofu dressing (vegetarian) アスパラの白和え, which I forgot to take a picture.

As a desert, my wife ordered a dozen cupcakes on the internet from Georgetown Cupcake for pick-up at the Bethesda store. I am not sure why cupcakes are so popular now-a-days but Georgetown cupcake appears to have started this trend. My wife said she has even seen a pink truck labeled Curb-side cupcakes selling cupcakes in downtown DC and people line up on the side walk to buy them. When we arrived at the store for pick-up, the line extended out of the store and half-way down the block. This was despite a very heavy rain.



Everything was wonderful. The chicken, pork and steak were flavorful—the chicken especially crispy. The vegetarian rolls were creative and plentiful. Even the non-vegetarians were satisfied.  We all had a wonderful time and was indeed the best birthday party ever.

Disclaimer: Although Tako Grill has its party platters including sushi, rolls, and appetizers, the platter shown here included some personal modifications Mr. Segawa made for us that may not be available on the usual menu.  

Savory Japanese egg custard with eggs, eggs, and more eggs ウズラの卵，ウニ，イクラ、カマスの卵のせ茶碗蒸し

Finally my right hand is out of the cast. While the recovery is slow, the strength is coming back and I started cooking again. (my wife was more than happy to turn over the set of cooking knives and all that they entail). To celebrate the fact that I can once again hold a knife and cut sashimi, I ordered blue fine tuna, yellow tail (hamachi) sashimi, and uni from Catalina. In addition, we had some left over caviar from Fine Caviar. We decided to indulge and make a few dishes that would go well with sake. The first one was a Japanese savory (not sweet) egg custard (Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し) which contained boiled quail eggs and was topped with salmon eggs and golden pike eggs (caviar) and uni.



The chawanmush was served at room temperature (so as not to “cook” the caviar) and garnished with chopped chive and my usual "real" wasabi.



I made the chawanmushi in the same way as before. I mixed 3 eggs (about 150ml) and 450ml of kelp dashi broth seasoned with light-colored soy sauce or usukuchi shoyu 薄口醤油, salt, and mirin みりん. I poured this through a fine-meshed strainer into individual small bowls. Since I was planning to top it with uni and salmon roe, I did not put in any meat or shrimp but just Ginko nuts (銀杏), (from a can), chopped scallion, and fresh shiitake mushroom (sliced) and boiled quail eggs (ウズラの卵, cut in half, from a can) as seen below.



The amount of egg mixture made 6 small containers (actually soba dipping cups). I steamed them rather slowly using an electric wok for 30 minutes until the custard was set. I removed them from the steamer covered them loosely with a paper towel, and let them cool to room temperature. Except for the two we planned to eat in a few hours, I covered the rest with plastic wrap and move them to the refrigerator for future enjoyment.



This is just a variation on the theme of chawanmushi. The uni was not one of the best (Catalina only had "Premium" but "Gold" is the best). Although the flavor of the uni was good, the consistency was much softer and it had slightly slimy texture. Nonetheless the dish was adequately decadent. It was very good. We mixed up all the eggs and the egg custard and enjoyed the symphony of eggs.

Matsutake feast 2019 松茸尽くし ２０１９

Oregon mushrooms just started shipping North American fresh matsutake. Although North American matsutake is no comparison to the Japanese or even Mexican variety, we usually get them just to commemorate the season. As I posted before, this matsutake requires more aggressive cleaning since the dirt is embedded into the skin of the mushroom and just rubbing with a moist towel does not do the job. I have posted everything posted here and some more.  But this is a once a year matsutake feast.

Since I do not have an appropriate set of "dobin-mushi" 土瓶蒸し vessels,  I used mini-donabes to serve Matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物.

For color, I added blanched broccolini, thinly shaved carrot and chives. I also added cubes of cod and shrimp.

The soup base is bonito-kelp broth (using a dashi pack) and seasoned with mirin and light colored "usukuchi" soy sauce 薄口醤油. The cod and shrimp (Venezuelan red shrimp), both were previously frozen, stored in our freezer and thawed the morning I made the dish. I salted and marinated them in sake before adding to the soup. Upon opening the lids of the soup containers, the lovely matsutake aroma wafted up. (This initial whiff of  matsutake fragrance is one of the traditional "enjoyments" of this dish.)  This is the first time I used cod for this type of soup (any gentle tasting white meat fish will do). The cod was thick fleshed and tender and really good. The shrimp was sweet and excellent as well.

I was planning to have a chawanmushi 松茸の茶碗蒸し next but it took longer than I planned for it to finish cooking so I served matustake touban yaki 松茸の陶板焼き next. We enjoyed it simply with salt and lemon.

Finally, the chawanmush was done. For this batch, I added the cod, shrimp, kyo-bu 京麩 (dried gluten cake, rehydrated),  a cube of dashimaki だし巻き Japanese omelet (egg-in-egg idea). As usual, I made six so that we could enjoy the "leftovers" later.

I garnished it with finely chopped fresh chives. The soft egg custard was infused with matsutake aroma/flavor.

#1. This is the amount of matsutake I used for 6 small chawanmushi (about three matsutake).
#2. The first layer of the chawanmush is, of course, the matsutake.
#3. Kyo-bu is a small decorative gluten cake from Kyoto. It does not have any taste by itself. Just texture and whatever it  absorbed.
#4. Shrimp.
#5. Cod.
#6. Cube of dashimaki.

This was a sort-of treasure hunt. We love chawanmushi of any kind but this was a bit special. I used to add ginko nuts which, in the past, were readily available in a can (boiled) but not anymore for some reason. They just disappeared and we have not seen them anywhere. Finally we finished our feast with matsutake-gohan 松茸ご飯. This time I think I made it perfectly. The rice was slightly firm but well cooked.

For this occasion, I wheeled out my special "Kamado-san" earthenware rice cooking pot (#1).  As per the instructions, I  set the inner lid with its steam holes arranged perpendicular to the outer lid steam hole; necessary for the rice to cook properly(#2). As usual, I used bonito-kelp broth seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce which I enhanced by adding rehydrated strips of kelp and soaking liquid. When the lid was lifted, the smell the matsutake and freshly cooked rice (good combination) wafted up (#3). I mixed the rice and the matsutake before serving (#4).

Besides, the matsutake dishes, we had a few more of our  usual appetizers and cold sake. Once a year, this is worth doing.

Mitsuba ミツバ

Mitsuba 三つ葉 is a sort of Japanese parsley mainly used as a garnish or topping for certain dishes such as soup, katsu-don カツ丼 and chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し. “Mitsuba” in Japanese means three leaves since it has three leaves. It has a very distinctive and unique flavor. In the past, I rarely got fresh ones at our Japanese grocery store and I could get dried ones which do not have much flavor. I tried to grow it a few times from the seeds (from Kitazawa seeds) which was not a great success for some reason. This time the mitsuba we planted in a pot on the window sill grew quite nicely (picture #1). 

I added this home-grown fresh mitsuba to the usual chawanmushi I make (picture #2). I mixed the stalks which were cut into small pieces into the egg mixture but I added the leaves just 30 seconds before serving. This time I served chawanmush hot just out of the steamer.

Althouhg mitsuba is not a major component of the any dishes incuding the chawanmushi, I really like the unique flavor.

All Matsutake lunch 松茸尽くしの昼食

Since it was Matsutake 松茸 season, we ordered fresh matsutake from Oregon Mushroom as usual. They offer grade #1 and grade#2/#3 with grade#1 being the better matsutake with unopened caps. This year, they had some problem harvesting grade#1 matsutake and there was some delay before we received it. Around the same time, we received Northern American chestnuts from Gilolami farms. So, we have two major ingredients for our annual autumnal feast. I have posted all the chestnut and matsutake recipes I can think of previously.  In any case, on one weekend, we had this all matsutake lunch consisting of matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, chawanmushi 松茸茶碗蒸しand clear soup 松茸のお吸物.

I made the Matsutake rice the night before using the Kamado-san donabe rice cooker.


I heated the rice for lunch just microwaving it and topping it with thin slices of fresh matsutake. I garnished with green part of scallion. The fresh matsutake slices added a wonderful subtle aroma to this dish.



I also made matsutake chawanmushi and clear soup for this lunch. For both, I used a filet of sole which was first salted and sprinkled with sake, cut into bite sized pieces and gently poached (I turned off the heat after I added the sole) in dashi broth for few minutes (as usual, I made it with a dashi pack containing dried bonito flakes and kelp).

In the chawanmush, I only included thinly sliced matsutake and small pieces of poached dover sole filet. I garnished with snow peas (added to the chawanmush at the last 5 minutes of steaming) and garnished with yuzu skin (from frozen packed) and scallion.



I made clear soup from the same prepared broth seasoned with light colored soys sauce or usukuchi shouyu 薄口醤油, a splash of mirin and salt. I added silken tofu from Japan, matsutake slices. I also added yuzu skin and snow pea.



This was a rather luxurious lunch. The sole filet was very mild in flavor and had a melt-in-your-mouth consistency which was very nice.  The chawamushi was lava hot initially but the silky consistency and subtle matsutake aroma were sublime. We succumbed to having our house sake daiginjou "MU" 大吟醸　無--but just one glass.

Matsutake Dinner 松茸

When we got 1 lb of matsutake 松茸, we had to concentrate on having an “all matsutake” dinner so that we could finish it before it went bad. Nothing new here but the proof that an all matsutake dinner is definitely not too much of a good thing.  They are similar or identical to I posted before (Sakamushi 酒蒸し, Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, Tenpura 天ぷら, Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, Grilled 焼き松茸, Dobinmushi 土瓶蒸し).

Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 and clear soup of matsutake 松茸のすまし汁.



Matsutake grilled on touban 松茸の陶板焼き.



Matsutake chawanmushi 松茸の茶碗蒸し with ginko nuts and chicken.



This was the second version of matsutake omelet 松茸のオムレツ. Instead of chopped scallion, I used chopped shallot.



I think we can wait for one year for the next matsutake feast.

Chawanmushi with Wood Ear and Enoki Mushroom 新鮮キクラゲとエノキ茶碗蒸し

This is not a new dish just a variation on an established one but the variation came out rather nicely. Since we received fresh wood ear and enoki mushrooms 木耳、榎茸 some days ago when we got some groceries delivered from the Asian grocery store “weee”, that we tried for the first time,  I needed to use up the mushrooms. I decide to try this combination in chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し. I served this cold and topped it with ikura slamon roe and strips of nori seaweed.

The picture below is before I put on the topping. You can see a piece of shrimp, as well as the wood ear and enoki mushrooms.

I made this exactly as before (3 eggs which is about 150ml and 450ml seasoned dashi broth). Steamed on high for 3 minutes and low for 30 minutes. It came out perfectly. This is not spectacular but the combination of wood ear and enoki gave contrasting texture and subtle flavors. The best thing is that I used up both sets of mushrooms.

Hanami 2016 Day 2 花見 2016 二日目

The cherry blossoms will be over very soon but we squeezed in one more day of hanami.

Still cold but nicely sunny with blue sky.

As I mentioned, previously we have three cherry trees. The newer tree, which we planted, is quite spectacular in its own right. When in full bloom the branches look like thick bottle brushes of pink cherry blossoms as shown in the picture above. The cherry blossoms on the older trees are more old-fashioned, light pink, delicately ethereal and very elegant as shown in the picture below. The two types of tree usually bloom at slightly different times. This year it was a treat that they bloomed together. 

At least, for this hanami I had a chance to go to our regular grocery store and bought a few items to make more hanami drinking snacks. I realized the garlic chives ニラ have emerged in our herb garden. So I made this dish. I did not follow any recipe but it is chicken tenderloin encased in omelet with garlic chives. I served this with green beans sautéed in butter (in the same frying pan I cooked the chicken). On the side, I put ketchup and Sriracha (small amount).  

I removed the small tendon/sinew from the top of the tenderloins, seasoned with salt and pepper. I chopped garlic chive I harvested from the herb garden.

I mixed in with a beaten egg.

I dipped the tenderloins in the egg mixture and started frying in butter. I added more egg mixture and I turned the tenderloins over so that the omelet encased the tenderloin. I repeated this process until all the egg mixture was used.

I also made my usual chawanmushi 茶碗蒸しwith crabmeat and garlic chives. I also put in some ginko nuts 銀杏 (from a can), chicken tenderloin thinly sliced against the grain of the meat.  We used our cherry blossom cut glass sake cups.

Before steaming the chawanmushi I added the smaller chunks of crabmeat to the egg mixture to be cooked into the custard. After 10 minutes of steaming, when the surface of the custard was cooked enough that the crabmeat would not sink into the custard I added the largest chunks of crabmeat.

While at the market I also got a salmon filet. As usual, I removed the belly portion and made it into a drinking snack. This time I simply seasoned with salt and pepper and pan fried it in butter. I made sure the skin was nicely crispy. I served it with asparagus which were cooked in the same pan.

So we managed to squeeze in one more day of hanami.

Matsutake Omelet 松茸のオムレツ

When the season for chestnut 栗 and Matsutake 松茸 comes, I cannot help myself and rush to order some. I order Matsutake either from Oregon Mushrooms or Earthy delights. This year, I ordered from Earthy Delights. The matustake is from North America probably from Oregon or Colorado. One pound of matsutake is quite a lot. Most of the matsutake we received was just before the caps open and the quality appears much better than last year. Since I posted many matsutake dishes (Sakamushi 酒蒸し, Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, Tenpura 天ぷら, Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, Grilled 焼き松茸, Dobinmushi 土瓶蒸し) before, I have to come up with something new. One weekend morning, my wife suggested that since truffles and eggs go well together and since matsutake is Japanese truffle, egg and matsutake should go well together. How about an omelet? This is what I came up with. I made the omelet from two eggs and we shared it.



Since the flavor (smell) of matsutake is rather delicate (faint), I decide to make it as simple as possible.

Matsutake: I used three small to small matsutake (below left). As usual, I cleaned them with a wet paper towel and gently scraped the skin with a sharp paring knife. Some times embedded dirt is very difficult to remove but these matsutake were rather clean. I cut off  the bottom halves of the stalks and finely chopped them. The caps and attached portion of the stalks were sliced (below right).

Scallion: I chopped up two scallions finely reserving the green part for garnish.

Eggs: I used two large brown eggs well beaten with addition of cream (2 tbs) and a pinch of salt.


In a small frying pan, I added light olive oil (2 tsp) on medium flame. When the oil was hot, I sautéed the chopped scallion for few minutes, seasoned with salt and added the chopped up matsutake stalks. I sautéed for another 1 minutes. I pushed the chopped scallion and matsutake to one side of the pan and then cooked the slices of the matsutake turning once so that both sides had a nice color.

In another non-stick small frying pan on medium low flame, I added a pat of sweet butter (1/2 tbs) and let it melt but not brown. I poured in the egg mixture at once. Because of the cream, the omelet was rather fragile and soft. Instead of my usual way of forming the omelet as I place it on the plate, I decided to from an omelet in the pan. After I lifted the edge of the omelet as the bottom was set to let the uncooked egg to run under for several times, only just a thin coat of uncooked egg on the surface remained. I added the chopped and sautéed scallion and matsutake in the center of the omelet and using a wrist motion, aided with a spatula, I formed it to an omelet (see below).



I cut the omelet in half and garnished with the matsutake slices and green part of the scallion (The first picture).

As in the case of truffles, the delicate earthy flavor of matsutake and soft omelet are a good combination. I served it without any condiments or sauce. I even did not use pepper in the seasoning. Definitely this is a good way to bring up and enjoy the flavors (smells) of matsutake.