Half boiled Ramen Eggs (糖心滷蛋)

Ramen Eggs

I have a friend who loves half boiled ramen eggs. She frequents her favourite ramen shop for these. These days, it is rare to find ramen shops that still serve half boiled ramen eggs due to health regulations. Most of the time, you get hard boiled eggs with your bowl of ramen. 

Half-boiled Eggs

That chewy white with the soft wet yolk that almost melts with your ramen soup. Hmmm... perfect combination. As part of my ramen "making" series, I made these eggs earlier to pair with my instant noodles. Bits and pieces... I hope I would eventually get to making the actual ramen. ;p

In any case, these eggs are good enough to hold one captive on its own! Simply good on its own. I love eggs... :)

糖心滷蛋

Recipe

3 Large Eggs (Room temperature)

3 Cups Water

1 Tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Soy sauce

1 Cup Water

3 Tbsp Mirin

3 Tbsp Sugar

1. Bring 3 cups water and salt to a boil.

2. Use a spoon or ladle, gently transfer eggs into the water. Make sure eggs are sitting in a single layer.

3. Cook eggs for 6 ~ 8 minutes on middle heat. Cook time varies with the heat and pot use.

4. Immediately soak eggs in cold water to prevent further cooking.

5. Mix soy sauce, 1 cup water, mirin and sugar. Whisk until sugar is incorporated. Set aside.

6. Soak a piece of paper coffee filter or cheesecloth in the soy sauce mixture.

6. Gently peel the eggs. Place eggs in a bowl in which they fit snugly in a single layer.

7. Pour soy sauce mixture over the eggs.

8. Place the soaked coffee filter or cheesecloth over the eggs. 

9. Soak eggs for at least two hours at room temperature or overnight in refrigerator.

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Tips & Tricks

1. The cooking time varies with the number of eggs, temperature of your raw eggs, your saucepan and stove heat. Experiment with the cooking time - starting at the 6 minutes and giving 30 seconds forward. Time starts when all eggs are added. When I use a larger pot and it took me 8 minutes to get the eggs to half boiled stage vs. for a smaller pot, it took me 6 minutes.

2. You can use an egg timer to help with the cooking. If you use the egg timer, transfer eggs to cold water once the indicator reached the 3/4 mark between soft and medium. The internal heat of the eggs will continue to cook the eggs as they cool in the cold water.

3. For softer whites, do not soak the eggs in soy sauce for more than 2 hours. The longer the eggs are soaked, the firmer the whites.

4. Be gentle while peeling the eggs. They are very fragile as the insides are still watery and soft.

5. If eggs are undercooked after peeling, you can return them to a pot of boiling water and cook further for about 3 minutes.

6. Use room temperature eggs. Eggs fresh out of fridge will crack once they hit the boiling water due to the sudden change in temperature.

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My Japanese Kitchen

For a picture of Mirin, please refer to my Chasu recipe.

Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku)

Strawberry Mochi - Ichigo Daifuku

I have a box of strawberries dying in my fridge. Yup - it's like 2 weeks old, very close to being "certified". I got to do something with them, but it's a lazy day for me. Regardless, I checked my pantry and found the box of Mochiko flour. Quick and simple - I decided it's Mochi time.

Japanese Mochi - Daifuku

Mochi is a very popular Japanese snack and you can often find a box of it in any Japanese or Asian supermarket. It's normally filled with red-bean or sesame fillings. I like mine with red bean (Azuki) fillings. It wasn't until recently, I discovered the Strawberry Mochi. WOW - it's soft chewy skin filled with Azuki wrapped around a crunchy juicy strawberry! I have one word for it WOW! It's ingenious... perfect combination.

Trio of Mochi

Time to impress the friends and family with this easy dessert. =)

Recipe

8 strawberries (medium size - about 1 inch each)
200g pre-made sweet red bean paste
1 cup Mochiko flour / Glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cup cornstarch

1. Wash and dry the strawberries.

2. Remove the head (i.e. the leaf and stem) of the strawberries. Use a paper towel to pat dry the strawberries.

3. Divide the red bean paste into 8 small balls. (About 25g each)

4. Wrap each strawberries with the red bean balls. Leave the tip of the strawberry uncovered.

5. In a microwave-safe bowl, mix the flour, sugar and water. Stir well until the mixture is well-combined.

6. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into microwave for 1 minute.

7. Remove and mix with a wet spoon or spatula.

8. Return bowl back to microwave for another 1 minute. Now mixture has turned sticky with some white parts.

9. Remove and mix with a a wet spoon or spatula.

10. Return bowl back to microwave for a further 30 seconds. Now the mixture should be sticky and translucent. Mixture has turned into mochi.

11. Cover your work surface with plastic wrap. Spread 1 cup of corn starch onto the plastic wrap. Put mochi on top.

12. Dust 1/4 cup of cornstarch on top of the mochi. Let cool for 1 minute.

13. Dust the spatula or your hands with cornstarch and fold the mochi into half. Dust 1/4 cup of cornstarch on top of mochi.

14. Dust a rolling pin with cornstarch. Roll out the mochi into 1/2 inch thick.

15. Use a round cookie cutter or a small bowl, cut the mochi into 8 circles.

16. Put the mochi on top of the strawberry - one at a time, covering the tip of the strawberry.

17. Start covering the strawberry by pulling the mochi to the bottom. When all ends of the mochi meet, twist and close.

18. Repeat until all strawberries are wrapped in mochi.

19. Served at room temperature. Do not chill / refrigerate the mochi.

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 Tips and tricks

1. Cut the strawberries such that it will stand flat on the top.

2. Make sure that the strawberries are completely dried before wrapping in red bean paste. The paste will not stick to wet strawberries.

3. The red bean paste will stick to your hands. Use a damp paper towel to wipe your hands after making each red bean balls. This way you will get them nicely shape each time.

4. Mochi sticks to everything. Make sure your hands, utensils and work surface is well covered with cornstarch.

5. Coated the rolling pin with cornstarch as you start rolling. This has to be done a few times to prevent the mochi from sticking as it spread out.

6. You can check out the video below on how to wrap the mochi.

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My Japanese Kitchen

Mochiko Flour

Mochiko flour, a.k.a. Sweet rice flour is often used for making mochi. Some mochi recipes may asked for Glutinous rice flour but this can be used instead. If buying glutinous rice flour, make sure to get the Japanese brands as their texture is slightly different from the Asian or Chinese ones.

The Japanese glutinous rice flour can be quite expensive - a pack of 120 grams cost US$5 in Mitsuwa. The Mochiko flour is much cheaper and does the job. I got my Mochiko flour (454 grams) for US$2 at the local Asian supermarket.

You should find the Mochiko flour next to all the sugar and flour in your local Asian supermarket. I can only find the Japanese glutinous rice flour in Japanese supermarket.

Red Bean Paste

There are two kinds of red bean paste - coarse (as shown as above) and fine. I used the brand Shirakiku which makes both types of the red bean paste. The coarse paste is known as Tsubu An and the fine paste is Anko Koshian. The key difference between both types is that you can find bits of red beans in the coarse paste while the fine paste is smooth without any bits.

Most times, you can use the both version interchangeably. Personally, I prefer to use the fine version for mochi and the coarse version for making pastry.

Japanese Chasu

Japanese Chasu

Japanese Chasu is quite different from the Chinese Chasiu. Japanese Chasu is mainly roast pork in soy sauce while Chinese Chasiu is a barbecue pork with soy sauce and hoisin sauce. Japanese Chasu often uses the pork belly meat while Chinese Chasu mainly used the pork loin meat.

I love the round Japanese Chasu that you often find in a bowl of delicious ramen. After all, what's not to love about this juicy dish - with layers of fats and tender meat melting in your mouth at every bite. Yummy-licious is the word for it.

Japanese Chasu rice

One of our favorite Chasu from Santouka. We never failed to order an extra bowl of Chasu rice when we visit Santouka. The Santouka's Chasu uses mainly pork cheeks meat which is one of the fattiest meat of the pig but the most tender. You can get pork cheeks meat at many Chinese supermarket. It is sometimes also called pork neck meat. However, it's difficult to achieve the round Chasu shape with pork neck meat, so I chose to use pork belly meat for my Chasu recipe.

After searching through various blogs, I combined and tweaked the recipes from Just One Cookbook and No Recipe to come up with my easy to make Chasu recipe.

Japanese Chasu with rice

Japanese Chasu

Recipe

2 piece of pork belly meat (2 pounds each - request your butcher to remove the skin)
2 tablespoon of Konbu Cha or salt 
3 cup water
4 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon miso
6 tablespoon soy sauce
8 tablespoon mirin
8 tablespoon sake
30 grams ginger (slice into 4 ~ 5 pieces)
8 cloves garlic (smashed)
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper corns
1 stalk of green onion (cut into 4 inches)

1. Rub the pork belly with Konbu Cha or salt.

2. Roll the pork belly into a round shape. Using the pork belly skin, wrap around the meat and secure with string. If you don't need the round shape, cut the pork belly into 4 quarters.

3. Put all ingredients into a pot. The sauce or water should cover 3/4 of the pork.

4. Cover the pork with an Otoshibuta. Make sure that all corners of the pot is covered and steam is only coming out of the holes of the Otoshibuta.

5. Cooking over medium high heat for approximately 10 minutes. Once it starts to simmer, lower the heat to medium low and cook the meat for approximately 2.5 hours.

6. Check the meat occasionally after 2 hours. Turn off heat when there is only 1 inch of the liquid left. The liquid should have thicken and is shiny.

7. Wait for meat to cool completely before slicing.

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