Pumpkin Chawanmushi

I haven’t been posting or blog visiting for a while because I just had wisdom tooth surgery last Friday (still ouch!). So amidst recuperating at home, sleeping at 10pm every night, catching up on some work, and playing fable2 on xbox360, I didn’t have much online time. And sadly, one of my beloved hamsters Nikole passed away suddenly yesterday, which couldn’t come at a worse time (not that anytime is a good time) T_T

Thank you for the kind comments left on my blog for the past week … sorry I haven’t had to time to reply to most of them or visit you yet, but I promise to visit and reply once I have more online time!

Pumpkin Chawanmushi

No matter how busy life becomes, Halloween comes but once a year … so how can one miss cooking with pumpkin at this time of the year? Glad I still managed to sneak in some pumpkin into the cooking and make these adorable, (post-surgery-chew-friendly) pumpkin chawanmushi. The addition of pumpkin sweetens up this popular Japanese appetizer.

For those who aren’t familiar, Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) is egg custard that’s steamed in a tea cup and usually consists of an egg mixture flavored with soy sauce, sake and dashi. It is a traditional Japanese dish, commonly eaten as an appetizer. It can be eaten either hot and cool with a small spoon. I love to order this when I go to Japanese restaurants, but I realised that making it at home isn’t difficult at all and you can make all kinds of variations like this pumpkin variation by tweaking the basic recipe.

Ingredients
(makes 3-4 cups)

A) For the egg custard mixture::
- 3 eggs (4 if the eggs are small)
- 1 2/3 cups (about 250ml) kombu and bonito stock
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp sake or white cooking wine
- 3/4 to 1 tbsp light soy sauce

B) Filling::
- Kamaboko fish cake slices
- 4 large Prawns, de-shelled and de-veined
- feel free to add other ingredients (such as mushrooms, chicken, Imitation sharks fin, gingko nuts etc)

Others:
- 80g (raw) pumpkin flesh (skin and seeds removed)

Directions
1. Blend the pumpkin until smooth using a blender.
2. Break the eggs into the bowl. Gently stir the eggs with a pair of chopsticks using a cutting action.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients from A to the eggs mixture, as well as 50g of blended pumpkin. Blend the mixture till fine. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
4. Place fish cakes, chopped prawns and other ingredients at the bottom of each cup and pour the egg mixture over (do not fill to the brim, leave some gap on top).
5. Cover the cups with lids, transparent food wrap or aluminum foil (do not leave an opening).
6. Steam the cups over high heat for about 10 mins. To test if the chawanmushi is cooked, insert a bamboo stick into the mixture: if a little clear liquid comes out, it is cooked.
7. Steam the remaining blended pumpkin and 1 large prawn (half) for 5 minutes. Garnish on top of chawanmushi. You can also add some ebikko (egg roe) to garnish if you wish.

Cooking Notes:

- Straining the mixture through a fine sieve prevents bubbles from forming on the surface of the custard.
- You can cheat by buying instant powdered kombu and bonito stock (I did!), or you can also make it from scratch.
- Use a ceramic material for steaming the egg custard. Plastic material will melt during steaming. I bought my tea cups at Daiso.
- When steaming the cups, make sure they are sealed, other wise the evaporating droplets will land on the custard during steaming and cause unsightly bubbles.

Related Recipe
- Basic Chawanmushi

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I am submitting this Japanese-&-Halloween inspired Pumpkin Chawanmushi to Weekend Wokking, one of my favourite food events on the net. This month’s host is the wonderful Ning of Heart and Hearth featuring pumpkin (what an apt and delightful choice!). Check out the round up of pumpkin dishes here.

{{In memory of Nikole Chan}}

Rest in Peace, Nikole Chan … run free at the Sunflower Valley, with lots of food!

Update (6 Nov 08)

This recipe is selected as featured recipe for Cookthink’s Root Source Challenge (Pumpkin). A big thank you to cookthink for selecting my entry ^o^

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Tagged as: dashi, egg, mirin, pumpkin