Japanese Eggplant, Chawan Mushi Egg Custard and Rice With Mountain Vegetables from “The Asian Kitchen”

I’m testing the recipes from a new Asian cookbook one country at a time. The Asian Kitchen is divided this way, with gorgeous photos and tips jammed into each chapter.

First up was Japan.

The recipes are all homestyle – nothing too chef-y – and cover the dishes you’ve probably heard of (sushi, yakisoba, miso fish, seaweed salad) and those you maybe haven’t (seasoned chicken loaf , grilled tofu topped with sweet miso, fish tempura with clear dashi broth, jellied plums).

So I decided to make a full meal starting with the basics.

That meant dashi – the mother broth. And from there came eggplant with ginger and bonito flakes, rice with mountain vegetables and dried mushrooms, the ultimate chawan mushi, and lotus root and potatoes in dashi and sake.

My quarter Japanese friend grew up on chawan mushi and thinks of it as the ultimate comfort food, right up there with Filipino adobo (another quarter or so).

And that was the clear winner of the four recipes. I don’t even like eggs, but this simple recipe of steamed eggs seasoned with dashi, soy and mirin was amazing even without the little extras, like gingko nuts, shiitake mushrooms, shrimp and yuzu peel. All I did was thinly slice chicken breast and put it on the bottom of a couple of ramekins, beat eggs with mirin, soy and dashi, pour the filling over the chicken and top it was baby spinach. Then I covered it with aluminium and set up a steamer.

The trick is the pour the dashi while still hot into the egg mixture (mixed gently to avoid forming air bubbles). You do this slowly and then sieve the result. The steaming is also precise. 1 minute at high and then reduce the heat to low for another 15. Eggs are tricky and a few degrees either way makes all the difference. Steaming is gentler, so there’s more wiggle room. And the result is silken custard. Eat it directly from the ramekin. You’ll definitely want a second serving, ultimate comfort food that it is.

Even easier was the eggplant. I roasted it instead of baking it and then topped it with some soy and dashi followed by grated ginger and bonito flakes. It was simple and good – something you could do as an easy side dish any night of the week.

Then the mountain vegetables. I made this because I had two packages of dried Chinese vegetables kicking around. I didn’t have the called for mountain vegetables, which as sold as “Wild Sansai Plants,” says the cookbook. They’re usually a mix of “bracken, fern tips, nameko mushrooms and mountain greens.” My dried radishes and shiitakes didn’t quite do the trick, but the rice was still good, seasoned as it was with sake, soy, salt and mirin.

I picked all the vegetables out since they were marinated in soy and sake in advance and were juicy and saltier than the rice…

I didn’t mention making the dashi, did I? It’s much easier than chicken stock. There are no bones involved and all you do is soak dried kelp for an hour and then follow precise instructions on bring the stock to just below a boil, straining, adding the bonito and straining again. There are 13 other recipes on the page, but it’s in the top-left corner – the most important but understated one. It’s quiet but pure, like a lot of Japanese cuisine.

I had a fair bit of dashi left over so I decided to simmer lotus roots and potatoes in it. The recipe also called for chicken, fresh shiitakes and snow peas, but all I had were dried shiitakes. It did say you could use any root vegetable, though, such as daikon, burdock and bamboo shoots, so I figured the results were allowed to vary fairly widely.

This was very well seasoned by the soy, sake and sugar, so even the starchy potatoes worked well in the broth. It’s a comforting soup to end a meal or a warm, hearty (but light) side dish.

I had a couple extra eggplants, so I decided to compare the bonito and ginger version with the miso-glazed broiled version. This glaze is addictive. You crosshatch eggplant, broil them until soft and then brush them with a mix of miso, sake, mirin, sugar and water to make it spreadable. Then broil again. This alone is a great vegetarian main, but a great side for all.

Next, India and China. I have great plans for stir-fred okra, mulligatawny soup and Gung Bao chicken.