茶碗蒸し = yum

When I was but a wee little Sus, my grandma "Mary" (aka Setsuko) would make me this amazing eggy dish whenever she happened to be visiting from California.  I LOVE this dish.  So tasty and simple, it warms your whole body with its protein-filled silky-smooth goodness. 

Here is a great version of the recipe from rasamalasia.com: 

Ingredients:

4 medium shrimp (or skip if you want it to be veggie)
4 gingko nuts (optional - I usually don't)
2 inch carrot
3 oz chicken breast (or tofu for the vegetarians)
1 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 fresh shiitake mushrooms (thinly sliced, stalks discarded)

For the custard:

3 extra large eggs, beaten
2 cups water*
1/2 teaspoon dashi-no-moto (aka dried dashi pellets you add to water) (or equal amount of dashi stock)* (or veggie stock for the vegetarians)
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Water

*Ratio of eggs to dashi stock/water is 1:3. The above measurement of water is for reference only.

Method:

1. Blanch prawns and set aside. 

2. Cut the carrot slices into maple leaf shapes . Blanch in salt water and drain. 

3. Cut the chicken into small cubes and marinate in sake and soy sauce for 15 minutes.

4. Put all egg custard ingredients in a bowl and mix with chopsticks and strain into a bowl. 

5. Bring a steamer to boil and then set the heat to very low.

6. Divide the chicken, shiitake, prawns and carrots among four ramekins (or small oven-safe cups.  Think creme brulee cups). Divide the egg mixture among the ramekins. Put the scallion on top and cover each ramekin with aluminum foil. 

7. Steam on low heat for 15 minutes. Insert a tooth pick into the egg and if it comes out clear, it’s done.

6 uses for eggs (besides eating and decorating)

Instructables.com has a great list of 6 unusual uses for eggs: 

1.  Hair care.  Gross?  Very, but eggs, being high in protein, make good conditioning masks.  Take some egg whites, beat them with a whisk till frothy, add a bit of olive oil, put on your hair, leave for 20 minutes, rinse, and voila!  Conditioning.  And, if you want to smell more fresh than freshly laid, add some scented oils to the concoction.   Supposedly this also works for dogs (feeding them scrambled eggs) and skin care (whisk whites or yolks with water and use it as face wash - alternate each night). 

2.  Arts and Crafts Glue.  Egg whites as they dry become very sticky.  or for papier-mâché, egg whites + flour + sugar + a little alum. 

3.  Plant water (from making hard or soft boiled eggs).  let it cool first (obviously), then go ahead!  Shells are full o' calcium, so besides the water, save the shells for composting. 

 4.  Ghetto band-aid and first aid.  From a hard-boiled egg, use the thin membrane between the white and the shell to cover your wound.  Also, if you get a bruise, use a freshly hard-boiled egg to rub over the bruised surface.  The warm pressure dissipates some of the pooling blood. 

5.  Leather cleaner.  Gentry rub hard-boiled egg whites onto leather (supposedly any leather), and wipe off with a damp cloth.  Makes your leather clean and shiny!

6.  Jewelry cleaner (not sterling silver).  From Instructables: "First boil an egg or two, depending on the size of your jewelry. You only need the hardboiled yolk...Break up the yolks a bit, and place at the bottom of a container that you can easily seal. Set a wire rack over the yolks so you can hold your jewelry above without directly touching the yolks. If you don't have a rack, use some paper towels. Place your jewelry in, and seal the container. Let sit for a day (or longer if you want it darker), and wash silver with a bit of soap. Heads up: the yolks will smell pretty nasty after sitting out, so be sure to open your container in a well-ventilated area."  There you go.

Aren't eggs awesome?  I'm not sure if I would do some of these...but hey!  Who knows?

Egg Carvings

Well, that's not accurate.  They're not so much carvings as they are...burnings?  Etchings?  I know a small laser light is used, but I'm not sure what to properly call these.  

ANYWAY, big thank you to my friend Leah for sending this my way.  The artist, Cai.Sculptor (aka Zhong Gui Cai), is a genius.  He uses eggs from ducks, geese, quail, chickens,  and ostriches to make these elaborate "carvings". 

Egg Jams

Egg art by John Lamouranne

...as in songs about eggs.  Found this awesome list of 10 (10!) songs about the great egg.  From Wolfmother to Autechre to Ween to Tom Waits, many thanks to The Music Fix.

for more egg jams, click on the link above (got lazy).

the simple pleasures

Aside from eggs, I love noodles.  The two together?  Heaven.  Add a bit o' Korean spices, and make it quick and easy as hell to cook, and you've got complete happiness.  So, I thought I'd share with you, dear reader, one of my all time favorite simple pleasures: instant ramen with the perfect soft-boiled egg.  

Now, I cannot take credit for coming up with this perfect soft-boiled egg recipe...that goes to my lovely boyfriend, Travis.  But trust me when I say "perfect" - soft, cooked white, encapsulating the golden yolk waiting to ooze out.  The flavor, once released from the egg, adding a depth and richness to the instant noodle broth that will make you forget that it was ever labeled "instant".  

(However, I will add that buying a better quality instant ramen does make a huge difference.  I'm a big fan of the Korean ones - the spice makes the broth less salty.)  

What you need:

- 1 small pot

- 1 egg (per person)

- a timer

- water (duh)

1.) It is best to have both the pot of water for the broth/noodles and the pot of water with the egg (just enough water to cover the egg) started at the same time.

2.) Once the pot of water with the egg is boiling, start your timer for EXACTLY three minutes, as for the pot of water for the broth/noodles, add the broth and condiments first, but not the noodles yet, and lower the water to a simmer.

3.) After three minutes, take the pot of water with the egg off the stove and with cold water pouring into the pot, count for 30 seconds while pouring out the hot water slowly 

4.) At this point, throw the noodles into the simmering water and stir to make sure all of the noodles are cooking. 

5.) With the back edge of a butter knife, gently tap the top of the egg to form a ring of cracks.  Then, under slowly trickling cool water, CAREFULLY peel the egg and place it into the bowl you will use for the soup.  

6.) Pour the broth and noodles from the pot into the bowl with the egg, grab a soup spoon and some chopsticks, and enjoy!

my egg is a little overcooked here

Commercially Produced v. Free Range v. Organic v. Mutant v. Candy v. Sasha Eggs

Picture this:

You're at the grocery store, and you want to buy some eggs.  So, you meander over to the egg section of the dairy aisle with your cart full of groceries, watching out for unsupervised young children and people who are in a world of their own.  Finally, you make it to the egg section.  

What do you see?  

Way too many options.  Omega-3 enhanced, commercial, free-range, organic...it's a lot.  Now, if you want to buy the cheapest eggs, your best (and only) bet is usually the commercially produced ones.  

However, if you were wondering "Ok, what's the difference between all of these, and why the hell would I want to spend $5 on a dozen eggs?!" this little bit o' info is for you:

- According to MSNBC and Mother Earth News Magazine, Free-range and organic eggs contain 

1.) 1/3 less cholesterol

2.) 1/4 less saturated fat

3.) 2/3 more vitamin A

4.) 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids

5.) 3 times more vitamin E

6.) 7 times more beta carotene

7.) more humane conditions for the chickens, blah blah blah

With conventionally produced chickens and eggs, the toxins from the grains fed to the chickens, such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers, are all stored in the fat of the chickens (a reason to not buy conventional chickens).   Because of the lack of exercise due to being confined in small cages at all times, conventional chickens not only do not lose their fat accumulated (with all that fun toxic stuff), but they are pumped full of antibiotics to be kept healthy-ish.  So, when you eat their eggs...you're eating all of that other fun stuff too. 

BUT, this does not explain the differences between free range and organic!  According to trusted.md:

Organic chickens are fed organic grains and are medication-free, so when you eat the eggs, you aren't eating all of the other toxic stuff with it.  HOWEVER, "organic" does not mean exercise, nor does it specifically tell you what the chickens were fed other than "organic" material.  

Enter in free-range.  The free-range chickens are allowed to run around outside in a pen (exercise), and will generally eat things found in the outdoor pen that they are supposed to eat, such as grass, bugs, etc (ie not other chickens or grain). 

Therefore, IF you have the money for it, you should buy the organic, free-range eggs.  However, if you had to pick one of three, your best bet is probably just free-range. 

If Indiana Jones looked for eggs...

...he'd find pysanky.  Pysanky, the traditional Ukrainian Easter egg, is by no means a new tradition based in Christianity.  Try more like 6000BC and the Trypilljan culture.  While obviously it is impossible to find examples of actual egg pysanky, numerous ceramic relics have been found dating back to about 1300 BC. 

Each symbol, color, line, plant, and animal motif has specific meaning and purpose.  When you think about current day Easter egg packs, and the bunnies, chicks, flowers, and color pots, it all starts to slowly make sense.  Of course, these things are incredibly badass looking versus just being purple with some squiggle lines. 

This site has an amazing breakdown of each symbolic meaning found on a pysanky.  From suns to moons to crosses to horses to the color brown...the next time you look at an extravagantly decorated Ukrainian Easter egg, try to decipher what exactly the artist was saying.