You guys are making me want to jump back into some chawanmushi making too. 
@shrinkrap There shouldn’t be separated liquid, just like quiche or scrambled eggs (for chinese egg custard and chawanmushi that is – korean custard / gyeran jjim is cooked at a higher temp and I’ve never seen it not separated at a restaurant – puffy bubbly eggs on top, liquid underneath, not quite my jam).
When the liquid separates, that usually a sign of overcooking. Still tastes good, but not as intended.
I prefer the higher end liquid proportion (1/2 to 2/3 cup per egg) for a very light / not eggy custard, but that does have the highest risk of separating. It’s akin to the Thomas Keller quiche ratio (2/3 cup per egg), which yields a similarly delicate custard.
Easier to start lower (1/4 cup per egg, then 1/3) and go up from there as you get comfortable with the timing and heat level for the custard setting without separating. The chinasichuan link has good troubleshooting / analysis.
That’s why I suggested the off-heat Woks of Life method to start, because it removes the trickiness of varying the heat and controlling timing, and pretty much eliminates the likelihood of a separated custard.
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1/2cup liquid per egg, when I make a sweet steamed custard with sugar, I use a bit more.
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How about using some dashi in my shrimp and Andouille Sausage gumbo?
Why not? FYI there are very high quality “instant” dashi packets available at this point. The good ones are like big teabags, filled with finely ground katsuobushi and kombu. You just heat up some water, toss one in, and 10 minutes later you have dashi. You can find them at your local Japanese market or online. I am also a fan of the “hondashi” powder – actually instant dashi – for use cases where I don’t want to add additional liquid, even though it’s not even remotely “hon” (authentic). It’s basically fish-flavored MSG and I wouldn’t drink it as soup but it tastes very nice e.g. in scrambled eggs.
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Dashi is delicious. Perhaps not as concentrated as Italian anchovy sauce or Southeast Asian fish sauces, but I find it adds a great taste to a lot of different Japanese dishes too. I actually prefer using dashi to chicken stock in some vegetable dishes.
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I often go 50/50. I like the flavor of dashi, but I also often want the texture of chicken stock. Sometimes I’ll throw one of those dashi packets into some chicken stock and then use that. Now that I think about it, I guess a packet of gelatin could be used in dashi to boost the texture without any chicken flavor…could be interesting?
And there is a quite a bit of fish that will have collagen, and seaweed based gelatin would also feel natural. Would be an interesting experiment!
I think it would be a waste of delicate dashi, unless you have nothing else to do with it. A dash of fish sauce might be better for a sturdy gumbo.
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Thanks all!
I really want to try it in some new things. Naturally I went overboard shopping for kombu and bonito flakes, the preparation appeals to me for some reason, and while by itself I haven’t been using it, but it has so much potential!
I think I will leave link this to the instant dashi thread, for lack of a better option.
