5 Ingredients or Fewer

Bacon Tomato Chawan Mushi

by:
June  5, 2012
4.7
3 Ratings
Bacon Tomato Chawan Mushi
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

We eat a lot of chawan mushi in this house. There is nothing like the silky custard with slightly sweet and smokey broth topped with delicacies like crab, lobster or just a really good roasted shiitake sliced paper thin. I recently tried David Chang's bacon dashi which substitutes bacon for the bonito flakes and could not shake the idea of taking it a step further. In order to replace the seaweed I needed some other umami booster and pondered the tomato. I wanted the custard to stay a lovely pale yellow and settled on making a bacon-infused tomato water in place of the broth. This will obviously be a better dish to make at the end of summer when tomatoes are abundant, but I couldn't shake the idea and gave it a go. The garnish, I think, is crucial, but could be a variety of options on hand. —savorthis

Test Kitchen Notes

Savorthis’s Bacon Tomato Mushi is a canny mix of western flavors and eastern techniques. A creative broth preparation lends an accessible taste to this traditional Japanese dish. Make sure to use very ripe tomatoes and very smokey bacon for maximum effect. The suggested garnishes are well paired, and bring out the subtle flavors in the custard, but the real fun of this dish is imagining what else you can do with it. All you need is eggs, liquid, a steamer and your imagination to open up a whole world of possibilities. Long live the savory custard. —Erik Hellman

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Bacon-infused Tomato Water
  • 2 pounds very ripe heirloom tomatoes (light color preferred but not necessary)
  • 3 ounces smokey bacon
  • Chawan Mushi
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 1/2 cups tomato water
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce (white preferred, but regular ok)
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper
  • baby arugula
  • reserved bacon, julienned
  • various cherry tomatoes thinly sliced
Directions
  1. Bacon-infused Tomato Water
  2. Quarter the tomatoes, add to a bowl and mash with a potato masher until the juices are released. Add a small sprinkle of salt and place in a clean dish towel or several layers of cheesecloth and hang over a bowl. I tied mine to a wooden spoon over a bain marie.
  3. It will take a few hours for the water to drip into the container. I gently squeezed the bundle every hour or so and this is fine as long as the pinkish pulp does not start to escape. You want the liquid as clear as possible. (I had thoughts of using the leftover pulp in a quick tomato sauce, but I tried it and have to say it had just about no flavor left. If you want to try though, you could quickly blanch the tomatoes first to removed the peels which will help.)
  4. You should get about 2 cups of liquid. If not, add a little water to make up for it or drink any excess (it's fabulous!). Place the 2 cups in a pot with the bacon and simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until it has a nice, smokey flavor. Remove the bacon and reserve and refrigerate the liquid until the fat hardens and can be removed and discarded. Season to taste with salt if necessary.
  1. Chawan Mushi
  2. Bring water to a boil in the bottom of a steamer. Render reserved bacon for garnish. Strain the tomato water into a bowl and add eggs and extra yolk, soy, salt and pepper. Gently whisk until incorporated. Pour back through fine meshed strainer into 4 ramekins or mugs. (Mixture can be refrigerated at this point for later steaming).
  3. Place in steamer and reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Steam about 15-20 minutes checking toward the end to not overcook. You can test by inserting a sharp knife in the center. The custard should separate and the clear broth will fill the void. If it appears yellow, continue cooking.
  4. Garnish custards with tomatoes, arugula (you can chiffonade grownup arugula if you do not have any micro greens) and bacon bits. Serve with some buttered crunchy toast and any leftover tomato water (if you didn't drink it already).
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7 Reviews

BoulderGalinTokyo
BoulderGalinTokyo June 22, 2012
Sorry this didn't make it to the finalists-- this is a wonderful play with tastes on the traditional chawan mushi!
 
savorthis
savorthis June 27, 2012
Thank you!
 
savorthis
savorthis June 21, 2012
Boy I wish you could delete comments when the first does not appear to go through and then suddenly you have two similar ones- and one with a typo to boot! Ah well....
 
savorthis
savorthis June 21, 2012
Thanks to Erik for testing! I had so much fun making this dish. I should mention that, when using the tomato water, I used the extra yolk thanks to advice by Alexander Talbot, author of Ideas in Food. The acid in the tomatoes can curdle the custard. If you use just bacon dashi or other broth, you could use 3 or 4 eggs and be fine.
 
savorthis
savorthis June 21, 2012
Thanks to Erik for testing! I had so much fun with this dish. One thing I will note is that, due to the acid in the tomatoes, I was advised by Alexander Talbot (author of Ideas in Food) to add the extra yolk. Otherwise it can curdle (which my first version did just slightly). So if you using plain old bacon dashi you can do 3 or 4 eggs depending on size.
 
krusher
krusher June 6, 2012
I love chawan mushi and always look out for recipes. I don't particularly like desserts because I am not attracted to sweet things. The one exception is a silky baked custard - creme caramel or panacotta. Chawan mushi really does it for me therefore. I have 6 months until summer. This recipe goes onto my food bucket list for then. Thanks.
 
savorthis
savorthis June 6, 2012
Thanks sdebrango. I think once tomoato season is heavily upon us, this will be a repeat dish for us.