Eggsperiment: Slow poached eggs (onsen tamago) in 5 minutes?

The other week I was waiting in line at the grocery store and I saw a copy of Cook's Illustrated sitting on display.  An article jumped out to me, titled "Perfect soft boiled eggs."  My curiosity was piqued so I hurried up and skimmed the article before it was my time to check out.  The biggest takeaway from the article was the use of steam to cook eggs to precise doneness - it was kind of a revelation to me, someone who has struggled with getting consistent results with hard boiled eggs.  Often, because I am scaling egg amounts, my hard boiled eggs are difficult to get quite right.  Adding different amounts of eggs to already-boiling water changes the temperature of the water significantly enough that your assumptions about cook temperature can no longer be trusted.  With steam, you know that you are always cooking at 212º (assuming you are relatively close to sea level blah blah) so whether you are cooking 1 egg or a dozen, the times are consistent and the results are predictable.  It's a fantastic knowledge tidbit to have tucked away, and a reminder of how great Cook's Illustrated can be when it is on form.  Thinking more about the concept of cooking with steam, I eventually settled on a question that I wanted to resolve:

I often cook slow poached eggs at home, could I use the steam technique to cook them at a fraction of the time?  

Slow poached eggs are also referred to as 60 minute eggs, or onsen tomago in Japan (onsen being natural hot springs, the story being that eggs are traditionally left by local residents in onsen and, upon being retrieved, are perfectly cooked).  Slow poach eggs are cooked in a water bath at a temperature of 145º for 45 minutes to an hour - resulting in a white that is just set (white but still runny) and a yolk that is beginning to thicken but not yet cooked (which would first begin to turn into a fudge-like consistency before hitting what we think of as hard-boiled).  Because the water never goes above 145º, the eggs are never done past where they should be.  The only downside to the water bath is that it takes a long time and requires a fair amount of planning in advance.  Here is a chart depicting the different doneness of eggs.  Notice that at 144º we are seeing whites turning white but very much still runny.  Also - tangent - it's fucking fascinating that 2 degrees of difference from  146º to 148º causes that much of a change in the yolks.  Eggs are amazing things.

(photo from http://www.douglasbaldwin.com)

Cook's Illustrated recipe for soft boiled eggs was to place the eggs in a steamer for 6 minutes 30 seconds before immediately transferring to an ice bath.  I cut that to 6 minutes 10 seconds because I wanted the yolks to be even runnier (they began setting at 6:30) but otherwise it works like a charm.  I wondered if I could cut that cook time in order to just solidify the whites but not cook them to soft boiled, thus rendering me a soft poached egg.  I attempted to steam 2 eggs with times of 4 minutes and 5 minutes (I made an assumption that cooking time would follow an exponential curve, taking a while to heat up but then heating incredibly quickly after a few minutes).  My results were that the whites on the 4 minute eggs were still mostly clear and uncooked - completely unusable in their current form. The whites on the 5 minute egg were milky and still somewhat runny, and the yolk was thickened.

5 minute egg

It was a  good result, unfortunately I realized that one of my fears had come true.  Because I placed the eggs in a 212º heat source, the whites closest to the shell will always completely set (to a rubbery state).  I ran head on into the very reason that sous vide cookery exists - providing even cooking throughout a product through consistent temperature application.  You can't fake even heating, you can only work around it.  My plans were foiled and my question is answered - you cannot make a slow poached egg in 5 minutes using steam.  However, I would say that cutting Cook's Illustrated's times down did result in a totally usable egg.  For times when I don't want to wait 45 minutes but I want something resembling a slow poached egg, I will be more than happy to quickly steam one to get a similar result.  At least I found a perfectly suitable substitute.  Next time, I will attempt cutting 5 minutes down to perhaps 4:45 or so, to see if it creates noticeable differences in the amount of set whites.  I suspect that it will be difficult to find the precise point where eggs stop being clear and start being whites through steam-based heating though.

Makeshift oyakodon - leftover chicken karaage and tomagoyaki with the 5 minute egg

Homemade Ramen

I guess that at this point, the regularity by which I write blog posts that somehow relate to the Momofuku cooking might be getting kind of repetitive.  It has become quite a reliable source of deliciousness for me, and it has been a great entry for me personally to become more well versed in pseudo Japanese food, especially since I generally stick to the Noodle Bar recipes. Since acquiring the book, I have been eyeing up the idea of attempting to make the ramen totally from scratch - after all, it is the fucking Super Bowl of the Noodle Bar recipes.  The one blocking issue for me has always been the noodles.  David Chang mentions that the ingredients are hard to find (I know that I have never come across them) so I always kept that one on the back burner.  Until now.  A coworker of mine was kind enough to lend me the debut issue of Chang's new quarterly called Lucky Peach.  In it, I was shocked and excited to find that all that was needed for homemade ramen noodles was simple basic (see what I did there?) baking soda.  I could barely wait until the weekend to get this project started.  It turned out to be a nearly 2 day task to put all of this together, but I have to say it was absolutely worth it.  The weekend of work was summarized by my wife at the dinner table Sunday night with a succinct summary of "dude, you made fucking ramen."  

The ramen related recipes here are as follows:

- Stock

- Stock seasoning (tare)

- Roasted pork belly (chashu)

- Stewed bamboo shoots (menma)

- Noodles

- Slow poached egg (onsen tamago)

Roasted Pork Belly / Chashu

2-3 lb pork belly

¼ c salt

¼ c sugar

If the pork belly is skin on, remove the skin.  Mix the salt and sugar together and dredge the pork belly in the cure mix on all sides.  Cure in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours but no more than 24.  

Preheat the oven to 450º.  Rinse the pork and pat dry with a paper towel before roasting.  Roast the belly for up to 1 hour, basting occasionally with the fat that is rendered from the belly.  You are looking for the belly to brown and take on roasted color during this time.  If it starts to look like it's burning, skip straight to lowering the heat.  Reduce heat to 250º and roast for another hour.  Allow pork belly to cool, then refrigerate until the fat solidifies.  Once it is chilled, it will be easier to slice in thin slices.

Tare

1 c soy sauce
½ c sake
½ c mirin
1 chicken back or equal amount chicken bones

Roast the bones in a 425º oven for an hour or until the bones are well browned.  If you can roast the bones in a saucepan without steaming them instead then do that, otherwise roast in a small open dish and when the bones are roasted, deglaze the pan with the liquid.  Simmer for an hour, until the liquid is slightly reduced and thickened.

Stock

So some background on this... The Momofuku cookbook has a ramen recipe, but Lucky Peach featured Momofuku Noodle Bar's "Ramen 2.0" recipe, where the goal was to reduce the cost of the ramen broth by making it just as flavorful without needing as much pork or chicken parts.  I ended up kind of shooting from the hip here and combined the two of them because I can't leave well enough alone.  I think it turned out pretty great.

3.5 lb pork necks
3 lb chicken backs or other parts
1 onion or leek roots and ends from 1 bunch leeks, washed
2 c dried shiitakes
6 quarts water
2 pieces konbu
6 oz bacon

Heat the oven to 400º.  Rinse the konbu and set aside.

Start the stock by heating the water to 160º.  Turn off the heat and add the konbu.  Cover the pot and let the konbu steep for an hour.  According to Lucky Peach this is some crazy Japanese science way to extract the most flavor out of konbu.  I am not one to debate this.

As the konbu is steeping, start roasting the pork necks.  Roast them for about an hour, turning as necessary, you want them to be brown but not black.  Nicely roasted.

When the konbu is done steeping, remove it and discard or save for another use.  Rinse the shiitakes and then add to the stock.  Bring the water up to a boil and then turn the heat down until the broth is simmering.  Simmer for 30 minutes. 

Remove the mushrooms from the stock and add the chicken bones.  Keep the water at a heat of about 180º if you can.  Skim the foam and impurities that gather on the surface often.  Give the chicken at least an hour (maybe more if you have the time).  If you are using smaller parts then you will extract the flavor faster. If you are using whole carcasses then maybe err on the longer side.  

Remove the chicken bones and add the roasted pork bones along with the bacon.  Now you are entering the long part of the stock making process.  Keep the water at 180º, continuing skimming, for 6-7 hours, or as long as you can feasibly do it.  Remove the bacon after an hour and discard it.  Add water as necessary, keeping the bones fully covered.

In the last hour, add your leeks or onions and let them steep and lend their freshness to the broth.



Strain out the broth using a cheesecloth lined colander.  You may have to remove the bones by hand first if they are too big.

Here is a picture of the consistency of the stock after it has been chilled.  It was seriously like jello, sooo much gelatin.  So good.

Stewed Bamboo Shoots (Menma)

1 c canned or prepacked boiled bamboo shoots
1/2 c soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil

I found these neat boiled and packed bamboo shoots at the Japanese grocery store, so I thought it was worth taking a picture of them in their pristine state.  If you are using canned bamboo shoots, just drain and mix all the ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Stew for 20-30 minutes and let cool.

Alkaline Noodles

I actually ended up making 2 batches of these.  Lucky Peach's recipe called for 3 c AP flour, but I found the dough to be far too stretchy even after 2 kneading sessions.  The second time, I used half bread flour and half AP for a more glutenous flour.  The resulting dough was perfect - stiff enough to roll out using a pasta machine without tearing, but with enough give to remain malleable.  These noodles can also be used for the momofuku ginger scallion noodles which are really awesome.

1.5 c bread flour
1.5 c all purpose flour
1 c lukewarm water
4 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 250º, spread baking soda out on aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour.  This will remove the carbon dioxide from the baking soda, leaving you with sodium carbonate - the alkaline salt that makes these noodles hold up to hot soup broth and have that slightly kind of nutty flavor to them.

Dissolve the baking soda in the lukewarm water and stir until it is fully dissolved.

In a mixing bowl, add the flour and then the water.  Stir with a fork until the dough becomes shaggy, and then begin kneading with your hands.  Work dough for 5 minutes, wrap with saran wrap and allow to rest for 20 minutes.  Work the dough again for another 5 minutes, rewrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.



Roll out either with a pasta machine or by hand.  I used a pasta machine on the following settings.  I rolled the sheets out to a thickness of 3 (that is, 3rd setting from the thinnest possible).



I then used the thinner of the pasta cutters (linguine?  I don't even know - the one that is smaller than fettucine).  I found that I had to start the dough through the cutters and then actually grab the end of the cut noodles and pull through as I continued to cut.  If i didn't do that, I ended up getting very ratty bunched up noodles.  By pulling, the noodles cut sharply and slid right through.  A friend also told me that spraying a little Pam or spray canola or whatever on the cutter blades before cutting the noodles also made a world of difference when he made these noodles - I definitely plan on trying that next time.

Onsen Tamago (Slow poached eggs)

Check out my old recipe for these awesome and incredibly versatile eggs:

http://brains4brunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/perfect-poached-eggs-experiment.html

Serving your ramen:

Ingredients:

Stock

Tare

Menma

Eggs

Thinly sliced green onion

Sheets of nori (optional)

Alkaline noodles

Pork

Ok holy shit we are almost finally to the point where you can eat.  You've done all the hard work, congratulations.  Now you just need to put the pieces together.  It's really easy now.  Boil your noodles and then drain them.  Use the tare to season your ramen stock.  Add water if necessary if the broth is too strongly flavored.

Place a serving of noodles in the bowl, slide a piece of nori down along the wall of the bowl.  Place a few slices of pork on top of them justified to one side.  Ladle hot broth over the noodles.  Placed some menma on the other side of the bowl, crack open an egg and let it slide into the middle of the bowl.  Top with green onions.  You are finally ready to enjoy the fruits of your labor, take a deep breath and then eat the shit out of this awesome ramen.