If you’ve been following along with my blogs you know one thing about me: I love eggs. From diner style over easy, to a luxurious French omelet, to a light fluffy meringue, there seems to be nothing the humble egg can’t do. Hell, I’ll even take them raw out of a pint glass Rocky style. Okay maybe not… but everything is worth a try right?
Every creed and culture has put their unique spin on this ingredient. Today’s Asian inspired recipe is a fridge staple of mine: soy marinated eggs. This dish is a great way to spice up that bowl of ramen or serve over warm rice for a quick and comforting weeknight dinner. The below recipe will walk you through how to get a creamy jammy yolk on your soft boiled egg, and achieve a deep umami flavor.
Before we get down to business, let’s talk substitutions. While mirin and rice vinegar are certainly staples in a lot of chef’s cabinets, the average home cook might not have them ready to go. If you don’t happen to have mirin, you can dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 4 tablespoons of white wine. This creates a 1:4 ratio which can easily be scaled up or down for other recipes. Similarly, if you’re not seeing rice vinegar in your cabinet, apple cider vinegar has a very similar flavor profile and is a great stand in. I’m sure a Japanese chef is cursing me somewhere for these suggestions, but I never claimed to be authentic. Enough talk, let’s get crackin'!
Soy-Marinated Eggs
Yield: 3 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 7 minutes
Inactive time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 22 minutes
3 large eggs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
For the eggs:
1. Fill a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. While water is heating, fill a large bowl with ice water to shock the cooked eggs.
3. Once water is boiling, gently add eggs one at a time. Boil 7 minutes.
4. Using a slotted spoon, remove eggs and add them directly to the ice bath. Allow to cool for 2 minutes.
Note: this is an integral step to halt the cooking process and avoid overcooked yolks.
For the marinade:
5. In a medium saucepan combine water, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, mirin, and vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and allow 5 minutes to cool.
7. Add peeled boiled eggs.
8. Allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour or up 2 days in the fridge for a deeper flavor.
9. To serve, drain eggs, quarter, and spoon sauce over top.
Learn how to make the perfect bowl of ramen (with noodles from scratch!) to go with your jammy eggs in our hands-on Ramen Workshop on Tuesday, March 10 at 6pm.
You can also learn how to make perfect poached eggs in our new hands-on class Plant-Forward Plates: Eggs, Greens and Grains on Friday, March 27 at 11am.
