Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics

Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

This silky-smooth steamed custard is perfect for waking up the palate at the beginning of a meal.Unlike other custards that have a lot of added sugar and dairy, chawanmushi is mostly eggs and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-dashi">dashi</a>, an umami-packed and slightly smoky Japanese soup stock made with dried seafood. A little soy sauce and mirin season the custard—soy sauce for salinity and a big boost of glutamates, and mirin for its tempering sweetness. The result is a savory custard that’s got an incredibly balanced flavor profile. It’s also the perfect foil for all kinds of ingredients; in this recipe, we use gently poached king oyster mushrooms.And while the flavor is truly delightful, the real draw with chawanmushi is its texture: silky, smooth, and ethereally light. Traditionally, this is accomplished with careful cooking in a steamer. The custard mixture is poured into a chawan (teacup, from which the dish takes its name) and placed in a steamer just until the custard sets, which is sort of tricky. Overcooking the custard makes the egg soufflé and then deflate when they cool slightly, resulting in a brittle texture.To guarantee success, we turned to sous vide. With the perfect ratio of dashi to eggs to seasoning, the perfect temperature, and the dialed-in cooking time, you can make a custard that’s super soft while also being robust enough to carry the weight of anything you might want to garnish it with.

Sous Vide Chawanmushi