Japanese Marinated Soft Boiled Egg for Ramen (Ajitsuke Tamago)

Woooooo, I'm back but just a short period.

This I so want to keep in my recipe book! Muahaha. A definite Serious Eats

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Note: This recipe can be made using leftover broth from chashu pork. If you have this broth, replace all the ingredients in the marinade with the broth.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Managing Editor of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

JAPANESE MARINATED SOFT BOILED EGG FOR RAMEN (AJITSUKE TAMAGO)

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About This Recipe

YIELD:	makes 6 eggs
ACTIVE TIME:	10 minutes
TOTAL TIME:	At least 4 hours to marinate
THIS RECIPE APPEARS IN:	The Food Lab Redux: How to Make the Perfect Bowl of Tonkotsu RamenThe Food Lab, Ramen Edition: How to Make a Marinated Soft Boiled Egg (Ajitsuke Tamago)

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sake
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 eggs

Procedures

1. 1
   Combine water, sake, soy, mirin, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Set aside
2. 2
   Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Pierce fat end of each egg with a thumbtack to make a tiny hole (this prevents them from cracking and eliminates the air bubble at the end). Carefully lower eggs into water with a wire mesh spider or slotted spoon. Reduce heat to maintain a bare simmer. Cook for exactly 6 minutes. Drain hot water and carefully peel eggs under cold running water (the whites will be quite delicate).
3. 3
   Transfer eggs to a bowl that just barely fits them all. Pour marinade on top until eggs are covered or just floating. Place a double-layer of paper towels on top and press down until completely saturated in liquid to help keep eggs submerged and marinating evenly. Refrigerate and marinate at least four hours and up to 12. Discard marinade after 12 hours. Store eggs in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in ramen soup to serve.

Chaos

Yes yes, I have been neglecting my dear blog lately but I have got a good reason this time. I have to leave UK at such a short notice! It's a long story and I don't have time to even breathe. Nevertheless I finally manage to put some baking into place as well as research on the best baking books I want to take with me. Shipping costs are so reasonable right now so I better make the most of it. To those of you out there, I do recommend the book below:

It was either this lovely book or Bake by Australian Woman's weekly

In the mean time, I do hope to pursue my passion in Asia where dessert making is a whole different level! We are surrounded by 'wet kitchens' rather than a typical 4 season kitchen with an oven since this is a tropical terrain.

I will definitely miss this country so much. Aaah, life, it becomes stronger and better, yet more fragile and emotional.

I ♥ Vitality Show

 The Vitality Show 2010

It's similar to NZ's women's expo but different in a way that the people here display different products...but all for the main objective(s) :)

Held at Earl's Court 2 building, this expo is happening starting today till the weekend. I wanted to go last year but couldn't get tickets. As well as me being super stingy, I manage to get them for £5 instead of the usual £15 if I go today.

It was quite a great night as it wasn't too crowded either.

There were different type of stores but all divided to sections mainly broken into career and motivation, beauty, pamper, active and not forgetting food..in which I hung around that area more often for the free samples :P. There were also places to hear motivational talks, how to lose weight talks, and a cooking show area too. It wasn't super huge, it was just enough to cover for 2 hours unless you're willing to line up for a cheap massage or pedicure.

I shall not bore you on the amount of things I found from but there were 3 highlights from the shows. One being this Awesome Monitor where it can monitor 5 things: Calories intake and eaten, how many steps you take (pedometer), how much you sweat and how you sleep. It even knows when you wake up in the middle of the night! Very good technology since it was long applied in the hospital and is now commercialised.

Another cool thing from the show was how food was made gluten free, oil free and organic. Love the pure chocolate samples, the muesli, the seed snacks (they've produce apricot kernel that tastes ultimately delicious as a snack) and they have also got lactose free milk! Yumm.

Last but not least, there were quite cool nifty kitchenware in which I so wish I could buy such as a blender and stove in one. It's pretty much a blender, but has a heat feature. Gosh, tefal was there and a kitchen and knife company were there too.

 

Happy me

Woohoo freebbiiieeessss

I should end this post with something but I keep thinking 'Till Then'. Hehe, talk about zoning out....

Till Then :P

Food Ponder

Back again from another get away and boy am I tired of going on holidays! So good just to stay put and start thinking about what to cook / bake on the weekends ahead. But I have been rather busy training as well as going through abit of a bigger change in life.

Yeah, death is inevitable, but hey it's life. I guess it boils down to how we recover when our love one leaves us. The one thing that really brings tear to my heart and soul is that my grandmother actually came into my dreams to wish me goodbye.

With things like this happened, there was an interesting post from Gabriel's website in which she left a really sweet and personal message on my blog (Thank you Foodbuzz for linking us up!). There was an video article about 'The French Laundry Experience with Anthony Bourdain' and she left an interesting quote after the clip and thought I'd shared it with you:

“When you acknowledge as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear; to make people happy.  that’s what cooking is all about.”   Thomas Keller

Per Se Philosophy

“In the end, a great meal is not about the food and the wine. A great meal is an emotional experience.  We try to make it an extraordinary one by creating a beautiful place, one filled with staff who cares about it as they do about their home, and care for you as the most important guest in it.  Our chefs are obsessive about the culinary details and fundamental techniques that are the foundation of an exciting culinary imagination and a kitchen that delivers the very best products of the earth to the table.  No detail or element can be less important or more important than another.  Because a great meal is not one that fills you up.  A great meal is a kind of journey that returns you to sources of pleasure you may have forgotten and takes you to places you haven’t been before.”

The first quote actually left me wondering into my life that sometimes I can never know what I really want to eat or what I really crave for...But the second one is such a good quote that defines the inner meaning of life.

It's true, everything does relate to food. I can't believe it nor can run away from this fact anymore.


My grandmother mentioned so many things she wanted to eat just before she died. Which brings me to another question; when in life should we actually watch what we eat? When in life do we actually stop caring and just eat whatever we want to eat as death draws near? To what point do we seek to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Does it actually belong to our subconscious minds and desires? What indicates the limits?

Perhaps we must pay attention to our instincts to read between the lines between wants and craves. Perhaps this is a journey whereby I can actually find out what I really want to do in life. And one of them of course, is the burning desire to explore as much as I can and when I can not just with food but everything else.

And now I have no idea why I'm writing all this giberish stuff up and do apologise if I have bored you out of your wits with part of my cycnism, I guess I am just typing for the sake of typing. *she's has now gone to figure out what to make in the weekend ahead*

Fund Raising

Not really what you might think as it isn't really food related but it's just a post to say that I have brought up a challenge for myself until early spring (although I would think baking to raise funds might be a better alternative instead,haha)

Yes, history repeats itself. I have started training again.

Not many of you may know that I used to be an athlete of some sort. Was pretty much representing my state from young beginning with gymnastics and athletics, and then swimming, and then into social badminton, netball and now I'm at the gym.

I then tried spins for the first time last year. And I got addicted.

And so I pondered 'why not get involved in something for the greater good with this addiction?'

And so, I have decided to do something I have never ever done in my life. To cycle 300miles in 5 days from London to Paris. Yes, you're talking to the most inexperience bike rider over here who has not ridden more than 10km in her entire life. Check out the map (there's a cute comic at the bottom left):

As well as she doesn't own her own bicycle.

It is by far the craziest thing I have ever done in my life. But I really want to do this. I really want to know how far I can get on cycling despite all of my past injuries that I came across in my life. Almost every important part of my limb has been overworked, injured, overused. And yet old habits don't die. I want to take myself to the limits again.

It ain't easy, mind you. I have started the sessions. I have done 4 sessions of spin classes, 2 sessions of toning and 2 sessions of cardio. I have to take extra care that I don't overwork myself and injure myself so soon. I too have to balance my workout sessions with work, in which the load has also recently shot up to the roof. There is then figuring out what to eat quickly and healthily as well as there is the social side of life I have to keep up with.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff! If you've got spare change lying in your pockets or behind the couch by your half eaten chocolate bar, feel free to pop it into the following picture to support the event =)

Virgin Money - CBRE's Bike Run from London to Paris

In the mean time, I am of course eying out on what to bake next when I come back from the French Alps!

Julie & Julia

Yes, I have been away again and this time it was on a career type of conference which was an amazing eye opener to me as well as it was my first time visiting the US of A. Boy was I overwhelmed by the supermarkets, so much so that I dare not step foot into the shop the second time! Things here in portions are HUGE. From taking about 2 minutes to cross the highway roads to massive sizes of smoothies enough to fill you up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are so many different restaurants like all-you-can-eat crab, Denny's, TGI's and even one was called Happy restaurant LOL.

Anyway, I saw this movie clip on my flight back in which I really highly recommend to you food lovers =). It is based on 2 real live stories of about 2 ladies who share similar ambitions, dreams, and problems in which food was their way of escaping life's cold and brittle moments. This I give you the trailer:

Are you related to some bits of their lives? ;) Click here for the link

The coolest part to me is that I actually know what Le Cordon Bleu and Larousse Grastonomique is! omigosh...something I never ever in my life would figure when watching a movie. Note to everyone: HG is very ignorant when it comes to celebreties and dramas plus little stuff like landmarks in movies.

Anyhoo, I bought some nice dessert ingredients while I was in the states =). That I shall keep until my next post!

I'm back! for a short while

Yes I am back indeed and from a wonderful and most heart fulfilling trip back to my home country not only catching up with family and friends but also to actually realise the amount of food variety I was flooded in! This is my first time back really appreciating the abundance of dishes I was surrounded with. I literally was a changed person. More 'Malaysian' and more to my roots which marvels me alot haha.

Well, let me tell you a little story about me. I had a kitchen in the house that put me off from even stepping into. Yes, this was my kitchen back home. There is only room for one person: My grandma who I now wish to continue her cooking skills.

As well as my family, though born and bred in Malaysia, surprisingly have the least interest in food. This is very unusual because majority speaking, everyone I know appreciates food a whole lot coming from this country. So it is rather surprising how I am the only one to be hooked lol.

Anyway, 3 weeks is alot to catch up so I will perhaps just show the amount of food I had while I was back ;).

In the mean time, I am off again for another trip before I actually attempt to make something in the kitchen. Till then, keep drooling!

Merry Christmas!

KV is takingg a break from her kitchen! In the mean time, she'll leave you with these cool You Tube video clips

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Have a great break, be merry and sweet!

Christmas Lights....

Guitar Hero

Early Christmas Present

Goodness me, I don't know whether santa is really trying to prove he exists! I came home with a suprise again.

'We are delighted to tell you that you are the lucky winer of The Philadelphia Cookbook.'

OMG

O.O

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy. And you know what's funny? I don't remember at all participating the competition. LOL!

Thank you Kraft Philadelphia! You've made my Christmas season, and I've already picked out what I want to make this weekend!

OMG - A Suprise Prize from Foodie Blog Roll

OMG I won a tote bag! And this is by just leaving a comment in the contest section. Foodie Blogroll rocks! They keep on having cute contests and random prizes to give away specially to food bloggers who signs up =D. Will definitely post the prize when it arrives fer sure.

So wherever you are, if you write more than 50% about food on your blog, have been writing for more than a month, I suggest enrolling into this =)

I'm going to be away for a whole week so this blog won't be active but be sure to watch this space when I come back....toodles in the mean time!

Ironcupcake Earth: Reminder

I'm actually going to be way for a week but here's another friendly reminder to vote for me =). It starts this Friday (27th Nov) at 8pm but it's American time.

So the browser should be fully open on Sunday till Thursday (3rd Dec).

These are my cupcake entries again:

'Hidden Fruit of Eden' & 'Healthily Applelicious'

Pretty please vote for me! It's my first ever online competition. Your support is really appreciative. I've left the two posts below for you to have a read.Thank you muchly.