【Lazy Bear's Recipes】Onsen Tamago (Slow-Cooked Egg)

Mr. Bear always says eggs are his all time favourite food.  I love eggs too!  Eggs are most versatile - you can have them for breakfast, lunch or dinner and there are so many ways to cook them.  I am quite proud to say that I'm an expert in cooking eggs. A sunny side up egg was the first dish I ever learned to cook when I was a little kid.  Over the years, I've mastered many other ways one can cook eggs. Soft boiled, hard boiled, scrambled, poached, sunny side up, over and easy, steamed or even the 荷包蛋 the way my mom likes it, i.e. a fried egg with crispy edges, served over rice with soy sauce; you name it, I can make them for you.  My colleague roommate was always surprised how I could always make a perfectly fried egg. But unfortunately, my culinary spirit seemed to have stopped right there until I married Mr. Bear.

Recently I realized there's still one egg cooking technique I haven't conquered yet, and that's the Onsen Tamago 温泉卵. They are traditionally eggs slow-cooked in hot springs.  Of course I don't have an onsen at home, but I've seen many recipes out there employing the sous vide method to make onsen tamago.  However, unless you have one of those sous vide machines at home, making eggs using this method involves a cast iron pot, an oven, a themometer and constantly standing by the oven for 45 minutes to make sure the temperature stays at precisely 63.5 degrees Celcius, which is a ton of work and a bit too persnickety if all I want is an egg that I can put in my noodle soups or on top of my pastas.

I did a few experiments and finally figured out a quick and dirty way of making decent onsen tamago.  I admit they are not the best, but given the amount of time and effort required I'd say they are definitely good enough.  I've made my onsen tamago using this Lazy Man's way a few times since then and it has not failed me so far.  The eggs are great on their own serve in a bit of dashi stock, soy sauce and mirin or simply a couple tablespoons of bottled soba tsuyu.

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
1 egg
600ml water

Method:
1. Bring 500ml of water to a boil in a small pot.  Make sure the water level is high enough to cover the egg.
2. Remove the pot from heat and add the remaining 100ml of water to the boiling water.  Add the egg immediately and cover with a lid for 12 minutes.
3. Put the egg in cold water to stop the cooking process.  Crack the egg into a bowl and serve!

【Lazy Bear's Recipes】Mentaiko Pasuta 明太子パスタ

This morning a friend asked me, "don't you think it's hard to find time to cook?" I do, but truth is, I can't eat out all the time anymore. Not that I don't enjoy going to restaurants and the company of family and friends over dinner, but usually after a few consecutive nights of eating out, my body will start to complain. I guess I'm getting old.

Last week I spent many late nights in the office and by the end of the week I was so sick and tired of eating takeouts I just couldn't take it anymore. I dragged my tired self to the grocery store just before closing and bought the ingredients to make a 30-minute meal.  My go-to recipe of late is the Mentaiko Pasuta 明太子パスタ, pasta with spicy cod roe.

And no, I didn't spell the word pasta wrong.  Pasuta (パスタ) is the Japanese spelling of the word and obviously this fusion dish is all about harmonizing Italian pastas with Japanese ingredients.  The best thing is that this dish is super easy to make, something that you can literally throw together in 30 minutes from start to finish, and if I'm really hungry that includes eating and cleaning up as well.

What's better than having hot, delicious homemade food after a long day of work?  Starting from this post, I am going to bring you a series of what I call the "Lazy Bear's Recipes", for all of you who also enjoy a little home cooked dinner, without having to slave in front of the stove for hours after a long day at work. I hope you like them. =)

Serves 4

Difficulty: Low

Ingredients:

1 packet mentaiko (usually has 2 to 3 sacs)

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

2.5 tablespoon Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise

1/4 cup of cream

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 sheet nori, cut into thin strips

6 leaves of green shiso, sliced very thin

170 grams sphaghetti pasta

Method:

1. Cook the pasta in salted water in a large pot according to the instructions on the package, usually about 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cut each mentaiko sac in half and scrape out the roe from each into a mixing bowl, discarding the membrane.

3. Add melted butter, cream, mayo and black pepper to the bowl and mix well.

4. When the pasta is done, drain and add it to the mentaiko sauce.  Toss the pasta until every strand of it is coated with the sauce evenly.

5. Plate the pasta and sprinkle some nori and shiso strips over it.  Serve immediately.

See I told you? This is almost as easy as instant noodles!

Quick tip: Since this is the "Lazy Man's Recipe", I am going to share with you my quick trick of melting the butter.  Instead of using another saucepan or putting it in the microwave (by the way, Mrs. Bear does not own a microwave), put a pair of long chopsticks horizontally over the pasta pot and put the butter in a small bowl on top of the chopsticks while you're cooking the pasta.  The heat from the pot will melt the butter instantly!  This saves energy and saves you from washing another saucepan!