Hanjuku Egg

I like to eat but I'm not big on cooking.  I mainly cook to survive and for me to attempt re-creating a restaurant dish in my kitchen, well that means I'm really putting in effort and I really, really want to eat it.  That being said, I could see myself becoming interested in cooking if I retired from my job and had access to a better kitchen.

I really like hanjuku eggs.  Up until five minutes ago they were better known to me as "that ramen egg with a runny yolk but hard white and I think it's marinated in soy."  Much googling was required to find out that they are called hanjuku eggs.

I got upset recently when I didn't get a hanjuku egg with my ramen order.  Hence I decided that 1. I needed to satiate my hanjuku egg craving and 2. I needed find out whether these eggs are really that difficult to make.  

The result?  Well if I can make them, anyone can!

So proud of my hanjuku eggs.  That'll do, Egg, that'll do.  

I found a few recipes and some were just ridiculously technical.  I really couldn't be that bothered - it's a boiled egg!  This recipe was pretty good and had some good links to eggy pictures at different stages of marination but in the end I pretty much followed this recipe exactly.

When I say I followed it exactly, I lied.  The marinade required mirin, Japanese soy and sake.  I only had the Japanese soy.  I had soba sauce though!  My soba sauce contained soy sauce, water, mirin, fish extract, sugar, kelp extract and MSG (oops).  Screw the sake and mirin.  In the end my marinade was three parts soba sauce, one part Jap soy sauce and a dash of rice vinegar.  I zapped it in the microwave for 30 secs and then dissolved three sachets of brown sugar into the mix.  It was a bit random but I tasted the marinade and it went down well.  I let it cool while I boiled my eggs.

I nearly stabbed my hand trying to pierce the bottom of the eggs but I do think that this is a very worthwhile step.  I never knew that this would stop eggs from cracking!  What an awesome cooking tip.  The egg boiling process is pretty exact.  You boil the eggs for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.  No more, no less.  As recommended by the other recipe, I stirred the eggs occasionally to ensure the yolks cooked evenly and stayed centred.  I peeled my eggs and they felt firm yet squishy.  Exciting!

I didn't have the recommended zip-lock bags and no other appropriately sized marinating vessel/bowl.  So I improvised and made my own marinating bag with some cling wrap.  

I left my eggs to bathe in the marinade overnight.  (It wouldnt hurt to let it marinate for 48 hours to achieve a more browny egg white.)  I unwrapped my eggs and realised my cling wrap had been a bit tight which left my eggs slightly deformed.

A bit flat on each side.  Kinda like a bullet.  

The final test - slicing the egg in half and checking the yolk consistency.

I was so happy to see a firm white and a runny yolk!  Num nums!

Needless to say, the egg was yum and there will be many more hanjuku eggs to eat in the future.  Now, if I can make it, I can no longer excuse any ramen joint for not serving them.  Hmmph!