I’ve had ni-tamago (eggs whereby the egg white is just cooked to opaque while the egg yolk is still soft, or even runny depending on your preference; not to be confused with onsen tamago or hot spring egg) that is commonly served with Japanese ramen many times, but nothing quite like the one I had at Maratuma. It was love at first sight. I thought I was never gonna be able to master the art of making such soft and flavourful eggs, until a conversation I had with a guy business associate and he claimed that he could make eggs like those at Maratuma!!
Me, a baker, cannot cook eggs is gonna be quite a joke. But then, one has to admit that eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients on earth. It is easy to cook but to master the characteristics of eggs and cook them to perfection depending on how they are to be eaten, is an art. There’s no one-size-fits-all instructions as one has to consider the size of the eggs, temperature of eggs, timing and the heat used to cook the egg. Vinegar and salt are the secret ingredients for making the perfect boiled eggs. So, this is my egg challenge to replicate the Marutama ni-tamago.
The first time I made, 4 were destroyed due to the egg white being stucked on the shell. So make sure you add vinegar to the ice water. 2 survived with little egg white disfiguration and 2 were perfect thanks to vinegar. You also need to know the proportion of water you use to the number of eggs you’re cooking that determines the length of time the eggs should be cooked to the state you want. This is typically anywhere between 6 to 8 mins.
The recipe for braising sauce is varied but basically you want a balanced taste of saltiness and sweetness. You should dilute to the state whereby the taste is rather light as you want to sauce to seep into the egg yolk (which will take days) without overpowering the original taste of eggs.
If you can afford, Farmer’s Brown seems to be the most “flavouful” eggs as recommended by other bloggers. I think otherwise – since the eggs are to be braised, whether the eggs are originally flavourful or not doesn not matter much.
Lastly, general rule of thumb, cooked eggs should be stored in chiller and consumed within 7 days.
My ni-tamago references:
1. Chubby Hubby’s blog – most popular blog post on ni-tamago
2. danlyne.blogspot.com – following Chubby Hubby’s method
3. Japan Food Addict
4. Soshiok.com – Japanese-style eggs, ni-tamago – Tips from Foodie Chris Tan
5. EyeDeas Photography: Making ni-tamago… | Facebook
This is the tongs method – too much work for me.
6. Ni tamago the Men Tei restaurant way – I wonder how manypairs of tongs and hands the restaurant need to make their daily supply. I do agree to using string to slice eggs for a very clean cut.
Others:
7. Perfect hard boiled eggs
8. How to boil an egg
9. How to fry an egg
Finally, the step-by-step photo guide is here – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254526&id=678979347&l=ab58a3ddb2
Midnight Magic 