Recipe: The Art of Making Ajitsuke Tamago

I have always been a ramen girl. Noodles is one of my favourite comfort food that I can whip up right away. My son also shares my love for noodles so I always have stocks of it in my pantry. Whether its dried egg noodles, instant noodle packs, japanese noodles, korean noodles, pancit canton, misua, bihon, sotanghon or soba.

Now comes Ajitsuke. My family loves Japanese ramen the best. They always have this unique combination of ingredients that makes their bowl of ramen a tasty treat to have. The egg or the Ajitsuke Tamago is one of the ingredients that makes each bowl an yummy meal as well as an appetizingly attractive sight to behold. Ajitsuke Tamago or also known as ni- tamago or hanjuku egg refers to a ramen egg that is soft boiled, just enough that the white is cooked through but the yolk remains soft and runny. And then marinated in a special soy, mirin, sugar mix. You can also enjoy this egg all by itself, or mashed with buttered toast on the side. (Drooling already)

Before I go on with the recipe, I would like to thank my jetsetter friend and fellow foodie, Cynthia Tiu for the wonderful tips on making these eggs.

For this recipe, I used 3 regular sized brown eggs. I bought mine at Rustan's Fresh for P120.00 a dozen. I bit pricey compared to regular white eggs but I wanted my Ajitsuke to be special. Brown eggs are also available some select groceries like S&R, SM Savemore or Metro Gaisano.

Ingredients:

• 3 brown eggs at room temperature
• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp. vinegar (Datu Puti etc.)
• 1 tsp. salt (rock salt)
• A bowl of cold water with ice cubes
• 
  

For the Soy Marinade:

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp. sake
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. cup mirin
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 Ziplock bag that will hold 3 eggs

Procedure:

• The eggs must be at room temperature or else you might miscalculate the cooking time.
• Boil the water and place the vinegar and salt in it.
• When it comes to a full boil, lower the heat to a simmer.
• Carefully place the egg inside the water, careful not to drop it or else it would create a fine crack and the egg white will seep through the boiling water.
• Boil the eggs for about five minutes in the simmering water. Water should be bubbling a bit.

• Scoop the eggs out after five minutes and immerse them in the bowl of iced water to stop cooking further.

• Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and place inside the Ziplock bag.

• Carefully peel the eggs when it's cooled down. 

• Marinate the eggs inside the Ziplockbag overnight.

• Tip: Remove the excess air around the bag when sealing it so the marinade will fully coat the eggs giving it an even brown color overnight. Yes, That's a quail egg in there. I'm experimenting if I can make Ajitsuke out of it.

Tadaaa! Overnight. Success! :)

This is my homemade ramen using shoyu based beef stock (beef stock, soy sauce, sugar, mirin) and korean dried noodles.

Another tip, you can use the marinade to flavour your soup stock if its not seasoned yet. It tastes like sukiyaki soup.

I added some beef slices, pechay, dried kombu seaweed, a sprinkle of dried Japanese rice topping (I got from my brother as pasalubong), a dollop of wasabi (to give it a little kick) and a drizzle of sesame oil.

My Instagram version. Lol

Enjoy!