Keiran Somen (Chicken Egg Noodles)
Noodles that have a wonderful texture where you can feel each individual noodle, and the combination of egg yolk and sugar creates a rich flavor that reminds me of crème brûlée
City/Region: Japan
Time Period: 17th Century
When the Portuguese first landed in Japan in 1543, one of the major influences they had on Japanese cuisine was the use of sugar in cooking, resulting in nanbangashi (southern barbarian sweets), which includes cake, candy, and desserts like keiran somen. These sweet noodles have a wonderful texture where you can feel each individual noodle, and the flavor isn’t eggy at all, but reminiscent of crème brûlée. The technique takes practice (I didn’t even start to get the hang of it until near the end), so I recommend making the full recipe with 20 egg yolks so you have plenty if your first attempts don’t turn out quite right. That said, they’re absolutely fantastic and definitely worth a try!
“Strain egg yolks with a cloth. Heat sugar until it becomes a syrup, and dribble the egg yolks over it like fine kudzu noodles. Stretch these out and sprinkle with sugar. There are oral instructions. ”
Ingredients:
- 20 large egg yolks, from free range chickens if possible (the color will be more vibrant)
- 4 1/2 cups (900 g) sugar
- 6 cups (1.5 L) water
Instructions:
- Mix the sugar and water in a wok and set it over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and bring to 220-230°F (105-110°C).
- While the syrup heats, stir the yolks to break them up, but don’t beat any air into them. You want them to be smooth. Strain them through a mesh sieve, then strain again through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth.
- To make the noodles, you can use a special funnel specifically for making this that has a small hole in the bottom that is popular in Thailand, a bottle with some holes poked in it, or a piping bag with a very small round tip. Put the strained egg yolks into your keiran somen-making apparatus of choice and put it over the heated syrup. Moving quickly, make 20 to 25 large circles in the syrup. You want to try to get a continuous thread.
- Let the keiran somen cook for 15 seconds, then take a chopstick and move one side of the circle of noodles to meet the other side. Drag the noodles through the syrup a few times to make sure that they’re all coated well. Use chopsticks to pull them out of the syrup and let them cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
- Plate the keiran somen however you like, I folded mine over once and then cut off the folded end. Sprinkle with sugar right before you serve them forth.