Recipe Dev: Tamagoyaki Castella Style
Tamago (egg) + yaki (grilled). Tamagoyaki is usually best known as the subtly sweet, savory rolled egg you encounter at the sushi restaurant. It is filled with tender layers and is an egg lovers dream. Could it get any better?
Enter the castella style tamagoyaki. Probably best known from the stunning sushi documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”, the castella style is similar to the aforementioned Japanese dessert, a spongecake-like texture with darkly browned top and bottom. It is similar in texture to a dense souffle but still quite spongey and light. This savory version is flavored with mirin, soy, dashi, sugar, and salt. Below is a clip from the documentary showing it in it’s perfected form, gives us something to strive for.
Jiro’s recipe relies on pureed shrimp and a difficult to source ingredient known as nagaimo or Japanese mountain yam. You’ll see the nagaimo in the video below of one of Jiro’s apprentices making the tamagoyaki; it’s the super slimy white paste he is grinding.
So in a first attempt at this recipe, without having nagaimo on hand, I had to improvise. I will say it’s a decent first attempt but the texture still needs improvement. As it stands, this recipe produces a decent savory souffle but does not give us the dense sponge that we desire. I suspect that the lack of starch from the nagaimo and the protein from the pureed shrimp are at play.
Tamagoyaki Castella Style v1
4 | large eggs, separated into whites and yolks in two mixing bowls
12.7g | mirin
7g | light soy
9g | sugar
3g | salt
0.5g | instant dashi granules (I used Hondashi brand)
If you have a tamagoyaki pan, or a square pan of any sort use that. I do not have one of those at the moment so I resorted to fashioning an aluminum foil ring about 2" in height to line the inside of a 6" ring mold.
1. Whisk the egg yolks together with the mirin, soy, sugar, salt, and instant dashi until dissolved
2. Beat the egg whites into stiff peaks
3. Prepare tamagoyaki pan or ring mold modification by lightly oiling the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil
4. Fold in 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and incorporate well. Repeat with remaining egg whites, working in batches until you are left with a very light and pale yellow mixture
5. Heat pan over medium-low heat and pour in egg mixture, leveling the top with a spatula
6. Cook over medium-low heat until the bottom is a dark brown, similar to a nice caramel color
7. Move the tamagoyaki to the oven and turn on the broiler to color the top, let cool in the oven after the top has been browned
Notes
- In v2, I will include a puree of scallops folded in with the egg yolks before the addition of the whipped egg whites. I’m going to use scallops to help with those allergic to shellfish, who are typically not allergic to mollusks such as scallops.
- In v3, I will do a comparison of starch powders, tapioca and sweet potato starch, in an attempt to add structure while keeping it gluten free. I will have to sub out the soy sauce for a wheat-free tamari and up the salt