Onsen 鹵水 Lou Seui Egg

One thing that annoys me is how American culture tends to lump and over-reduce cultures that are not of European origin. I know the term “fusion” for food is pretty outdated, but even with the concept of New American cuisine, it only recognizes combinations that include American or European cuisines. What’s missing from the American perspective is that many other parts of the world do in fact share and exchange cultures while creating new things from those exchanges.

It might not seem like a huge change, but I think this is something that can be done to blur two different cuisines together. Instead of using a seasoned dashi that is more traditional, I replaced with 鹵水 lou seui that I made. I cleaned and reorganized my pantry and realized I have a lot of spices I should continue to use. The only adjustment that I made was that I made my 鹵水 lou seui a little sweeter than I normally would for braising with chicken. That’s my preference and you can change it to your liking. So here you go, a simple dish combining Chinese and Japanese techniques and flavors. Had something like this be presented in any large food publication, I’m sure it would have been lazily edited to be vaguely “Asian” to be palatable.

With this, I used a sous vide setup for making the onsen egg. It’s extremely easy and the nice thing is that this can be made in advance for a few days and kept in the fridge ready to use.

Recipe:

Eggs
Thinly sliced green onions (garnish)
Sesame oil (garnish)

3 slices of ginger
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 green onion
Neutral oil
5-6 star anise, crushed
1 black cardamom, crushed
1 small piece of aged tangerine peel
4-5 Sichuan peppercorn, green preferably (it’s more fragrant than red)
3 cloves
2 slices of dried licorice root
1 pieces of cinnamon
3 c. of water
1 scant c. light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Rock sugar, to taste

Use a sous vide setup to heat up a water bath to 145F. Gently place however many eggs you want to use in the water bath and poach for 1 hour. Remove from the water bath and run under cold water to cool them if you are not using them immediately. They can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days and if using from the fridge, submerge them under very hot (not boiling or simmering) water for about 1-2 minutes to gently warm them up.

While the eggs are poached, take a small sauce pot and heat over medium low heat. When the pot is hot, add some neutral oil and add the ginger, garlic, and green onion. Stir fry until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds.

Add the water, spices, light and dark soy sauce, and rock sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat. Be careful not to let this boil over high heat as it can boil over and make a mess. When this boils, reduce the heat down to a simmer for 20 minutes and this is ready to use.

When everything is ready, thinly slice some green onions. This is optional and you can skip this if you don’t have any. Crack however many eggs you want in a bowl. Spoon some 鹵水 lou seui over the eggs. Top with the sliced green onions and a drizzle of sesame oil if you want to as well for extra fragrance.