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1
Break the eggs into a bowl and stir gently with chopsticks — do not whisk or aerate. Add the mirin, sake, and light shoyu to the warmed dashi, then pour the seasoned dashi slowly into the eggs, stirring throughout to combine. Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean jug, removing all membranes and foam. The strained liquid should be perfectly smooth and uniform in colour.
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2
Arrange the solid ingredients — shrimp, chicken, kamaboko, ginkgo nuts, lily bulb segments, and mitsuba — in the base of four covered chawanmushi cups. Pour the custard liquid over the solids, filling each cup to no more than 80% of capacity to allow for slight expansion during steaming. Place the lids on the cups.
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3
This is where the dish lives or dies. Bring the steamer to temperature, then reduce the heat so that the internal temperature holds at 80–83°C: prop the steamer lid open with a chopstick or folded cloth to allow excess steam to escape. Too little ventilation raises the temperature above 85°C and su-dachi — the pocked, watery, honeycombed failure — becomes almost inevitable. The correct temperature produces a barely audible, steady but gentle hiss; there should be no vigorous billowing of steam.
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4
Steam the cups at 80–83°C, maintaining the lid-holder technique throughout. When the custard appears set at the edges but the centre still shows a soft quiver on gentle agitation, insert a skewer into the centre: it should withdraw cleanly, leaving a smooth-sided hole, not a ragged one. The surface should be unbroken, pale ivory, and without pitting.
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5
Remove the cups from the steamer. The custard should tremble — yawara — at the slightest movement of the cup. It must hold the impression of a spoon pressed lightly against its surface while remaining tremblingly smooth. Serve immediately in the covered cups.