kasu egg

Think you're looking at soft boiled eggs?
Look again.

While making kasu zuke egg yolks, I was struck by how natural the pale kasu looked surrounding the yellow yolks— a visual inspiration for a faux egg. The next step was to make an albumen with the flavor of kasu and the texture of a cooked egg white. After experimenting with various hydrocolloids, the synergy of gelatin, agar, and gelated rice starch produced a convincing (and delicious) fascimile. 

kasu eggs
makes 6 

You will need 2-part egg molds with a pouring hole at the top. The molding process is a bit fiddly— the first pour should be allowed to set just enough to support the weight of the yolk, but soft enough to meld with the second pour.  

1200g water
180g basmati rice

Bring water to a boil. Add rice and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes, until rice is very soft and tender. Drain rice, reserving the cooking liquid. Cool.

190g cooked, drained basmati rice
280g reserved cooking liquid
60g compressed kasu
6g rice bran oil
5g mirin
4g salt
1.8g agar
1g gelatin

6 65℃ egg yolks (whole eggs cooked at 65℃/149℉ for 45 minutes, then peeled and separated from whites)

Place rice, liquid, kasu, oil, mirin and salt in blender and blend until smooth. Sprinkle gelatin and agar over top of mixture and blend for 10 seconds. Scrape mixture into a saucepan. (At this point, mixture will be thick, but will become fluid upon heating). Cover and heat mixture over low heat until it comes to a simmer. (It is important to keep pan covered while heating as evaporation will cause it to thicken). Quickly pour mixture into bottom half of 6 molds until about 2/3 full. Cover pan and keep warm. Place molds in freezer until barely set (mixture will yield slightly when pressed with a finger, but is no longer liquid. Center a yolk on top of mixture in each mold. Secure the top half of the mold in place, being careful to not disturb the position of the yolks. Fill the molds with the remaining mixture using a small funnel, if necessary. Carefully transfer the molds to the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours before unmolding.
To unmold: Submerge the molds in warm water for a few seconds to loosen. Carefully remove the top half of the molds, then invert the bottom halves over a plate until the eggs slip out.