Soy-Marinated Eggs

📝 Ingredients

• 8 eggs (medium)
• 100 ml soy sauce
• 60 ml mirin
• 200 ml water
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 garlic clove + 10 g fresh ginger
• 1 spring onion
• 1 tsp sesame seeds

🍴 Utensils

• Large saucepan
• Slotted spoon
• Mixing bowl
• Small saucepan
• Narrow airtight container
• Timer

📖 Steps

1. Make the marinade: heat the mirin with the sugar in the small saucepan over medium heat for 1 to 2 min, until it is just simmering and the sugar has dissolved. Off the heat, add the water, soy sauce, crushed garlic and sliced ginger, then leave to cool.
2. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil, with enough water to cover the eggs by 2 cm. Have a bowl of very cold water ready beside it. Take the eggs out of the fridge at the last minute: the cooking time is based on cold eggs.
3. Gently lower the eggs into the boiling water with the slotted spoon, then set a timer for 6 min 30 s as soon as the last one is submerged. Keep it at a medium boil and stir gently during the first minute to centre the yolks.
4. When the timer goes off, immediately transfer the eggs to the very cold water and leave them for 10 min, changing the water if it warms up. This shock stops the cooking: without it, the yolk wouldn't stay runny.
5. Peel the eggs under a thin trickle of cold water, starting at the wider end where the air pocket is: the membrane comes away more easily and the still-delicate white won't tear.
6. Place the eggs in the container and pour over the cold marinade: they must be fully submerged. Lay a sheet of kitchen paper on the surface to keep them under the liquid and get an even colour.
7. Close and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 8 h, ideally overnight, but no more than 12 h or the eggs become too salty. The white should take on an amber tint. Then take them out of the marinade and keep them in a clean container.
8. Just before serving, halve the eggs lengthways with a thin, wet knife, then sprinkle with sliced spring onion and sesame seeds. To take away, keep them whole: they keep for 3 days in the fridge.