Sho-yu Tamago (Soy sauce eggs)

Since many of you asked about the sho-yu tamago (soy sauce eggs) that my mother used to pack for me in my school outings bentos [1], here’s the recipe for them. Well, I hesitate to even call it a recipe - it’s so easy.

All you do is:

• Hard boil some eggs . My hardboiling method is this: Put the eggs in enough cold water to cover. Heat up the pan while rolling the eggs around - this makes the yolk stay in the middle. When the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat, put a lid on the pan, and leave for 10 minutes. (I read this in the Julia Child book that is being given away over on Just Hungry [2].)
• Drain the hot water, and cool the eggs rapidly under cold running water. Peel the eggs. Try to keep the surface unscathed. (The batch I made above have a few nicks.)
• In a pan large enough to hold all your eggs comfortably, heat up some plain soy sauce. Figure about a tablespoon per egg.
• When the soy sauce is foaming up, lower the heat to about medium, put in your eggs, and roll them around to coat them as evenly as possible. Keep rolling them until the pan is almost dry and the eggs are a chestnut brown. (To make darker eggs, use tamari soy sauce.)
• Let cool before packing for bento.

Since the soy sauce is salty enough, there’s no need for extra salt or other seasonings, which makes them very portable - therefore great for picnic or school outing bentos.

These are even easier than the lazy tea eggs [3], but they don’t really keep, so you do have to make them when you need them.

They are very pretty when cut in half or in slices, and make a nice gap filler in a regular bento box.

Flavor wise, miso marinated eggs [4] or the lazy tea eggs [3], but both methods take some time. When you are in a hurry these soy sauce rolled eggs do fine.