Boiled Egg and Scallion Soup
it's sushi time again! everyone invited
This is a soup made from almost nothing in about fifteen minutes, and it is the thing that goes on the table first while the sushi is still being rolled.
The eggs are boiled separately and halved into the bowl — this is not an egg drop soup and there are no ribbons in it. Nine minutes gives you a set white and a yolk that is just turning from bright to pale, which holds its shape when it hits hot broth instead of going chalky.
Everything else goes in raw at the end. Scallion, garlic, herbs, chilli, pepper — the broth cooks them in the bowl, and they stay green and loud instead of grey and polite.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 15 minutes
- Eggs
- 9 minutes exactly
- Everything else
- Raw, in the bowl
What you need
The broth
- 6 cups good chicken stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- Salt to taste
In the bowl
- 8 eggs, boiled 9 minutes, peeled and halved
- 6 spring onions, sliced — greens and whites both
- 4 cloves garlic, minced raw
- 2 tbsp dried parsley, or a big handful of fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp chilli powder, for dusting
- Coarse cracked black pepper
How it goes
1 — Nine minutes for the eggs, then straight into ice
Lowered into already-boiling water, nine minutes exactly, then into ice water for five. Nine gives a firm white and a yolk just set through — the pale yellow in the picture, not the chalky grey of a twelve-minute egg.
2 — Peel them under water
Cracked all over and peeled with the shell under a running tap or in the ice bath. The water gets under the membrane and the shell comes off in sheets.
pro tip — Week-old eggs peel far more easily than fresh ones. If yours are brand new, expect to lose some white and do not take it personally.
3 — Warm the broth, do not boil it
Stock, soy, vinegar and sesame oil brought to just below a simmer. Boiling drives off the sesame oil, which is most of what you are smelling.
4 — Mince the garlic raw and put it in the bowl
Not in the pot. Raw garlic in the bowl stays sharp; garlic simmered for ten minutes goes sweet and disappears.
5 — Halve the eggs straight into the bowls
Cut side up, crowded together — this soup is more egg than liquid and it should look it.
6 — Scallion and herbs over, then the broth
All the green on top of the eggs, then the hot broth ladled around the edge so it does not wash everything to one side.
7 — Chilli and pepper dusted over the surface
Last, over the top, where it floats on the oil and stays visible. That dusting is the whole look of the bowl.
It's sushi time again. Everyone invited, even if I forgot to shout you out. LFG.