Chawanmushi (Steamed in a Tea cup)

Ingredients
•3 eggs •1/2 cup dashi soup stock •1/2 tsp salt •1 tbsp soysauce •1 tsp sugar •1 tsp sake •1 chicken thigh •4 shiitake mushrooms •1 oz mitsuba (trefoil) •2 oz. kamaboto fish cakes
Instructions
I first tried this when I was visiting my cousins in Japan. It was served every night before we had soup. It was an appetizer of course and the way that its cooked is in either a cup used for tea or in a bowl that you would normally use to put jello in. Think of it as a warm egg custard, except somewhat sweet an salty. In the photo, its how my cousins made it for me. Itadakimasu! PREPARATION: Cut chicken into small cubes. Slice kamaboto and shiitake mushrooms thinly. Beat eggs in a bowl. (*try not to bubble the eggs.) Add dashi soup stock, soysauce, salt, sake, and sugar in the bowl. Strain the egg mixture. Prepare four cups and put shiitake, chicken, and kamaboko in each cup. Pour the egg mixture into each cup. (*fill each cup to the third-forths.) Place mitsuba on top of each cup. Cover the cups with lids. (*use alumiun foil or plastic wrap if you don't have lids.) Preheat a steamer on high heat. Turn down the heat and carefully place cups in the steamer. Steam the custard for 15 min. Poke the custard with a bamboo stick. If clear soup comes out, it's cooked. *Makes 4 servings.