Hanjuku Tamago Gohan - 半熟卵ご飯 - Soft Boiled Egg and Rice

As I have spent the last nine months working on my Japanese traditional cooking skills and repertoire, I’ve developed some favourite recipes, and also made some of my own customizations to suit my tastes. This one has become my standard weekday breakfast because it is so quick, easy, and satisfying at the start of a day of work.

Tamago Gohan is a classic Japanese breakfast dish that is simply an egg cracked over steaming hot rice. The heat from the rice cooks the egg as you stir it up. It’s also common to add a splash of soy sauce and sesame seeds or furikake.

In my variation, I soft boil the egg, leaving the yolk liquid, and top it off with a seasoning sauce of my own invention made with soy sauce and miso.

Seumas’ Hanjuku Tamago Gohan

Seasoning sauce

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white miso paste
• 1/4 cup hot chili oil (adjust to your spice preference)
• 1 dash of sesame oil

Combine the ingredients and blend well. I use an immersion blender to get a thorough result. The miso will settle, and the oil will rise but if you start with a well blended mixture, then a quick shake or stir will get it back in shape to use. The amount above lasts me a week or so.

I keep my seasoning sauce in a squeeze bottle for easy access in the morning.

For the bowl

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup uncooked short grain white rice
• Sprinkle of furikake (I prefer seaweed and sesame)

Thoroughly rinse the rice and combine with 5 ounces of water. I use a Japanese rice cooker that I can set up the night before to have my rice ready when I get up, but stove top will work fine as long as you are careful.

I use my Instant Pot to soft boil my egg in 4 minutes at low pressure with quick release.

Remove the egg immediately and hold under cold running water to cool the shell so you can peel it comfortably. After peeling, just place it in your bowl and bury it in rice.

Sprinkle furikake, and add seasoning sauce.

I like to stab the egg through the rice with my chopsticks to release the delicious egg yolk and let it slowly combine with the rice, but you do you!