Ajitama

My favorite way to eat eggs is with the yolk 50-70% done, whether poached, boiled, or fried.  I don't necessarily have a preference for whether the yolk is spilling out the egg whites or partially set, as long as it's not fully cooked (rubbery, sandy, hard yellow ball....bleh). At ramen shops, I'm always super excited when the bowl comes with a flavor infused half boiled egg (and even better when they give you the whole egg!) and I savor every bite, taking care to eat it in between my sips of noodle and soup. T and I have made ramen at home several times now, and this egg is a MUST, but lately, I've just been making a pot of these eggs and eating it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack...ok, I will only eat one egg a day, but I've eaten this egg at every hour of the day because that's how much I love it. However, it does take a little patience before the perfect infusion of flavor gets absorbed into the egg (you just can't hurry osmosis).  The tastiest time to eat this egg is after it's been soaking in the marinade for 2+ days. It really takes this long! But despite knowing this, I can never wait that long, because you just never know, maybe this time the flavor has infused in 24 hours. That's what I always tell myself, but every time I prove myself wrong. Plus even a lightly flavored ramen egg is still delicious!

STEP BY STEP: RAMEN EGG

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, set the timer to 7:00 minutes but do not press start yet.

Once the water is boiling, gently and carefully place the room temperature eggs* in. DO NOT drop the eggs in! They will crack and you'll end up with lumpy egg-white mass, not pretty. As soon as the eggs are all submerged, press "START" on the timer.

*Using room temperature eggs reduces the sudden change of temperature for the eggs as they get submerged into boiling water, which prevents them from cracking. However, if you forgot to leave your eggs out, you can use cold eggs as well. There will be an increased risk for an egg-cracking event. But if it's just to eat yourself, (not to impress your friends), who cares right?

While you are waiting for the 7 minutes, prepare your cold water bath. Add enough water and ice cubes so that all your eggs can be submerged. As soon as the time goes off, remove all the eggs (I use a net) and submerge them into the ice bath. Wait about 5 minutes to allow the eggs to cool.

Once the eggs have cooled off, remove the shell. As you can see from the photo above, the eggs will feel squishy when you press on it (versus a hard-boiled egg where the yolk is firm and pressing on it does not change its shape). This is a way to tell that the yolk is not overcooked.

Now soak the eggs in your favorite marinade for 2+ days. I used leftover marinade from making pork belly, but a basic marinade can be made from: 3/4C chicken broth, 1/4C soy sauce, and 2T brown sugar for 6-7 eggs. Make sure to turn the eggs over every so often so that both sides of the eggs get a chance to absorb the marinade.

Beautiful, delicious ramen eggs ready to be devoured!