Quick, easy and healthy breakfast: Natto, Onsen Tamago, kimchi and pickles over rice
In Japan, there are a lot of different breakfast variations. Toast, ham and eggs, Western style cereal with milk and fruit , miso soup, grilled salted salmon, nori seaweed, or Japanese style raw egg over hot rice. Some people also just skip breakfast. For me, breakfast is important. I wake up hungry so I like to eat something quickly prepared and full of nutrition. Here is my favorite combination for breakfast… natto (fermented soy beans), onsen tamago (hot spring egg), kimchi and Japanese pickles over rice. All the ingredients are popular in Japan but you might not be familiar with some. Today, I’m going to introduce you one of the ingredients, natto. Also, I’ll show you how to cook onsen tamago.
Natto/fermented soy bean: Natto is slimy, sticky and stinky boiled soybean fermented with Bacillus subtilis (a bacteria). It sounds awful and unappetizing, but it is a very popular food in Japan invented almost 1,000 years ago, and many Japanese still eat daily, especially for breakfast.
I hated natto when I was small but somehow, I started to love it. Now, I always have to have at least one package in my fridge at all times otherwise I get freaked out! (Seriously) Natto is supposed to be great for your health, especially to keep your intestines in good condition. Like probiotics, it boosts your immune system, helps prevent blood clots, and a lot more (If you are interested learning more about how natto helps for your body, check this article).
You can make your own natto, but most people buy packages that with come with a sauce. Mix natto well with chopsticks (I usually mix 100 times to make it fluffy but you don’t have to do that much), and combine with the accompanying sauce and chopped green onion. The simplest way to eat natto is to pour it over rice and eat it together. But you can also use it in other dishes, like stuff into fried tofu and grill, pour over mochi, mix with fried rice, or even make natto pasta! (I guess Italians will be pretty shocked seeing pasta cooked like this ;))
I understand if you tried natto and didn’t like it due to the texture or aroma. Even some Japanese people can’t eat it either. But if you haven’t tried at all yet, I think it’s worth to try at least once!
How to cook onsen tamago
Onsen means hot springs and tamago means egg. An onsen tamago style egg will have the egg white cooked, but still soft, and the yolk is half runny, but just right. The story goes that people use to cook eggs in hot springs to get this perfect result, and that is why eggs cooked in this style are called onsen tamago!
In Japan, we eat raw egg quite often, but here in the US, there is a chance to get salmonella if you eat it raw. So instead I use onsen tamago because you can get a similar texture and taste to raw egg, but cooked enough to be salmonella free. Onsen tamago goes great with curry, soba noodles, udon noodles, or just simply on top of rice with soy sauce.
Onsen tamago cooking requires the right temperature and time: 149F for 25 minutes. If you have a sous-vide machine, that works perfectly.
Leave eggs at a room temperature at least 30 minutes.
Set the temperature of the sous-vide machine to 149F (65C) (see note below if you don’t have a sous-vide machine).
Put eggs in the water gently using a mesh skimmer to prevent from cracking.
Leave for 25 minutes.
Put eggs into ice cold water. Store in the fridge, and eat them up within 3 days after cooking.
If you don’t have a sous-vide machine, use a large pot and bring water to boil. Turn off the heat, put room temperature eggs into the pot and put a lid on. Leave 20 minutes, put into ice cold water and let it cool. Don’t cook too many eggs at once since the temperature of water drops down quickly.
How to cook my quick breakfast
Chop kimchi and Japanese pickles into small pieces, mix them together with natto, and pour it all over rice. (I usually use pre-cooked frozen rice and microwave it when I’m in a hurry). Crack open the onsen tamago and pour over that heavenly mixture and you are all set! If your onsen tamago is cooked beforehand, your breakfast will be ready within 2 minutes :) Mix it all together before eating. (If you’d like, you could add a small amount of natto sauce in as well - it depends on the saltiness of the kimchi and pickles)