Japanese Egg Salad Sandwich (Tamago Sando) | Food Wishes

Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Japanese Egg Salad Sandwich. That's right I'm going to show you my take on the world famous Tamago Sanda. Plus show you how to make a copycat version of a mayonnaise so addictive and so delicious it literally has a cult following. And as if that wasn't enough I'm also going to tease an upcoming video for the world's most critically acclaimed white bread. And no we're not going to be cutting off the crust. Sorry people planning tea parties. But anyway let's go ahead and get started by hard boiling four large eggs. And by hard boiling I actually mean hard steaming since what we'll do is place four eggs down on the bottom of this saucepan. And even though they might not stay that way we'll go ahead and try to space them out. And then once those are situated we'll go ahead and add about a cup of water or the amount needed to achieve a depth of about a quarter inch. At which point we'll turn our heat on to medium high and we'll wait for that water to start to boil. At which point we'll cover this tightly and let those steam for exactly 11 minutes. And by the way for an easier alternative method if the timing's right you could just use leftover Easter eggs. But if you're cooking them fresh this is my favorite method. And then as soon as our timer rings we'll turn off the heat and then we will very carefully head over to the sink. And using the lid we will carefully drain out any of the water still in the pan. And then blast it for a few seconds with some cold water. Which is going to cool the surface and stop the cooking process. And as soon as that happens what we'll do is drain it again and then shake the pan until we're pretty sure each egg has at least a few cracks in the shell. Okay so we'll just bang those around for a few seconds. At which point we'll cover these with more cold water. And then simply let them cool all the way down before we peel them. And by cracking those shells at this point a little bit water is going to seep inside as these cool. And I think it makes them a lot easier to peel. Especially if they're super fresh like these are. And that's it. While those are cooling we can move on to make our Japanese style mayonnaise. Also known as Kewpie style. Which for this cheater version is going to start with some American mayonnaise. To which we will add some kosher salt. As well as a little bit of sugar. Followed by a teaspoon of mustard. Okay I'm using Dijon but just regular yellow mustard will work. And then I'm going to do a few drops of hot sauce. Since I always enjoy a little bit of But I'm mostly doing it to simulate the color of Kewpie mayonnaise. And then we'll finish up with a little bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice. As well as some rice vinegar. And that's it. We'll take a spoon and give this a mix until very very smooth. Oh and by the way if you happen to have any MSG laying around. Or some Handashi which is like a powdered dashi base. You could toss some of that in for some extra savoriness. Since that is something you're definitely going to find in the real stuff. But I didn't use it. And I find this very savory as is. And then once our Japanese style mayonnaise is set. We'll go ahead and wrap that up. And then we'll pop it in the fridge to keep it nice and cold. While we move on to peel our hard-boiled eggs. And if you use this method even if they're really fresh. They should be fairly easy to peel. Although one tip I just remembered here. If you give the egg a little roll under your hand on the table. That will help loosen and release that shell. And you should find it even easier to peel off. But very important. No matter how easy that shell comes off. There's good chance you have little particles of shell here and there. Which is why I almost always do this in the sink. With a little bit of running water nearby. So I can make sure the eggs are rinsed off clean. Which is where I'm heading right now. And that's it. Once our eggs are 100% shell free. We will transfer those into a wide shallow bowl. And we'll take the side of a fork. And cut those in half before we start mashing them with the tines. And the reason we want to cut these in half first. Is because if you don't. That egg will fly out of the bowl. And you'll have to chase it across the floor. And then rinse it off. Which is kind of amusing if people are watching you. But regardless. Best to just avoid that. But anyway. Once we have those halved. And maybe even quartered. We'll go ahead and start pressing with the back of the fork. Until we have those pieces of egg broken down as small as we want. And personally. I want my pieces of egg pretty small. All right. I do not enjoy an egg salad that has large pieces of white in it. All right. I find that texturally challenging. And visually disconcerting. But on the other hand. I don't want to crush this down into a fine paste. Okay. That would almost be as awkward. All right. So I'm shooting for something right in the middle. And when I was finally finished forking. Mine looked like this. And that's it. Once that's set. We can go ahead and turn this into a salad. By adding a couple pinches of salt. Plus a pinch of sugar. Followed by a few shakes of cayenne. Which I'm not sure if they use in Japan. And then in a little bit of a surprising plot twist. We're also going to add one tablespoon of heavy cream. And if you don't have that. A lot of recipes say you can use milk. And then we'll finish up with a few spoonfuls of our Japanese style mayo. All right. The exact amount being up to you. I mean you are after all the Marie Kondo. Of your Tamago Sando. And you're the one this has to spark joy. And please note the vertical position of the spoon as I'm stirring. All right. I'm basically just using the tip to stir this together. Because I don't want to smash and puree those egg yolks into the dressing. So we'll want to do that thoughtfully. And use a light touch. And that's it. As soon as that has the exact texture we want. We'll go ahead and wrap that up. And chill it very very thoroughly before we use it. Ideally if we can. On some homemade milk bread. And what you're seeing here is a loaf of exactly that. And I will definitely be showing you how to do that in an upcoming video. So consider yourselves teased. But having said that. Any soft white bread will work. Just not as well as this does. And no matter what we use. Before we put the salad on. We're going to want to butter that very generously. Which not only makes it taste better. But also prevents the bread from getting soggy. And nobody. And I mean nobody wants a soggy egg salad sandwich. And once that's been buttered. We can go ahead and transfer over our egg salad. And I'm going to use about half of what we made. All right. Between one and a half and two eggs is generally a portion. And then once we have a nice even layer of that. We will perform the old pat flip and pat. Okay so we'll place our other slice of bread on top. And lightly pat it down. And then we'll give it a flip and another pat. Before we wrap it up and pop it in the fridge. And I guess we could if we want to eat it right away. But this sandwich is a famous snack in Japan that people pick up at convenience stores. After it's been wrapped up and sitting there for hours. If not days. So to honor that tradition. I went ahead and popped mine in the fridge for about an hour. At which point I pulled it out and unwrapped it. And proceeded to cut it in half. And yes it is very very common to cut off the crust as well. But you know what that kind of makes a mess. And you lose some of your salad. Not to mention some of that delicious milk bread. So I'm just going to simply cut mine in half diagonally. And serve it like this. Oh and if you're wondering why the pictures you've seen of this salad are a lot more yellow. That's because some people put extra egg yolks in. To make it a little extra rich and decadent. And definitely a lot more deeper golden color. Which sounds good. But what the heck am I supposed to do with a bunch of leftover cooked egg whites? That's right nothing. And yes if there are any slightly larger rogue pieces of egg white you could pick those up. And that's it we are ready to plate up. Maybe next to a nice fresh green salad. And that's it our Tamago Sando is ready to enjoy. And I'm not sure what I enjoyed more. That incredibly simple extra savory egg salad. Or that impossibly light beautifully buttery milk bread. With crust. Although really it was probably just a combination of both. Right this really is a marriage made in heaven. And in the business we refer to this as a pure egg salad. Meaning it's only the eggs and the dressing. But using this as a base. You can certainly add things like chives or capers or chopped up gherkins. So as usual don't be afraid to get creative. Speaking of which. I think I'm going to finish up with a freestyle haiku. Please make this Sando. Since it is really good yo. Chickens are smiling. On second thought let's not end with a haiku. But rather me simply saying. I really do hope you give this a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts. A printable written recipe and much more as usual. And as always enjoy.