Edible Vancouver Island May/June 2024

IN SEASON RECIPE

Savoury Mushroom Steamed Custard with Sweet Corn & White Miso Mousse

RECIPE CHEF CORBIN MATHANY OF UGLY DUCKLING DINING & PROVISIONS PHOTO JENNY LEUNG Savoury steam custards (zheng dan in Mandarin or chawanmushi in Japanese) are a whole class of dishes common across many Asian cultures. Velvet-smooth, rich and aromatic, the concept behind making them is simple: an intensely flavoured broth is combined with eggs, covered and steamed. Optionally, you can add fillings to the custard to jazz it up–shiitake mushrooms, ginkgo nuts and shelled edamame are common in Japan, while spinach, scallions and shrimp are common in China–but at the restaurant, we prefer to keep it simple and let the silky texture shine. The custard can be served either warm or cold; and once you’ve mastered the basic formula, there’s no reason not to get creative and experiment with flavours to really make it your own. is the one printed here. The base is a stock made from huitlacoche, a Mexican mushroom that grows on corn. This base is flavoured with a bit of ginger, onion, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil and soy sauce, and the finished custard is topped with a warm mousse of white miso and sweet corn (huitlacoche and corn have an affinity not just in where they grow but also in how they taste together). We source our huitlacoche from our Chinatown neighbours, MAiiZ Nixtamal, and I think that’s part of what makes it such a beautiful dish. It’s an edible reflection of our Chinatown’s past and present–paying homage both to its Chinese roots, and to the vibrant, multicultural neighbourhood that it’s become. Ugly Duckling bills itself as, “an edible celebration of Vancouver Island and a love-letter to our Chinatown home,” and this simple, delicious custard manages to accomplish both of those things at once. Our version of zheng dan is decidedly non-traditional. We vary the flavours by season, but my favourite version

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32 MAY/JUN 2024 EDIBLE VANCOUVER ISLAND