The Konbi restaurant in LA made a name for itself over the course of a few years for it’s crazy-good Japanese-style egg salad sandwiches, for which many people would line up for every morning. Alas, the restaurant was done in for financial reasons, mostly related to the pandemic.
Luckily for us, the New York Times published Konbi’s egg sando recipe, and here it is.
If you like egg salad sandwiches, you will absolutely love these, but there are two main things to keep in mind with the recipe: 1) try to cook the soft-boiled eggs so the yolks are “jammy.” Not hard. Not runny, but like a thick jam. This is fairly difficult to do, by the way. I got fairly close, but they weren’t quite as soft as I had wanted. 2) Use a good bread for these sandwiches. A Japanese milk bread works well, or a brioche, which is what I used for these.
What you’ll need for 4 sandwiches
- Ice cubes for two ice baths
- 1 scallion, very thinly sliced
- 1T Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, plus more for spreading on bread
- 1T crème fraiche (use sour cream in a pinch)
- 1.5t rice wine vinegar
- 1.5t Dijon mustard, plus more for spreading on the bread
- Kosher salt
- 12 large eggs
- Flaky sea salt
- 8 slices Japanese milk bread, brioche or white sandwich bread
What to do
Fill a large pot with water, leaving a few inches of space at the top, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Prepare two ice baths in medium bowls.
While the water comes to a boil, stir together the scallion, mayonnaise, crème fraîche, vinegar and mustard in a small bowl to make the dressing. Season to taste with kosher salt.
When the water starts boiling, gently add all of the eggs and let the water come back to a boil. As soon as the water returns to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the eggs at a gentle simmer for 8 minutes. At this point, remove 6 of the soft-boiled eggs to one ice bath. Let the remaining 6 eggs cook for another 6 minutes until hard-boiled. When they’re done, transfer them to the second ice bath. Keep them in the ice bath for 5 minutes. Crack all the cooked egg’s shells by gently hitting them all over with the back of a spoon.
Working within the ice-bath, peel the hard-boiled eggs, keeping them partly immersed—the water helps with shell removal. Transfer the hard-boiled eggs to a cutting board and chop them into 0.25” pieces. Gently fold the chopped eggs into the egg salad dressing using a rubber spatula or large spoon. Season to taste with kosher salt.
Working within the second ice-bath, carefully peel the soft-boiled eggs. Transfer them to a cutting board and slice them in half, lengthwise. The yolks should be creamy but not runny. If the yolks are runny, make another batch of soft-boiled eggs with the yolks less runny.
Now for the assembly:
Slather mustard on 1 side of 4 bread slices and mayo on 1 side of the remaining 4 bread slices. Sprinkle flaky sea salt on the halved soft-boiled eggs. Arrange 2 egg-halves down the center of each slice of the mustard-slathered bread, laying them yolk side down, and positioning them so the narrower tips point outward toward the crust of the bread and the wider, rounder portions (with the yolks) are in the middle of the bread. Place both halves close enough so that they touch in the center of the bread.
Now divide the egg salad among the sandwiches, gently putting about 0.5-cup scoops of egg salad on each pair of soft-boiled eggs on each of the 2 bread slices. Spread the egg salad evenly toward the crusts in all directions until the bread is covered.
Top the sandwiches with the remaining slices of bread, mayonnaise side down. Using a serrated knife, carefully slice off the crusts that are parallel to the soft-boiled eggs.
Cut each sandwich into thirds, 90 degrees to the soft-boiled eggs. This makes for a nice, exposed cross-section of soft-boiled eggs.
These can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 24 hours if not eaten right away.
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