Chinese Steamed Egg
"Make the egg thing" -Sis
...I hear Sis say over the phone, as I'm speaking to mom about what to make for the week. She lives in New York as well, but was in D.C. for the weekend. "Is that Sis? What egg thing?" I asked. "You know, like we had at that Japanese restaurant," she replied.
I've always called her Sis—saying her actual name sounds like a foreign language.
"Stop calling me that, I have a name. It's Rosena, NOT Sis. I call YOU Vilina," she yelled as an exasperated eight-year-old. I started to wail. Mom came up to check on the hullabaloo. When caught up with the story, as explained by Sis, she looked at her and said, "Well, you ARE her sister, and she's the only person in this whole world that can call you that," and continued to explain our special sister bond—Mom has seven sisters who are her best friends, so it went on for a while.
Vilina: 1, Sis: 920,920—yea that was the first and pretty much the last fight I won. But I still cling to it because, well, I still call her Sis. And luckily since that talk, she's really embraced it.
"Ohhh right," I knew what she was talking about, Chinese Steamed Egg, a dish mom doesn't make often but is one of Sis' favorites. This dish is a conundrum, both simple and complex: it only takes a few ingredients and about 15 minutes to make, but boy is it temperamental.
Prep: 25 minutes Cook: 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS (FOR 1)
| 2 room temperature eggs |
| 2 small dry scallops |
| 4 tbsp room temperature water |
| 1/2 tsp oil |
| 1/2 tsp soy sauce |
| 1 stalk of scallion |
| 1/8 tsp salt |
PREPARE
1. Soak scallops in water for 20 minutes, or until soft enough that it's easy to break apart using your fingers.
2. While the scallops soak, finely chop the scallion.
3. When scallops are ready, break the egg and whisk with a fork. Add scallop pieces along with the water used when soaking the scallop (for a richer flavor, according to Mom), as well as the oil, soy sauce, salt, and scallion. Continue to whisk until well combined, then pour mixture into a small, shallow dish.
COOK
1. Here comes the tricky part. Take a deep breath, you can do this, I believe in you. Ready? Okay, let's go! Fill a large pot with about 3.5 cups of water and bring to a boil.
2. Carefully place your steamer** into the pot of boiling water using tongs. Then place egg mixture in steamer and cover the steamer, then the pot, and cook for 10 minutes. My initial mistake was not waiting until the water boiled to put in the egg mixture, so on the surface it looked done, but it was still gooey and wet inside. "Well you wait for water to boil before cooking pasta, don't you? It's the same thing," exclaimed mom, not that there's really any similarity between pasta and egg...
3. After 10 minutes, grab those handy tongs because your eggs are ready! You'll know it's done correctly when it looks silky smooth to touch. If you don't succeed at first, try, try, try again. That's what I did, and that's what Mom had to do, too.
EAT
Chinese Steamed Egg pairs really well with rice and stir fried jiu cai, aka Chinese chives.
**Don't fret if you don't have a steamer! Check out Food 52's homemade steamers. For this recipe, I recommend method 2.