An Anytime Recipe
If you find yourself short of one dish to serve for dinner, make some Chinese steamed egg. Want something to warm you on a cold day? Make steamed eggs. If someone in the family is sick, or you want a soft food to feed your baby? Steamed egg is there for you. If you’re too lazy to make a complicated dinner? You guessed it. Steamed egg. Known in Cantonese as “waat dan” or “slippery egg,” this is a versatile, anytime Chinese comfort food. You can never go wrong with it. If you didn’t grow up with it, you would never think to steam eggs, but the result is a silky, almost custard-like dish. It’s great for young kids and the elderly. It can be rustic or fancy…rural or uptown. Poor Sarah is sick with a nasty cold, so I figured it would be a good time to make her a Chinese steamed egg for a cold remedy. Instead of using just water, I added some chicken stock for extra flavor and nutrients. You can also use vegetable stock if you want to keep it vegetarian.
A Starting Point
I have seen many versions of this Chinese steamed egg dish, with mushrooms, a drizzle of soy sauce, clams, crab, chicken. All you really need is a covered container with boiling water at the bottom, and some type of rack (an empty tuna can works) to rest your heatproof dish of eggs on. As long as the steam can circulate around the dish, it will cook the eggs. Basically, you be the chef, and think of this Chinese steamed egg recipe as a starting point. Make it your own, and prepare it any way you like it. We have several examples ourselves! We love our Steamed Eggs with Crispy Pork, which involves making a quick meat relish to go on top of the eggs. Kaitlin’s Three Color Steamed Eggs add salted duck eggs and thousand year old eggs. Both recipes transform the dish into a more substantial meal. Adding vegetables like okra and a drizzle of soy sauce can also make the dish even prettier! We also have a recipe in our cookbook, The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know & Love from a Chinese American Family. In that recipe, we top steamed eggs with ground chicken and oyster mushrooms. It is delicious. I hope that gives you some ideas. Now I’ll show you how simple this is to make!
Steamed Eggs: Recipe Instructions
Crack 3 eggs in a liquid measuring cup and note the volume (it’s usually around 2/3 cup). Pour the eggs into a large bowl, add salt, and beat for at least 1 minute (or just do this in the measuring cup). Now measure out water at the same volume as the eggs, and add it to the bowl. Do the same with the chicken stock. Whisk in the sesame oil, and make sure everything’s well combined. Pour the egg mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a shallow heatproof dish (a Pyrex pie plate works well). The strainer prevents bubbles from forming, and gives you a glassy texture, similar to our Hong Kong egg tarts. If any small bubbles remain, you can skim them off with a spoon or use your finger to pop them. The surface of the egg should be smooth and glassy. Fill your steaming set-up with just enough water to simmer for a few minutes. The water shouldn’t touch the dish of eggs. (See our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.) Bring to a boil. Once boiling, place the dish of eggs in the steamer, and cover. Keep the heat at medium-high to high. The water should be at a rapid simmer/boil. Steam the eggs for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes have elapsed, shut off the heat but keep the steamer covered. Let stand for 14 minutes with the lid firmly covered. Remove your steamed egg dishes from the steamer, sprinkle with scallions, and serve. After it cools down a bit out of the steamer, just use a spoon to scoop out that delightful Chinese steamed egg goodness! For a little extra flavor, you can also drizzle the egg with a bit of light soy sauce: Note: This recipe was originally published on January 29, 2015. We have since updated it with new photos, clearer instructions, and nutrition information. The recipe itself is the same. Enjoy!
