Silky, smooth, and elegant, it’s the words to describe Chinese Steamed Egg (鸡蛋羹). It is made of very basic ingredients, egg and water. The mixture is carefully steamed on low heat to become a custard-like texture but even softer. However, this is a savory dish to eat with soy sauce and steamed rice. Let’s make it.
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Steamed egg is popular across Asia, you can easily find versions in every country. Every time I visit a sushi restaurant, I always order a cup of Japanese steamed egg (Chawanmushi), a savory dish including daishi, egg, mushroom, kamaboko fish cake and chicken. Chinese steamed egg is much simpler than chawanmushi, so we can try it right at home and feel free to be creative. In my version, I tried adding a few meatballs to increase the amount of protein for the meal.
The Hardest Thing about Making Chinese Steamed Egg
Although the ingredients are obviously basic, this dish requires an important thing: patience. If you steam the egg mixture on high heat, it will be quicker, but the texture will be broken. It’s pitted and crushed, and tastes so bad. From my many times failing to make steamed egg and steamed flan, I suggest you trying this dish in a free day which you can spend time waiting it to steam in more than 1 hour. We can’t wait for too long while we’re hungry.
Ingredients
To make Chinese Steamed Egg, you only need to prepare egg, water, and a pinch of salt. The ratio between egg and water varies, usually 1:1.5 to 1:2. After several tries, I found the ratio 1:1.5 works better for me. It’s because the egg mixture at this ratio can be cooked in shorter time, and is firmer, more appropriate for accompanying with steamed rice and soy sauce. The ratio of 1 egg :2 water will form a softer texture, but too soft for me and I also loosed my patience until all cooked.
Besides, try your cool toppings on it. Mushroom, crab meat, clams, chicken, etc. are some common options. Other than that, I tried meatballs; it was cool as well. Therefore, just be creative with everything you like.
Equipment
Prepare 2 bowls to mix the egg and filter the mixture, a strainer to filter the egg mixture a few times for the smoothest texture, a deep plate to contain the mixture for steaming.
To steam the egg, prepare a steamer. You can boil the water with a boiler first and pour boiling water to the steamer to save time.
How to make Chinese Steamed Egg
As I shared above, everything is very easy except you should be patient for it to be steamed gradually. Let’s follow these steps:
Step 1. Mixing egg and water
- In a large bowl, add 2-3 eggs into it. Weigh the eggs to calculate the water correspondingly, or you can estimate. Usually a medium-size egg weighs 50g (1.8 oz). Beat them until combined. Add a pinch of salt (optional).
- Depend on the number of eggs you used, add the corresponding amount of water. Per 100g (3.6 oz) eggs, use 150ml (5 fl oz) water. For a softer texture, you can try 170-180ml.
Step 2. Filter the egg mixture
- Filter the egg mixture through a strainer 2-3 times to remove the any air bubbles and leftover egg solids. Gradually pour the mixture to another bowl and vice versa.
- Then, in the final filtering, directly pour egg mixture to your prepared deep plate for steaming.
Step 3. Adding toppings
- If you add mushroom, slice it. With Asparagus, cut into pieces of 3-4 cm. For chicken breast, clam, shrimp or crab meat, you should boil it first and shred then add to the plate after steaming. For meatballs like my version, roll ground beef/pork into thumb-sized balls and gently drop into the mixture.
Step 4. Steaming
- Add 1L of boiling water to the steamer to save time. If you don’t have any boiling water available, it’s ok to boil water by steamer. After the water boils, set the plate and vegetables (if any) separately in the steamer, reduce to low heat and close the lid. To avoid the water dripping from the lid to your egg, cover the lid with a cheesecloth. The water dripping from the lid will definitely make your steamed egg spitted.
- Wait for around 45 minutes – 1 hour for the egg mixture to be steamed. After that, do the “toothpick test”: insert a toothpick or skewer into the center of the plate. If it comes out clean without sticking the egg mixture, your Chinese steamed egg is perfectly cooked.
- Serve it with soy sauce. You can directly add soy sauce on top of the dish and garnish with cilantro/spring onions.
Storing Chinese Steamed Egg
Chinese Steamed Egg is best served hot, so you should eat it immediately after removing from the steamer. In case you have to store it for later use, wait until it cools down, cover the plate with plastic wrap and keep it in fridge. Remember not to let them in the fridge for more than 3 days.
To reheat, the best way in my opinion is to boil some water, pour it in a bowl and lay the Chinese Steamed Egg Plate on. Set in 3-5 minutes to let it reheat. Otherwise, you can quickly microwave it in 30s – 1 minute. You can steam it again as well.
Chinese Steamed Egg with Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
Chinese Steamed Egg
- 2 eggs medium-sized ~50g (1.8 oz)/egg
- 150 ml water 5 fl oz
- A pinch of salt
Toppings (Optional)
- 100 g ground pork 1/2 cup
- 100 g Shrimps/Clam/Crab Meat 1/2 cup
- 4-5 mushrooms/asparagus
Instructions
Step 1. Mixing egg and water
- In a large bowl, add 2-3 eggs into it. Weigh the eggs to calculate the water correspondingly, or you can estimate. Usually a medium-size egg weighs 50g (1.8 oz). Beat them until combined. Add a pinch of salt (optional)
- Depend on the number of eggs you used, add the corresponding amount of water. Per 100g (3.6 oz) eggs, use 150ml (5 fl oz) water. For a softer texture, you can try 170-180ml.
Step 2. Filter the egg mixture
- Filter the egg mixture through a strainer 2-3 times to remove the any air bubbles and leftover egg solids. Gradually pour the mixture to another bowl and vice versa.
- Then, in the final filtering, directly pour egg mixture to your prepared deep plate for steaming.
Step 3. Adding toppings
- If you add mushroom, slice it. With Asparagus, cut into pieces of 3-4 cm. For chicken breast, clam, shrimp or crab meat, you should boil it first and shred then add to the plate after steaming. For meatballs like my version, roll ground beef/pork into thumb-sized balls and gently drop into the mixture.
Step 4. Steaming
- Add 1L of boiling water to the steamer to save time. If you don’t have any boiling water available, it’s ok to boil water by steamer. After the water boils, set the plate and vegetables (if any) separately in the steamer, reduce to low heat and close the lid. To avoid the water dripping from the lid to your egg, cover the lid with a cheesecloth. The water dripping from the lid will definitely make your steamed egg spitted.
- Wait for around 45 minutes – 1 hour for the egg mixture to be steamed. After that, do the “toothpick test”: insert a toothpick or skewer into the center of the plate. If it comes out clean without sticking the egg mixture, your Chinese steamed egg is perfectly cooked.
- Serve it with soy sauce. You can directly add soy sauce on top of the dish and garnish with cilantro/spring onions.
Nutrition
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