Sunday, October 4, 2009

Recipe: Steamed pork with Century egg

I had a box of century eggs in my fridge that my mom had given to me. Century egg is also known as preserved egg or thousand year old egg. Duck, quail or chicken eggs are preserved for months and the egg turns dark on the outside and green in the inside. You crack and peel the egg shell like a regular hard boiled egg.

The yolk is semi-creamy and has a sulfurish, pungent smell. Very distinct taste which you will either love or absolutely abhor. You can purchase these at Asian supermarkets.

I decided to make steamed pork with century egg. My mom used to make this for us as it is relatively simple to make, healthy and is delicious. It is usually eaten with steamed rice but I like to eat mine as is. The dish is basically pork and mushrooms cooked in an egg custard.

Steamed Pork with century egg
(serves 4)
4 dried mushrooms
1/2 lb ground pork
1 tsp chicken marinade (or substitute with soy sauce)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cornflour
1/4 cup water
3 century eggs, cut into pieces
2 eggs, beaten

Hydrate mushrooms by soaking in a bowl of water. When mushrooms are soft, slice into pieces.

Mix the ground pork with the marinade, sesame oil, pepper, ginger, cornstarch, water and century eggs in a shallow heatproof dish. You can adjust the amount of water depending on whether you like your egg custard silky or denser. In another bowl, beat eggs and pour over meat mixture.

Cover bowl with saran wrap, and place egg and meat mixture into a steamer or wok with water, cover with lid and steam for 25-30 minutes. Depending on your dish and how thick your pork and egg mixture is, you may require less or more steam time.

I like to mix and fluff mine up. Scoop some for yourself and make sure you have a piece of mushroom and century egg in each spoon full.

Once you know the ingredients and the cooking steps, you will have a template for a variety of dishes. If you are vegetarian, you can omit the pork. If you are on a low carb diet, eat it without rice. If you're trying to go all Asian, you can add preserved cabbage, dried shrimp or wood fungus. I think my mom would be proud that I'm finally trying to cook something for a change.

For dessert, I opened a can of jackfruit and chilled it in the fridge before serving. Jackfruit is a fruit that is popular in Southeast Asia. I recently saw the actual fruit at a Singaporean cooking class at Rocksugar Restaurant. The fruit itself is hard and and the yellow flesh is the edible portion. It's a bit fibrous and sweet. However the fruit has an odor that has been compared to rotting onions. Once again, love it or hate it.

2 comments:

Daily Gluttony said...

Yum, love that we made a similar dish on the same day! I've never made my steamed pork w/ the 1000 yr old egg, but looks like I'm going to have to try it now. Thanks!

stuffycheaks said...

I know, so random! Yeah you should try it with the century egg. Its pungent but oh so good