Friday, June 30, 2006
Egg Foo Yong and What to Do With Pork
One of my favorite dishes from Chinese restaurants is egg foo yong… when it is done right. It’s one of my tests of “is this a good Chinese place,” along with General Gao’s chicken and the appetizers in general. Thought that last one it’d be mainly about the ribs and the chicken wings.
I never thought about it, but that’s ironic when compared to my test of a good breakfast restaurant. I almost always try a ham and cheese omlette the first time I go to a place for breakfast.
When I read Deb the recipe for egg foo yong that I found on rec.food.recipes, she noted that it was basically an omlette. Indeed. She thought it even sounded good, but not with the sauce. I’ve never tried it without, but most restaurants do serve it on the side.
What was funny is I found one egg foo yong recipe and a sauce recipe with it, along with three other posts with three entirely different sauce recipes.
I’d need a couple of ingredients - or more, if I used one of the fancier sauce recipes - but I am tempted to try making pork egg foo yong with the 3/4 lb of thin boneless pork I bought last night. I am open to other ideas, though, or I could use it in fried rice. Heck, again I’d want a couple other ingredients, but I could make stir fry. I never would have thought of making egg foo yong had I not seen the recipe, but it looks like the height of simplicity.
Here’s the egg foo yong recipe and the sauce recipe posted with it:
Egg Foo Yung
4 eggs
1/2 cup diced pork or shrimp
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup bean sprouts, cut to 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. white pepper
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Crack eggs into large bowl. Do not break yolks yet. Add pork or shrimp, onion, peas, sprouts, salt, and pepper Coat a large nonstick skillet with oil and heat over high heat. While skillet heats up, use a large spoon to break eggs. Mix eggs and vegetables thoroughly. Ladle egg mixture into hot skillet, making 6 pancakes. Reduce heat to medium. Cook until brown on bottom, about one minute. Flip cakes over and brown the other side for two minutes longer. Place on platter. Cover with egg foo yung sauce (below).
Egg Foo Yung Sauce:
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. oyster sauce
In a small saucepan, mix all ingredients. Stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring until sauce is thick and smooth (about one minute).
To make that I’d need onion, sprouts, and white pepper, which ought to be in my spice collection anyway. For the sauce I’d need chicken stock, sesame oil (which I’ve also long meant to have on hand), and oyster sauce.
Just to have them handy and for comparison - it’s no doubt possible to play around and make your own preferred variant - here are the other sauce recipes I found:
Egg Fu Young Sauce
3/4 cup chicken broth
teaspoon soy sauce
teaspoons sherry wine
teaspoons oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons water
Bring all ingredients except water and corn starch to a boil. Dissolve corn starch in water, stir into mixture, bring to a boil until thickened.
Serve over Egg Fu Young.
taken from www.recipezaar.com/140361
Chinese Homestyle Gravy
1 cup soy sauce
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup hoisin
3 Tbsp sherry or sake
1 cup water
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
3 chopped green onions
3 Tbsp corn starch—mixed with 1/3 cup cold water
1/2 tsp ajinomoto (optional)
Combine ingredients in a saucepan and thicken with cornstarch slurry. Use for noodles or eggs fu yung.
* Exported from MasterCook *
I had to look up ajinomoto to see what it was. It’s actually a company name, and apparently refers to MSG, for which they are best known.
Chinese Gravy for Egg Fu Yung
2 cup sliced mushrooms sauteed in 2 Tbsp bacon fat & 2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1/8 cup sliced green onion
1/2 cup Superior soy sauce
2 cans chicken broth
2 1/2 Tbsp corn starch—dissolved in 3/4 C of the chicken broth
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp MSG
1 tsp meinsee (bean sauce)
1 Tbsp hoisin
1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet
Heat the oil. Add the ginger, garlic, and green onion, then the mushrooms. Saute until soft; deglaze the pan with the soy sauce. Gradually add the chicken broth and remaining ingredients, adding the cornstarch solution last. Simmer until thickened. This produces a rich brown gravy that is slightly sweet and salty, and flavored with ginger and garlic.
* Exported from MasterCook *
Kitchen Bouquet is a browning and seasoning sauce.
I find it interesting that some of these have chunky items like mushrooms in them, as I have never had egg foo yong gravy that was anything but a basic brown liquid, with enough fat content to gel solid when refrigerated.