What makes a good egg?

Until recently, buying a carton of eggs used to be a simple task of opening to check and see none are cracked before putting them in the shopping basket. These days, a staggering set of choices confronted us at the supermarket aisle and demanded our immediate attention to choose from generic to free range, organic to bio dynamic and barn-laid to cage eggs even before you want to buy any. To further complicate matter, there is egg packaging that spells out the production system used to raise their hen. Surely, the endorsement by the RSCPA accreditation on the egg packaging is enough to paw at your heart string and make you to consider this ethical-moral reason between free range or barn-laid and cage eggs. You may be left high to ponder over this ethical decision, but the functional claims of Omega 3 and antibiotic and hormone-free eggs still demand your thoughts before you buy that carton of eggs.
Since we have to faced with all this bewildering array of options every time we shop for eggs in the supermarket, my wife and I have been thinking at the possibility of keeping a couple of chicken in the backyard to supply eggs for the the family. We will soon let you know whether an egg from a hen raised on organic principles taste better than a hen in a cage. More importantly, what makes a good egg.

Spicy Soya Sauce Hard Boiled Eggs

Just as I have forgotten to mention about the other side dishes using the Teochew Braised Duck’s, gravy, I would be committing a culinary sacrilege if the gravy is thrown away without been utilised.

You may use the “lor” (gravy) from the braised duck to cook spicy “ tao yew eggs” (hard boiled egg in soya sauce) and “fried tao pok”(Fried Bean Curd). These appetisers are great with your Teochew braised duck dinner. Simply add hard boiled eggs and fired bean curd into the gravy and simmer for 30 minutes. Here is a simple recipe for making the gravy to cook the eggs and fried bean curd if you do not have the gravy from the braised duck.

Recipe Spicy Gravy for Hard Boiled Eggs / Fried Bean Curd (Tao Kwa or Tao Pok)

Ingredients:

½ cup sugar
½ cup dark soya sauce
1 cup water
½ tsp five-spice powder
1 tbsp coriander powder.
6 cloves garlic, slightly crushed
2 star anise
6 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 inch galangal, sliced (if unavailable use ginger)

Method:

Put sugar in a large wok and heat over medium heat. Keep stirring until sugar caramelizes. Add ingredients and 2 ½ cups hot water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add hard boiled eggs and fried bean curds and simmer for 30 minutes.

Here is a tip on how to halve or quarter a hard boiled egg perfectly with a cotton thread.
Bite one end of the thread between your teeth or tie it to the door handle of the kitchen cabinet and loop it around the egg and pull other end of thread tight. The thread will cut neatly through the egg.

Steamed Egg Custard and Minced Pork with Mui Choi from Grandma's recipe.

This steamed egg and minced pork with “mui choi” is one of Grandma’s simple dishes which we served for dinner last night. But we didn’t cook it the way Grandma did. We steamed the dish seperately in a bamboo steamer over the wok. Traditionally, this dish is steamed over the cooking rice to conserve energy.

If you have a rice cooker, you can cook steamed dishes on top of the rice. Either place directly on top of the rice or use the additional steamer plate.
If not, then steam in microwave or conventional method of steaming in the wok/pan.

Steamed egg and minced meat with mui choi(Chinese preserved vegetable)



Ingredients

3-4 eggs
1 cup chicken stock/water
1/2 tsp of salt
250g minced pork or chicken
½ cup mui choi (optional)
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 1/2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp sesame oil

Method:

1. Beat eggs lightly and stir all ingredient into egg mixture.
2. Pour mixture into a deep metal or ceramic dish.
3. When rice is cooked midway, put the dish on top of the rice and continue cooking the rice. The egg/meat custard will be cooked together with the rice.

Kaya on toast! Isn’t that a classic Singaporean brekkie?

Kaya on toast! Isn’t that a classic Singaporean breakfast? My son said to me when he sat down for breakfast this morning. Before, I could answer him, my wife came to table with half a dozen of half boiled eggs and a pot of Kopi-o. Yes indeed, we are having a full Singaporean brekkie. The reasons behind this unusual breakfast at home were our neighbour gave us a tub of homemade kaya (coconut egg jam) yesterday and we haven’t eaten kaya for ages.

In the days of my childhood, kaya on toasts were virtually eaten and only served at breakfast time. Today in Singapore, it is often eaten as a snack and is readily available throughout the day in most franchised kopitiams (cafes) chains. But it is still an integral part of everyday breakfast especially eaten with half boiled egg (3 minutes eggs) and a cuppa of kopi-O (local blended coffee). When I eat kaya on toast, my mouth waters for the kaya my mother used to make in our family kitchen. Although it was easily available, my mother had to laboriously cook the kaya over the charcoal stove for hours herself.
Kaya making remains a laborious task but there is nothing like homemade kaya. Here’s my mother kaya recipe and I can assure you that it worth the time and effort.


Kaya (Coconut egg jam) Recipe.

10 eggs
500g sugar
800ml thick coconut milk (If unavailable, use full cream canned coconut milk)
¼ cup brown sugar
2-3 pandan leaves (optional, if unavailable)

Methods:

Beat eggs with sugar with a whisk for 10 minute. Traditionally, kaya is cooked in a typical enamelled double boiler. (If unavailable, cook the kaya inside a smaller steel mixing bowl over a bigger pot of boiling water). If one is available, fill the base unit of the double boiler with water and bring to boil. Strain egg mixture into the top unit of the double boiler and stirring all the time until sugar has dissolved. Pour in coconut milk into egg mixture and mix well. Stir with a wooden spoon for the next 30 minutes until egg mixture reaches a smooth custard consistency. Heat the brown sugar in another pot until brown sugar caramelised. Add it to egg mixture to get a rich brown colour and stir well. Double boil custard for 4-5 hours over medium heat. Do top up water of the base unit of double boiler to prevent kaya from burning. When kaya is cooked allow to cool before storing in jars. Keep refrigerated.

How to make Egg Tofu Restaurant Style...but

This recipe was given by a distant relative, who owns a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. We were invited to eat there several times during our recent trip to Malaysia. Each time, when asked what we would like to have in the restaurant, we would answer in unison, “Can we have the egg tofu”? How could we possibly refuse not to eat such a delightful savoury egg tofu dish? It was served with a crispy coating on the outside and creamy and silky on the inside with a sumptuous topping of pork mince and fragrantly fried chopped salted radish (chye poh). Unfortunately I‘ve never managed to recreate this dish exactly at home. And I am sure I won’t be able to find it at any restaurant here in Sydney. Although, it one of their many signature dishes, I didn’t pursue to find out how they did the meat topping and let it remains a trade secret to its owner. So I tried to do something else with it. Serving the egg tofu with mixed vegetables or added to pork-mince and prawn-mince with black bean sauce. Egg tofu is a very versatile ingredient with a smooth texture and can be used in any recipe to substitute the ordinary tofu. I even used it in steamboat. Please have a go at it.

Ingredients:

500 cc soya milk
5 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper and chicken powder stock

Prepare steaming tray by lining an oblong loaf pan lined with cling wrap.

Combine soya milk with eggs and beat lightly.
Strain the mixture into loaf pan.
Bring water to boil and turn it down to medium-low after you put the mixture to steam about 20-30 minutes or a toothpick inserted in it comes out clean. The tofu will not be smooth if the steam is too strong and on high heat. Place pan in cold water and lift the wrap out of your baking pan. Refrigerate.

To have a crispy tofu:

Dust cooked tofu with corn flour and quickly transfer it to a heated fry pan with 1cm of cooking and pan fry for about a minute each side until golden brown. Carefully arrange it on a plate and add meat sauce/vegetables. Serve immediately.