Steamed Firm Beancurd with Egg And Preserved Turnip

A few weeks back I have done a similar beancurd dish using Firm Tofu with Leek (read more HERE) and now here is another version that I have adapted and modify from one of the "3 Plus 1 Sr 3( 三 菜一汤)" cooking show. For my recipe I used preserve turnip (菜脯) instead of the dried shrimps because I prefer the fragrant and taste of preserve turnip with the bland tofu.



Estimate Cost On Ingredients: S$2.00

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Piece of Firm Tofu(豆干)
1 Medium Size Egg
1/4 Cup (50ml) of Water/Stock
1/4 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
Dash of Salt and Pepper

For Garnish:
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon of Preserved Turnips(菜脯)
1 Small Red Chili, thinly sliced
Spring Onion and Coriander

Method:-

1. Lightly fry the firm beancurd with 1/2 Tablespoon of oil then golden-brown on both side. Remove and drain well, cut into 9 equal parts and place it in a steaming bowl/dish.

2. Saute garlic and preserved turnip till fragrant and lightly brown with the remaining oil from frying the beancurd. Dish up and set aside.

3. Lightly whisk the egg in a bowl(do not over beat it), add in water, sesame oil, salt and pepper and mix till combined.

4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to get rid of lumpy egg cluster before pouring it the strained mixture into the prepared tofu dish.

5. When the water boils, steam the tofu and egg over medium low heat for about 10 minutes.

6. Top with the prepared garlic mixture and continue to steam for another 3 – 5 minutes till egg custard is firm and toothpick inside and comes out clean.

7. Garnish with spring onion, coriander and chili then serve with steamed rice.

Note:-

~ Omit seasonings such as sesame oil, salt and pepper if using stock instead of water for the egg custard.

~ Rinse Preserved Turnips in water, squeeze dry before use.

If you cannot get hold of any traditional Asian "Firm Tofu(豆干)" in your area, you can replace it with with either one of those pan-fry / deep-fried tofu. I am sure this dish will lift up your appetite with more than 1 serving bowl of rice due to it's combination some fragrant spicy and salty toppings.

Salted Egg Tofu (咸蛋豆腐)

My inspiration for making this dish comes from my craving on Salted Egg Prawns which I have not eaten for quite sometime. And since recently I am trying to cook quick and simple homecooked dish within a S$20.00 budget for "2 Dishes and 1 Soup". I decided to try out this “Salted Egg Tofu” which surprisingly turns out well received.

Salted duck eggs are normally boiled or steamed before being peeled and eaten as a condiment to porridge or cooked with other foods as flavouring. The orange red yolk is rich, fragrant and less salty compare to the whites portion.

For a while our sense of taste seems to play a trick on us by making us thought that this tofu dish is actually the "salted egg prawn" due to the familiar taste that they both shared.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

1 Tube of Egg Tofu
10 - 15 Curry Leaves

Egg Yolk Coating:
1 Cooked Salted Egg Yolk, mashed
1 Small Red Onion, cut into wedges
10g of Unsalted Butter
1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Of Cornflour
1 - 2 Sprig Extra Curry Leave

Tip:

~ Remove the outer soil from the salted egg, carefully scrub and rinse well. Cooked it in a small saucespan half filled with water on medium low heat for about 10 minutes. Remove, shelled and take out the salted egg yolk. OR

~ Alternatively, break the uncooked salted egg and remove the yolk and steamed it for 8 minutes before mashing.

Although this dish might be quite fattening due to the ingredients used but I guess having it once in a while should be a good enough to satisfy those craving from the fried salted egg with butter taste. What's more to consider when you only need roughly S$3.00 to prepare this.

Method:

1. Slice tofu equally into 8 pieces of the same thickness.

2. Gently coat it with some cornflour and shake off the excess.

3. Pan-fry the tofu with 1 tablespoon of oil till golden brown and crisp on both side, remove and drain well.

4. Use the remaining oil from the pan, saute the 10 - 15 curry leaves using low heat till crispy and drain well. (you have to do this fast as the leaves tends to get burnt very quickly)

5. With the same frying pan, add in butter and olive oil and simmer on low heat till butter melt before adding in the onion and sprigs of curry leaves. (if you prefer something spicy, you could add in a few slices of cut chili at this stage)

6. Continue to saute the mixture on low heat till the onion begin to soften, stir in the mashed salted egg yolk and give it a quick stir till the well combined.

7. Slowly toss in the tofu, swirl the pan to coat tofu evenly with the salted egg sauce.

8. Discard the sprigs of curry leaves and serve the golden tofu with crispy curry leaves as garnish.

Quick & Easy Egg Tarts

Talking about Egg Tart(蛋挞) or Egg Custard Tart I am sure most of us will link it up with "Dim Sum", "Yum Cha" or Hong Kong famous Tai Cheong Bakery(泰昌餅家) Egg Tart where the filling is extremely soft and flows into your mouth when bite.

Basically egg tarts come with two main types of crusts which is either “Shortcrust” or “Puff” pastry with Egg Custard as traditional fillings. But now with wider customers range from different countries and age group, newer fillings like Chocolate, Green-tea, Orange and even Bird Nest is available during different occasions.

Recently I have come across two egg tart posts from to lovely ladies that stir-up my thoughts of making these lovely tea-snack to serve my guests during Chinese New Year. For your interest you can also read up their post at "Egg Tarts (Dan Tat)" from Tale of Crumbs and "Tai Cheong Bakery Egg Tarts - Not!" from Ju's of Little Teochew blog.

Ingredients for Egg Custard: (makes 6, 3" Tarts)

15g Caster Sugar
40ml Water
1 Large Egg
20ml Fresh Milk
1 Teaspoon Condensed Milk

Method:

1. Boil water with sugar till melted and keep aside till cool. (you can dissolved the sugar in hot boiling water too)
2. Crack the egg in a small mixing bowl, add in fresh milk and condensed milk then gently stir with a whisk till well mixed.(becareful not to over whisk)
3. Add in cooled sugar syrup and stir well.
4. Sift the entire mixture through finest sieve twice to get ride of any egg clusters.
5. Carefully fill the prepared tart shells with egg mixture till the rim.
6. Bake in preheat 140 degree oven for about 20 minutes or till egg custard achieve the pudding like texture.

Note:

~ The Egg Custard recipe is adapted and modify from Tale of Crumbs, original recipe HERE.

~ You can use any Shortcrust Dough recipe for this egg tart shells. I use the remanding dough from my pineapple tarts dough.

Ingredients Pastry Dough:

150g Plain Flour
20g Milk Powder
1/2 Tablespoon Icing Sugar
125g Cold Butter, cubed
1/2 Egg Yolk, lightly beaten
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method:

1. Sieve flour, milk powder and icing sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (must be fast or else the butter will melt and the dough will became very soft)
3. Beat in the egg yolk and essence.
4. Mix well to form a dough. Place in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Roll pastry out to 0.5 cm thickness on a lightly-floured tabletop and cut out rounds to fix the tart cases.
6. Gently press the dough into the tart case and trim away any excess, chilled the prepared cases for another 5 minutes in the fridge.
7. Use a fork to prick some holes on the pastry shell before putting the tart case into the preheated 160 degree oven.
8. Bake tart shells on middle rack for 10 minutes or till slightly brown, remove and cool the shells for about 10 minutes before filling it with the prepared egg custard.


If you prefer to make these egg tarts in a much hassle free way, you can always purchase those ready-made shortcrust pastry from any local supermarket. Cut and fix them into the tart cases and go ahead with the egg custard preparation and you would enjoy fresh and pipping hot delicious egg tarts in less than 30 minutes. 

Quick and Easy Egg Tarts

Scramble Egg Whites with Seafood

This stir-fried Egg Whites dish is also know as "芙蓉赛螃蟹" in Mandarin, which is a very popular dish in the Qing Dynasty. According to legend one day Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly want to eat crab but due to the long traveling journey to and from the ocean they could have get the crab in time to prepare this dish. So the chef has no choice but to use egg whites to imitate a similar “crab” dish for her. Surprisingly Empress Dowager loved this dish very much and it became a famous dish that is pass down till now.

My first experience with this dish is during my food tasting at Eastern Restaurant early this month. We have this dish called “Fu Rong Special Scramble Egg (芙蓉赛螃蟹)” which you might be interested to read more about it HERE. So after trying out this dish I am very excited to replicate it at home because I love its’ smooth and delicate texture that is great for both kids and folks.

The first trial on this "Stir-fried Egg Whites with Shrimps" is not a total success as we find the overall dish a bit too wet and the texture of the egg whites seems to be overcooked. So after some run-through I think the problem might be due to the amount of liquid used (stock and fresh milk) or the size of the eggs. So after amendment to this recipe, I came out with another modify version using salmon and the end result is much better compared to this. You can take a look of the recipe below and compare the texture of these two versions, maybe you could come out something even better than my version.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
3 Egg Whites
1 Egg Yolk
150ml Stock
150ml Fresh Milk
8 Shrimps, shelled and deveined
4 Pieces Imitation Crabstick, cut into portion
1 Tablespoon Green Peas
1.5 Tablespoons of Oil
Some lettuce leaves

. The collage photos show the ingredients and steps on preparing this "Stir-fried Egg Whites with Shrimps":-

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in the shelled and deveined shrimps and cook it over medium heat for about 1 minute or so till the prawn turns pink and curl up. Remove and rinse them in cold water and set aside.
2. Preheat the wok with drizzle of oil then saute the crabstick and green peas for 1 minute and removed.
3. Now whisk the egg whites with a pair of chopsticks (for the 1st recipe I have actually over beat it foamy) for a few times then whisk in the fresh milk and chicken stock till well mixed.
4. Next rinse the wok and wipe it dry with kitchen paper towel and heat it up using 1½ tablespoon of oil.
5. Slowly pour in the egg whites mixture and stir using a spatula till the mixture became to bind together like a scramble egg texture. (this method with more water mixture will cause the egg to be more watery)
6. Lastly stir in the cooked shrimps, crabsticks and green peas and give it a quick stir before dishing it up and place on top of some lettuce leaves.
7. Arrange the raw egg yolk on top of the egg whites mixture and served hot.


This is another similar version of the stir-fried scramble egg whites which is shown above. For this improved version, I used only 150ml of fresh milk and omit the chicken stock from the ingredient list. With some read up of different related recipes from the websites, I decide to try the method of not over whisking the egg whites in order to retain it’s shapes while cooking. Below are the ingredients for this “Stir-fried Egg Whites with Salmon Cubes”.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
3 Egg Whites
1 Egg Yolk
150ml Fresh Milk
100g Salmon, cut into cubes
1.5 Tablespoons of Oil
1 Bunch of Spinach, cut into sections
1 Teaspoon of Minced Garlic
2 Slices of Ginger
1/2 Tablespoon Oil

In order to bring in some colours and texture to this dish, I have added the stir-fried spinach at the bottom to serve it as a base for the egg whites mixture. Here are the steps to prepare this dish:-

Method:
1. Trim and cut the spinach into sections rinse it in a basin of water for at least 2 - 3 times to remove the dirt and soiled in it.
2. When done remove and drain well 5 minutes prior cooking time.
3. Preheat the wok with 1/2 tablespoon of oil; saute the minced garlic together with ginger slices till fragrant before adding it the drained spinach.
4. Give it a quick stir and continue to fry for about 1 minute or so until the leaves begin to wilt.
5. Lightly season it with some salt, remove arrange it in the middle of the serving plate.
6. Now lightly whisk the egg whites with a pair of chopsticks (do not over beat it until foamy) for a few times then slowly whisk in the fresh milk till well mixed.
6. Next rinse the wok and wipe it dry with kitchen paper towel before adding 1/2 tablespoon of oil to pan-fried the salmon cubes till slightly brown in colour, remove and set side to drain well.

8. Lastly stir in the cooked salmon cubes and give it a quick stir before dishing it up and place on top of the cooked spinach.
9. Arrange the raw egg yolk on top of the egg whites mixture and served hot.

Note:-
~ Remember not to over beat the egg whites mixture till foamy or else the scramble egg white will not form its' shape.
~ Before eating you have to mix in the raw egg yolk with the hot mixture and serve immediately.

Stir-Fry Doufu With Egg

I saw a similar dish on TV show recently while they fry egg with doufu. So I decided to give it a try with whatever ingredients I can find in my fridge.


Other than the Main Ingredients like Doufu and Eggs, I added in shredded carrot, chopped spring onion and pork minced. Guess I am too greedy with the doufu as I used up the whole box with only two egg so it doesn't bind everything together like a omelet. But overall I still like this Doufu with Egg dish as it's light and simple with all the nutrition in it..... :)
Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 Box Of Silken Doufu
2 - 3 Eggs, beaten
100g Pork Mince
1 Small Carrot, shredded
1 Sprig Of Spring Onion, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with some pepper, sesame oil and light soya sauce for about 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Cut the doufu into small or large cubes depend on your preference. (i cut mine into small cubes)
3. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil in a preheat pan, stir-fry the pork mince till almost done then add in the shredded carrot and spring onion.
4. Fry till fragrant then add in the doufu and stir till combine.
5. Slowly pour in the beaten egg and swirl around the pan to form an omelet.
6. Fry till egg and meat is cooked thru, dish up and serve.

Notes:
a) You can used those egg doufu in tube form instead of the box.
b) The number of eggs used depend on the amount of doufu used.