Comforting egg foo young with leftover homemade char siu, fresh shiitake mushroom,s bean sprouts and green onion.
Egg foo young with steamed rice (芙蓉煎蛋饭) was a popular quick launch in Hong Kong back to 70’s and 80’s. Cantonese people still love it.
Chinese egg foo young usually contains leftover char siu(Homemade char siu recipe), green onion, winter bamboo shots and shiitake mushrooms shreds. The ingredients added in the whisked egg are not fixed. For example, it is ok to use baby shrimp or other leftover roasted or meat to replace char siu. And bean sprout is usually used to replace winter bamboo shots because of the similar crunchy textures.
In Elaine’s egg foo young, homemade char siu, green onion, bean sprouts and shiitake mushrooms are used. You may find that there are other egg foo young recipes require to stir fry the side ingredients firstly before mixing with the egg liquid. This step is only necessary when some of the side ingredients require much longer cooking time, like uncooked meat shreds or sausages. Since we are using easy-to-cook ingredients in this recipe, it is really no need to bother ourselves with an extra step. You can make a larger batch of egg liquid, but I highly recommend frying one egg foo young pancake using 2 eggs each time.
More information about the brown sauce;
I find most of the egg foo young is matched with an easy thickened brown sauce on pinterest. So I make one too in this recipe. However in China, we just drizzle some light soy sauce. Next time when you are in a hurry, try light soy sauce too.
Egg Foo Young
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 fresh shiitake mushrooms , root removed and cut into shreds
- 1 small chunk of leftover char siu , shredded
- 20 g bean sprouts
- 3 green onions , cut into 1-inch sections (front half)
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
Brown Sauce
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Prepare char siu shreds, mushroom and bean sprouts and green onion.
- Crack the eggs in a large bowl and then whisk; add a small pinch of salt and all the side ingredients. Combine well.
- Combine chicken broth, light soy sauce, cornstarch and sesame oil well and set aside.
- Load the serving plate with steamed rice.
- Heat up oil in a pan and pour the mixture in. Use pancake turner to shape the mixture into a small cake around 12cm in diameter (Tips shown in the video). Fry for around 3 minutes over medium fire and then turn over to fry the other side until golden brown. Transfer to serving plate.
To make the brown sauce
- Pour the brown sauce prepared in step 3 in a deep pot. Heat over medium fire until boiling and then cook for around 1-2 minutes until the sauce is well thickened. Keep stirring in the process.
- Garnish chopped green onions and drizzle the brown sauce before serving.
Video
Nutrition
This may seems to be slightly dry after pan-frying, thanks Susanne for her lovely suggestion about serving with a soup. You can serve it with a healthy egg drop soup or mushroom soup.
Susanne
How very simple and well combined. Westerners would be a bit reluctant, though as it seems to be quite dry. Of course you serve tea along with it, but would you also offer soup?
Elaine
Thanks Susanne for the lovely suggestions. We do serve egg foo young with simple soups such as vegetables soups, or egg drop soups. Savory soups are good partners with egg foo young.
Susanne
Thanks Elaine for replying.
I'm getting the general idea now, We either serve separate dishes in order or combine them in one pot as stews (hotpot, if you like) whereas you serve several dishes at the same time.
Besides that, there are quite a few similarities in the way we combine ingredients.
Denny Li
Elaine, I didn't know people on China ate egg foo young! I thought it was the invention of Chinese American fast food restaurants -where the ingredients are the same, but it's deep fried.
Anyway, I couldn't find an email for you and you asked that questions be left for you in the comments, so, here's mine: How do you make wu gen chang wang? It's one of my favorite restaurant dishes! I made it once, but can't find a recipe anymore. Please help! Thanks!
firegirl
Lovely! I normally make Spanish omlettes with loads of left-overs but this sounds great, too. I suppose most cuisines that use chicken meat as well have similar concepts to use up the eggs. I am also keen to try Chinese steamed eggs.
Mark
Looks really good. But, you have to cook char siu first or the dish is not complete. Not everyone has leftover char siu laying around...
Elaine
Hi Mark,
Good suggestion. I skip this because I introduced how to make char siu in a previous post with a video too.
Kathy
What is a char sui? I'm new in Chinese food cooking. I usually buy Chinese food.
Dennis
Excellent! You Nailed it! I was a kitchen tech doing start ups Asian restaurant in Casino. They’d make me anything I wanted...So in the morning I’d request the egg foo young.....this recipe is exactly the same as the Asian chef. The char su shiitake mushrooms and homemade chicken broth is key. Doesn’t get any better. Thanks.
Elaine
Thanks Dennis!
This version is my favorite too.
Al
I've always ordered this dish when available.
I'll be trying it this week.
Will let you know what we think.
Em
Can I use arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch for the sauce?
Elaine
Yes. Arrowroot starch works too.
Jen
I loved eating this since I was a child, now having said that not all egg foo young is created equal. I’ve been using this recipe for a very long time and I can easily say this is it! The BEST RECIPE ever!! Thank you for creating and posting all your recipes, they never fail.
Elaine
Thank you Jen for this lovely feedback!! This one really make me a lovely Tuesday.