Chinese Thousand Year Old Eggs (皮蛋)

[ipsedixit]

Anyone here a connoisseur of Chinese Thousand Year Old Eggs?

If so, what do you eat it with, and how?

Personally, I think they go great with congee, udon noodle, soft tofu, and scrambled into ketchup fried rice, and of course straight up.

I even think they go great inside Taiwanese rice rolls.

[MMRuth]

I had them for the first time this month, using a recipe from Fuschia Dunlop (cookbook of the month on Home Cooking)

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/49466...

This is a recipe for serving them with roasted peppers.

[chowser]

Pretty dish--when you said you used a recipe, I thought you meant you made the eggs until I read the post. I have no idea how they're made or if it can be done at home.

[Ali]

I've only ever had them one way, mainly because all other ways required more effort and time and I'm impatient.

Put chunked eggs (~.75 cm cubes), fish sauce, sambal oelek or your choice of chillis in vinaigre, and touch of sugar to cut the fish sauce into a bowl, making sure that at least some of the yolk is well mashed into the liquid. Toss with hot rice. Consume. Repeat.

:) I love it, but the fish sauce flavour definitely comes through, so it's not exactly for the faint of heart. (Incidentally, I hated this as a child, so maybe it's not a kid flavour, either.)

And what is a Taiwanese rice roll?

[ipsedixit]

Taiwanese rice roll is sort of like a sushi roll, but warm and stuffed with preserved radishes, shredded fried pork and Chinese crullers.

Pic below.

[ipsedixit]

Oops. Better pics below.

[chowser]

Congee because it's easy. Or just plain rice porridge. I like them in small amounts so can't imagine straight up.

Does anyone know why there's such a big price difference with different brands? I can't remember what the difference was but substantial, like a few dollars vs $20 or something like that.

[ipsedixit]

chowser,

The price difference arises from how the eggs are made, or cured.

The more expensive varieties are cured in the traditional method, with an actual alkaline clay mixture, and then individually wrapped to ferment for at least 3 months or so.

The cheaper eggs are cured using a "shortcut" method, which basically entails soaking the eggs in a brine solution, which shortens the curing time to about a week or so.

[MMRuth]

Hmm that brine may explain the strong ammonia smell on mine before I peeled them. They were cheap - maybe $3-4 for six.

[ipsedixit]

I would be really careful of the cheap varieties, alot of them are made from a brine solution composed of lead oxide. Egad!

Look for labeling that says "lead free" or preserved with "zinc oxide".

[MMRuth]

Thanks! This was my first time buying them, and wasn't aware of different processes to make them. Appreciate your advice.

[tarteaucitron]

One more distinction I always find at my local Asian stores is the place of origin. The ones from Taiwan are generally twice the price of those from China.

Go figure.

[chowser]

Thanks. I usually get them from my MIL and she gets the good ones but I tried to buy some myself and didn't know whether to splurge for the good ones or not. I'll stick to getting them from my MIL's pantry. Lead-free sounds good...

[limster]

I like them in Teochew/Cantonese pastries with ginger and lotus root paste.

[Das Ubergeek]

I love 'em. I put them on spinach salad (no, really, I do!) My wife hates them though.

The very best thing to do with them, though, is 皮蛋瘦肉粥 -- congee with preserved eggs and lean pork.

[chowser]

And, dried scallops.

[Miss Needle]

My FIL has stir-fried with with greens. The greens are coated with a gravy like sauce, similar to lobster sauce. Haven't tried that at home yet but usually add it to all types of congee.

[kc72]

only in jook and a steamed egg dish

[justagthing]

steamed egg, like a custard almost over rice. yum!

[dpan]

Straight up with some sesame seed oil.