Making Preserved Eggs (Century Eggs)

I saw my cousin Anna’s blog. Knowing that she likes to eat the salted eggs and made the salted eggs herself. I don’t know whether she like to eat century eggs or not. But I just post the recipe up and if she wants, she can try it herself.I never try it before, because I always feel if I want to eat those eggs, I can just go and buy at the market. Don’t have to do so much things. Hehehe! Because I am very lazy to prepare all those things.

1. Rinse fresh duck eggs clean, pat dry and smear 1 cm layer of mud over the shell. Coat with a layer of rice husks and pack tightly. Leave the eggs to cure for 3-4 months.
2. Yellow mud is best for preserving duck eggs because of its alkaline properties and high mineral content. Minerals seep through the shells, which coagulates the egg white before turning it into a dark grey, translucent and gelatinous texture. The yolk, however, turns yellowish green or grayish green.
3. Besides cold dishes, preserved eggs can also be cooked or stir-fried with other ingredients.
   

Boiling Eggs

Most of my family members love to eat eggs, especially half boiled eggs. Yesterday, me and whoisbaby was discussing how to prevent the egg's shell from cracking when boiling. Finally I found out how to prevent the egg's shell from cracking from the The Egg Cookbook.

Boiling Eggs:

1. Prevent shells from cracking. Allow refrigerated eggs to thaw before putting them in boiling water. Adding eggs to cold water then bringing to a boil together also helps to prevent the shells from cracking.
2. Seal cracks in shells. Add a little vinegar or salt to the water. This helps the whites to set faster, which effectively seals the cracks, if any, and prevent more whites from seeping out.
3. Centre yolks. When boiling eggs, keep stirring the water to keep the eggs moving. Stirring positions the yolk in the centre, which is aesthetically more pleasing than lopsided egg yolks.
4. Tender soft-boiled eggs with runny yolks. Put the eggs into cold water then bring to a boil over moderate heat. Turn off the heat, leave the eggs to steep for 5 minutes then rinse quickly with cold water.
5. Easy shelling. Wait for hard-boiled eggs to cool completely before shelling them. Cracking the shells and then soaking the eggs in tap water helps to loosen the shells, making them easier to shell.

Steamed Egg Custard

This is one of my favourite foods. Whenever I went to the Japanese restaurant, I will order their Set Lunch or Set Dinner because of this. Let me share with all of you the recipe of cooking this. Also because of this Steamed Egg Custard, I bought this recipe book named The Egg Cookbook.

Ingredients:
20g Japanese fish cake
1 stalk spring onion
3 eggs
1 cup stock

Seasoning:
2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Rinse fish cake and cut into slices. Rinse spring onion and slice thinly.
2. Beat eggs in bowl. Mix well with stock and seasoning. Strain egg mixture through sieve into bowl.
3. Place bowl into steamer, cover and steam for about 5 minutes. Remove cover and place fish cakes onto egg. Cover and continue steaming until egg custard is set. Garnish with spring onion and serve.

* Shrimps, mushrooms, clams, crab sticks are optional.

Seafood in Miso Soup

I like to collect recipe books...but I seldom cook...hehehe! Whenever I go to the bookstore, I will automatically walk to the recipe books section. I really don't know why? May be because I really enjoy eating. If I am alone while eating, I will eat very slowly(spoon by spoon) because I wanted to taste the food nicely.

Today is Sunday, I looked over all my recipe books to find a recipe for some delicious soup which I can cook(simple and easy) and I found it inside this recipe book named Soup of the day, they have a soup called Seafood in Miso Soup which I think will be very delicious. Yes, I am right, the soup is really very delicious. So I would like to share the soup recipe here with all of you.

Ingredients:
100g prawns
100g squids
200g clams
300g tofu (suitable for soup)
1200ml water
3 thsp (120g) miso

Seasonings: some salt and pepper

Method:

1. Remove feelers of prawns, devein, rinse and set aside. Remove skin, intestines and cartilage of the squids, rinse and score surface. Soak clams in salt water to remove sand bits and rinse. Cut tofu into small cubes.
2. Bring 1200ml of water in a pot to boil. Add miso and stir well, then add tofu and bring to boil. Add prawns, squids and clams and bring to boil again.
3. Add Seasonings before serving.