Recipe Requests: Noodles and Eggs

by Jacqueline M. Newman

Eggs

Winter Volume: 2011 Issue: 18(4) page(s): 31 and 32

Several folk wrote asking why we ignore recipes with noodles and those for dishes made with eggs. Noodles dishes, in past issues, can be found on this magazine's website every Index listing under Rice, Noodles, and Grains. Until the Volume 17 Index, eggs were not reported in that way. Therefore, beginning with the index for the seventeenth year and continuing in all future ones there will be a separate category for egg dishes. Hence we call everyone's attention to the Volume 17 Index where five dishes with eggs as a main ingredient are listed. Before that, they need searching either by recipe title or by recipe ingredients.

Below we offer half dozen recipes with eggs as a main ingredient. They are for fresh eggs and preserved eggs, and used in an omelet dish, main dishes, and pancakes and a cake. Any one of these can be served for dim sum or snacks or for a main dish. We will continue to feature eggs in other dishes and when they are a main ingredient, will list them in that category in the annual index.

There are many recipes throughout the almost eighteen years of publication of this magazine with recipes and comments about noodles and eggs where they are not used as primary ingredients. We encourage you to seek them out.

These past many years, four articles were written specifically about noodles. They were in Volumes 6(4); 13(2); 13(4); and 17(2). There were three articles specifically about eggs; and they are in Volumes 11(4), 15(4) and 16(2). Recently, we reviewed a book just about noodles and that was in Volume 17(3). Many, perhaps most cookery books have recipes for one or both of these ingredients, that is noodles and eggs.

In this magazine's index listing, we note more than thirty dishes with noodles in the title. As we prepare future articles, we will keep both eggs and noodles in mind; and in the meantime thank those readers who brought this to our attention. Because recipes using eggs as a main ingredient or listing them in the recipe title were indeed in short supply, half dozen egg recipes follow. Enjoy them as any part of any meal.

Eggplant Omelet
Ingredients:
1 thin Asian eggplant
1 fat Western eggplant
2 eggs, beaten until light yellow
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 scallions, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Preparation:
1. Put both eggplants under the broiler or on the grill and cook them on all sides until the skins are burned. Then remove them, peel away the skin, and mash them.
2. Mix eggs, cornstarch, scallions, and salt and pepper, then stir in the mashed eggplants.
3. Heat a wok or fry pan, add the vegetable oil and pour in the eggplant mixture. Fry until it is browned and set, then turn it over and fry on the other side, until brown. Remove to a pre-heated plate, pour the sesame oil on top and using the long side of a chopstick, spread the sesame oil around. Then cut the omelet into eight sections, and serve.

Shrimp with Egg Whites
Ingredients:
10 shrimp, their shells and veins removed and discarded
1/8 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 egg whites, beaten until a soft foam
1 Tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon of all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon sugar
10 cilantro leaves
1 Tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon cold water
Preparation:
1. Mix shrimp and salt and set aside for fifteen minutes.
2. Coat ten ceramic Chinese soup spoons with oil. Then fold the egg whites with cornstarch and flour mixture and fill the ceramic spoons.
3. In a medium-size pot or deep fry pan large enough to hold the ceramic spoons in a single layer, add half inch of water and the vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, then carefully add the filled soup spoons keeping them level.
4. Using a wet spatula, smooth the tops of the egg white mixture and gently place a shrimp on each one. Simmer them for four minutes, remove, and slide the egg white mixture onto a clean flat plate.
5. While they are simmering, put chicken stock in a large pot and be sure it is no more than half-inch deep. Add the sugar and stir, then slide the poached egg whites in, shrimp side up. Put a cilantro leaf on each shrimp, stir in the cornstarch and water mixture and raise the temperature to the boil. Gently stir until slightly thickened, then lift the egg and shrimp onto a platter, shrimp side up. Pour the thickened sauce over and around them, and serve.

Hundred-year Eggs and Silken Bean Curd
Ingredients:
1 pound silken bean curd
1/2 pound soft bean curd
2 hundred-year eggs, shells removed and discarded
2 Tablespoons thin soy sauce
1 large clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh peeled ginger
1 Tablespoon minced white part of a scallion
1 teaspoon crushed slab of Chinese brown sugar
Preparation:
1. Heat three cups of water to the boil, and slide silken tofu into at, the slide in the soft bean curd. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove them after two minutes putting the silken bean curd in the center of a serving plate. Mince the soft bean curd and spread it on and around the silken bean curd.
2. Coarsely dice the preserved eggs, and sprinkle them on and around the outside of the bean curd.
3. Mix soy sauce, garlic, ginger, scallion, and brown sugar, pour over the bean curd and hundred-year eggs, and serve.

Bean Curd Sheets with Hundred-year Eggs
Ingredients:
1/4 pound wide mung bean noodles
2 hundred-year eggs, peeled and finely diced
1 scallion, minced fine
1/2 teaspoon ground black and white pepper
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 Tablespoon black vinegar
1 Tablespoon red vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Preparation:
1. Soak mung bean noodles in cold water for ten minutes, stirring them every minute so they do not stick together.
2. Then but them into a quart of boiling water, and stirring continuously, reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes before draining and soaking them again in cold water for ten minutes. Stir frequently.
3. Drain the noodles well, then tear or slice them into one- to two-inch lengths and put them on a serving plate. Sprinkle them with the preserved eggs and the mince scallion pieces.
4. Mix black and red vinegars and the sesame oil and drizzle this mixture over the mung bean noodles, eggs, and scallions. Serve.

Silk Squash and Egg Pancakes
Ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten until light yellow
1/4 cup sweet potato starch
1 silk squash, peeled and shredded, excess water squeezed out
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup crushed peanuts, stir-fried in half-tablespoon vegetable oil
Preparation:
1. Mix beaten eggs and sweet potato starch until all lumps are gone, then add the shredded silk squash and stir gently. Set aside for five minutes.
2. Mix one tablespoon of vegetable oil with the brown sugar and stir well, then mix with the peanuts.
3. Heat one tablespoon of oil and add two or three tablespoons of the vegetable mixture, and wen it starts to set, another three tablespoons and so on until the bottom of the pan is filled with one layer of these pancakes. When brown on the bottom, turn each one over, and when brown on both sides, remove one by one to paper towels set on a pre-warmed plate.
4. When all are prepared, put them on a clean preheated platter, sprinkle them with the peanut mixture, and serve.

Steamed Sponge Cake Squares
Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
1 and 1/4 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 and 1/2 cups flour
1 and 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
a nine-inch square pan lined with waxed paper on its bottom and sides
Preparation:
1. In a dry and clean bowl, beat egg whites until they hold firm peaks but are not dry and set aside.
2. In another clean dry bowl, sift the flour and the baking powder, add the yolks one at a time beating each one well. Then add the sugar and two tablespoons cold water, and beat again before adding the vanilla.
3. Beat once more, then gently fold in half the egg white, then add the remaining ones in two batches, folding each batch in gently.
4. Put into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a wet knife. Then put the pan on a steaming rack over boiling water and steam twenty-five minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the foam comes out clean.
5. Remove the pan from steamer and set on a rack to cool. When warm or cool, cut it into two-inch squares and remove them to a serving platter. This can be served warm or cool.

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