cantonese scrambled eggs & shrimp
滑蛋蝦仁
Are you scrambling last minute for just one more side dish? Look no further!
This dish is quick, delicious, and only uses a few ingredients that you probably already have in the fridge and pantry! It's the perfect representation of humble Cantonese home cooking.
It's quick but inaccurate to compare these with European-style scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs often get their fluffiness from added ingredients like milk or water, and they're generally cooked by quickly stirring the beaten eggs on low to medium heat, creating curds of eggs with a rather homogeneous color and texture throughout.
In contrast, you're not going to want any milk or water in these eggs, and you're very quickly cooking layers of eggs on super high heat, resulting in a chewier outside and a silky, tender inside, mixed with bites of juicy-but-not-waterlogged shrimp.
After learning a few of our tips and tricks (did someone say... sugar?!), you'll be able to make it with amazing flavor and fantastic texture.
ingredients
Main Ingredients
70.9 g shrimp
2 ½ eggs
1 tbsp oil
Seasoning: Eggs
½ tsp oil
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp sugar
Seasoning: Shrimp
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper
½ tsp cornstarch
steps
Peel & cut shrimp
Peel the shrimp by pulling off the shell at the third section, right before the tail. Then, hook a finger underneath to peel off the rest of the shell.
If your shrimp is large, then halve horizontally for easier eating. If your shrimp is small, then you can cook them as they are.
Wash & marinate shrimp
Put the peeled shrimp in a bowl of water, and wash them clean of any more debris. While you're rinsing the shrimp, you can also pull out the vein if you like.
Pour the water out, and gently squeeze to get more water out. You'll want these shrimp as dry as possible, so lay out a paper towel, put the shrimp on it in a single layer, and then put another paper towel on top. Press gently to squeeze out more moisture; you can even roll it up and give it a squeeze that way.
Once dry, marinate the shrimp with salt (0.25 tsp) and white pepper (0.25 tsp). Mix that together, and then add cornstarch (0.50 tsp).
Adding the cornstarch last will help ensure that the marinade flavor penetrates as much as possible, and that the shrimp stir-fries up with a crispier outside.
Prepare eggs
If you cut the shrimp, switch your knife and cutting board out for a clean set or give them a good wash just to be on the safe side. Crack the eggs into a bowl, and add oil (0.50 tsp), salt (0.25 tsp), and sugar (0.25 tsp). The oil will give your eggs a silky texture, the salt seasons the eggs, and the sugar is a stealthy contributor to that light, fluffy texture.
When you're ready to cook, beat the eggs thoroughly, until the mixture is homogeneous with large air bubbles.
Important: Don't beat the eggs until you're ready to turn the stove on; if you do this step in advance, the air you've beaten into the eggs will deflate and the ingredients won't be as well mixed.
Stir-fry shrimp
Turn the stove to the highest heat, and let the wok heat up for a minute. Add oil (0.50 tbsp), give it a swirl to coat the wok, and add the shrimp. Cook for about 30 seconds, until they are about 80-90% cooked and have almost turned entirely orange.
Turn the heat off and scoop the cooked shrimp out of the wok and into the bowl of beaten eggs.
Stir-fry everything
Turn the stove back on high heat and add the rest of the oil (0.50 tbsp). When the wok is hot (it shouldn't take long, as it's probably still pretty hot from stir-frying the shrimp), pour all of the egg mixture in.
The bottom of the egg will bubble up and seem to cook immediately, but let it sit for about 10 seconds, and then start to move it around. Use the spatula to get under the cooked layer of egg, and fold it over so that the next wave of uncooked egg mixture can flow underneath for its turn to cook.
Continue to let each layer cook, stacking each cooked layer on top, for about 30 seconds. Turn the heat off, and continue cooking and stacking using the residual heat. If it seems like the residual heat of the wok won't be enough to cook all of the eggs, you can turn the stove back on high for a few seconds to get the wok hot again.
Plate & serve
You don't want the eggs to sit in a hot wok, as they will certainly overcook, so as soon as they are cooked to your liking, take them out of the wok and onto the serving plate. Enjoy!
