Firewood-Bundle Pigeon Egg Soup
Traditional Shanghai soup made with pigeon eggs, ham, winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, and chicken breast, tied into firewood-bundle shapes, steamed, then finished with a pour of hot chicken broth.
Ingredients
Pigeon eggs (crack whole into small wine cups, grease the cups with lard first)
10
Cooked chicken breast (cut into 12 strips, 1.5 inches long)
165g
Ham slices (cut into thin strips, set aside)
80g
Flat-tip bamboo shoots (tender dried bamboo shoot tips, torn into strips)
As needed
Dried shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated, then cut into strips)
50g
Shaoxing wine (to remove any off-odors and add aroma)
As needed
Seasonal greens (used as a garnish)
3
MSG (for seasoning)
As needed
Salt (for seasoning)
As needed
Chicken broth (used as the soup base)
700g
Scallion segments (to remove any off-odors and add aroma)
As needed
Lard (for greasing the wine cups and steaming)
As needed
Cilantro (for garnish and decoration)
As needed
Instructions
1
Steam the pigeon eggs
Crack the pigeon eggs whole into small wine cups (do not break the yolks, and grease the cups with a bit of lard first). Then arrange cilantro and ham slices on top of the eggs in a decorative pattern, steam in a steamer for about 2 minutes, and remove.
2
Tie the firewood bundles
Cut the winter bamboo shoots, ham, dried shiitake mushrooms, and chicken breast all into 12 strips, each 1.5 inches long and about as thick as a chopstick. Tear the flat-tip bamboo shoots into 12 strips, then bundle them together with the winter bamboo shoots, ham, dried shiitake mushrooms, and chicken breast into 12 'firewood bundles.' Place the bundles in a soup bowl, add salt, MSG, clear broth, wine, scallion segments, and lard, and steam for about 1 hour.
3
Assemble the soup
To serve, flip the firewood bundles into another soup bowl, arrange the steamed pigeon eggs around the edge, pour in hot chicken broth, remove the scallion segments, and serve immediately.
