Iron Pan Egg
A classic dish from Henan province. The fermented egg mixture is dropped into hot oil, where it puffs up into a light, airy cake with a glossy red-and-golden surface. Tender, soft, and fragrant.
Ingredients
eggs (cracked and whisked vigorously in one direction a hundred or two hundred strokes)
6
lard (rendered)
to taste
dried shrimp
to taste
soy sauce
to taste
scallions (removed after infusing flavor)
to taste
ginger (removed after infusing flavor)
to taste
Instructions
1
Whisk the eggs
Crack six eggs into a large bowl. Using bamboo chopsticks, whisk vigorously in one direction for a hundred or two hundred strokes until the egg liquid ferments and the foam rises up like mist and clouds.
2
Infuse the oil
Heat a copper pot over high flame until glowing red. Add the rendered lard, dried shrimp, and soy sauce, then toss in the scallions and ginger to bloom the aroma; once fragrant, fish them out.
3
Stir-fry
Pour the whisked egg liquid into the pot and tumble it around.
4
Let it puff up
Using fire tongs, lift the pot off the flame and let the egg rise until it swells up to the lid, then the waiter sprints it straight to the table.
