Mandarin Duck Stuffed Eggs
A steamed egg dish from the Man Han Quan Xi (Imperial Banquet). Chicken eggs and quail eggs are used as vessels, filled with a shrimp and pork stuffing, steamed, and finished with a thickened sauce poured over.
Ingredients
Eggs (5 boiled for use, 1 beaten)
7
Quail eggs (boiled for use)
5
Lean minced pork
150 g
Minced shrimp paste
100 g
Water chestnuts (smashed and minced)
5
Peas (for eye decoration)
20
Soaked black moss (hair vegetable)
5 g
Cooked minced ham
2.5 g
Minced bok choy
2.5 g
Cooking wine
15 g
Fine salt
1.5 g
Soy sauce
10 g
Minced scallion and ginger
a pinch
Clear broth
200 g
Chicken fat
10 g
Flour
a pinch
Wet corn starch
25 g
Instructions
1
Step 1
Place 5 eggs and 5 quail eggs separately into pots, add water, bring to a boil and cook until hard-boiled. Remove, peel off the shells, cut in half lengthwise with a knife, scoop out the yolks, and arrange the egg whites on a plate. Sprinkle a little dry cornstarch into the yolk cavities. Smash the water chestnuts with the flat side of a knife, then mince them finely.
2
Step 2
Put the minced pork and shrimp paste in a bowl. Add the minced water chestnuts along with small amounts of cooking wine, fine salt, wet corn starch, flour, clear broth, and minced scallion and ginger, then add 1 beaten egg. Stir in one direction until the mixture becomes a cohesive, sticky filling.
3
Step 3
Squeeze the filling into small balls by hand and place one into each cavity of the egg whites and quail egg whites, smoothing the surface with a small knife. Beat the remaining 1 egg in a bowl and brush the egg liquid over the filling. Place two peas on each chicken-egg portion as eyes; place two half-peas on each quail-egg portion as eyes. Sprinkle the soaked black moss, minced bok choy, and minced ham on top, then steam over boiling water until fully cooked. Remove and arrange neatly on a serving plate.
4
Step 4
Pour 200 g of clear broth into a pot, add small amounts of fine salt, cooking wine, and soy sauce, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam from the surface. Dilute some cornstarch with water, stir into the broth to thicken into a glossy sauce, drizzle in the chicken fat, and pour the sauce evenly over the arranged stuffed eggs before serving.
