Chinese steamed trio egg is the perfect dish to have when you want something light, healthy, delicious and warm for the belly.
This dish is called 三色蒸水蛋 (saam sik zing sui daan in Cantonese), which actually translates to ‘Three Coloured Steamed Egg’, as seen from the three different colours from the egg, salted duck egg, and century egg.
This dish is super quick and easy to make. But not gonna lie, I tested this recipe out way too many times because I failed a few times. The issue I had was turning the heat too high, and water from the steam kept dripping into the egg, which made it bubbly and not have a smooth outcome.
Which is why a lot of recipes you see would require you to cover the dish with a cling film, but I personally didn’t want to do that (health reasons).
I think timings for steaming would differ for everyone, due to dish size and thickness, type of steamer used and level of heat.
Overall it was fun to keep trying and make adjustments each time. For my dish size and thickness specifically, I steamed the egg on high for 4 minutes, then let it sit in residual heat for 8 minutes.
ingredients for making Chinese steamed trio egg:
- 3 eggs
- 1 preserved duck egg
- 1 salted duck egg
- water (1.5 times more than your whisked eggs) (or substitute with chicken stock if you want more flavour)
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 scallion, chopped
where to buy the eggs?
- The only brand of salted duck eggs and century eggs that’s available to me in my local Asian supermarket is Shen Dan. It’s pretty good and I think they can be found in most Asian supermarkets.
- Or you can buy them on Amazon – century egg and salted duck egg.
steps:
- Break your salted egg and century egg into small pieces and spread them out evenly into a heatproof dish.
- Whisk your eggs and combine with water. Mix well.
- Place the dish into a steamer and heat the dish for about 2 minutes.
- Pour the egg water mixture in the dish and steam on high heat for about 3-5 minutes. Turn off the heat but keep the steamer covered. Let the residual heat cook the egg for about 8-10 minutes.
- Garnish the steamed egg with chopped spring onions and drizzle with soy sauce. Enjoy 🙂
tips to make the best chinese steamed trio egg:
- It’s easier and less messy to chop the century eggs with a warm wet knife, as it prevents the egg yolk from sticking to the knife.
- For the salted egg, it would be easier to cut the entire egg in half (including shell), then use a spoon to scoop the egg out of its shell, as I found it pretty hard to peel off the shells from egg.
- When whisking the eggs, try not create large whisking motions to prevent too much air and bubbles entering into the egg mixture.
- To remove as much bubbles as possible, you can strain the egg and water mixture before pouring into the dish to steam. This separates the bubbles from the mixture and ensures the final outcome of the egg to be silky and smooth.
more steamed dish recipes:
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