Comfort healthy food-peasant/home Asian style

[shootingstar]

Tonight's dinner-- brown rice, lightly sauteed spinach and bok choy in small amount of oil and water for 5-8 min.. In white bowl, is steamed egg (actually egg white, but one can use 1 egg with yolk. It would look more aesthetically yellow. ) with chicken breast slices flavoured with 1 tsp. of soy sauce, 1-2 slices of minced ginger root, abit of onion, 1/8 tsp. of oil and sprinkle of flour for marinade.

Whole egg dish puffs up when it's steamed in bowl. Easy to make, very little oil/fat. About 15 min. It is a savoury egg custard. I recall seeing a savoury egg custard done on Foodnetwork, by an Iron Chef. Wouldn't be surprising over 50% of the viewing audience didn't even understand the concept of a savoury egg custard dish. But it's an old, old recipe.

Sure, healthy food can look so ..plain. But it is comfort food for me from childhood..to now. It is brown rice --if you compare colour against the white bowl.

[smilingcat]

looks alot like my dinner with exception of the egg.

We still eat meat too at my house but per day consumption is less than 4 oz for each of us. Together less than 8 oz total. Some days, we are vegan.

good eats!!

[badger]

have you ever tried "chawan mushi"? it's a similar Japanese dish but the custard bit is very smooth. Most often there's pieces of chicken (or shrimp or no meat), gingko nuts, some sort of aromatic leaf like cilantro (but it's not) and maybe a slice of shiitake mushroom.

I haven't had it in years and like you it's comfort food from my childhood. You can buy it pre-made from Fujiya to heat up in the microwave, or you can go to Shiro on Cambie/W. 15, they make pretty decent ones.

[shootingstar]

have you ever tried "chawan mushi"? it's a similar Japanese dish but the custard bit is very smooth. Most often there's pieces of chicken (or shrimp or no meat), gingko nuts, some sort of aromatic leaf like cilantro (but it's not) and maybe a slice of shiitake mushroom.

I haven't had it in years and like you it's comfort food from my childhood. You can buy it pre-made from Fujiya to heat up in the microwave, or you can go to Shiro on Cambie/W. 15, they make pretty decent ones.

Thanks for another suggestion. Gingko nuts is something I haven't heard of in Chinese savory egg custard dishes. Yes, another variation is to slice thinly 1 shitake mushroom. Is it ever served on a Japanese restaurant menu in town here? Shrimp inside the dish would taste good also. The amount of chicken in above photo is less than 1 fist-size.

Still another dish variation, is to omit the egg. Then it's simply a steamed chicken dish with all the flavourings I described earlier.

Certain I've eaten gingko nuts in various dishes at restaurants over the years but had no clue what I was eating sometimes. To this day, there are certain things I ate as a child, but now I still can't name its English term nor remember the Chinese word. So all the fuss, I see kids nowadays insisting on knowing what it is they are eating, etc....Well, my parents didn't even know the English translation for certain foods. Hence, us kids had no clue what we were eating! If it tasted good and it was recommended by parent, ok. Not a big deal. Truly.

That's why as a teenager, I thought North American style roast beef dinners were....boring. I inadvertedly became a foodie early in life ...because of the large multi-course Chinese banquets at New Years', weddings, etc.

[badger]

Is it ever served on a Japanese restaurant menu in town here? Shrimp inside the dish would taste good also.

As I mentioned earlier, Shiro on Cambie and W. 15th does. Other authentic Japanese restaurants may, too, but I haven't actually been to one in quite some time.

[PamNY]

So all the fuss, I see kids nowadays insisting on knowing what it is they are eating, etc....Well, my parents didn't even know the English translation for certain foods. Hence, us kids had no clue what we were eating! If it tasted good and it was recommended by parent, ok. Not a big deal. .

That is so sad! But I'm sure your parents didn't mean any harm. This is the type of situation where stereotypes and cliches do a lot of damage, unfortunately.

My parents were also subject to certain stereotypes and cliches but lucky for me, they did not include food. They indulged my curiosity and passion for unusual foods and we had so much fun.

When I am shopping in Chinatown I bring my recipe books along -- luckily there are very good photographs in the books specifically focused on Asian vegetables and this helps with identification.

Pam

[shootingstar]

That is so sad! But I'm sure your parents didn't mean any harm. This is the type of situation where stereotypes and cliches do a lot of damage, unfortunately.

My parents were also subject to certain stereotypes and cliches but lucky for me, they did not include food. They indulged my curiosity and passion for unusual foods and we had so much fun.

When I am shopping in Chinatown I bring my recipe books along -- luckily there are very good photographs in the books specifically focused on Asian vegetables and this helps with identification.

Pam

Perhaps I wasn't clear --what I meant was that as children even though we didn't always know exactly what we were eating, we ate it anyway. As children, it made us more fearless and exploratory in eating a broader range of new things which carried over as adults in broadening our palate to other cuisines.

One tactic a parent did do, was for an expensive tropical fruit, etc. bring it home and explain to us in a showcase/highlight way, as we tried a piece of it.

Smilingcat: I'm lazy, I just use water to mix into the egg mixture. But a bit of soup stock would deepen the dish hflavour and make it more interesting. Yes, you're absolutely right about the undercooking or overcooking a steamed savory custard.

I use any ceramic like dish with sides. The white dish where the egg dish is in, is the original dish that I also used to steam it. I just lifted it out of the hot water bath in the stovetop pot, when it was done. I don't use a bamboo steamer.

[smilingcat]

have you ever tried "chawan mushi"? it's a similar Japanese dish but the custard bit is very smooth. Most often there's pieces of chicken (or shrimp or no meat), gingko nuts, some sort of aromatic leaf like cilantro (but it's not) and maybe a slice of shiitake mushroom.

I haven't had it in years and like you it's comfort food from my childhood. You can buy it pre-made from Fujiya to heat up in the microwave, or you can go to Shiro on Cambie/W. 15, they make pretty decent ones.

chawan mushi:

one egg
3 to 4 TBS of chicken stock (prefer consomme)
bite size piece of chicken breast (don't use leg or thigh too much fat)
small shiitake mushroom sliced thin use fresh or reconstitute in minimal amount of water and save the water.
pinch of two or three celery leaves

for best result remove as much fat as possible.

method:

beat the egg. mix in the stock and beat some more. try not to incorporate too much air into the mixture. If you used dried mushroom, you can mix stock and the water used in the rehydration of the mushroom. Just make sure you are only using 3TBS to 4TBS of liquid total. Too much liquid and the custard will not set.

drop the meat into the bottom of the chawan mushi ceramic cup(can be a straight sided coffee mug) drop the shiitake slices into the cup, add the egg mixture then drop in the celery leaves. put the ceramic lid on top (or use an aluminum foil over the coffee mug)

steam gently for about 10-15 minutes.

too gentle and it will be runny. increase heat and continue to steam until custard forms. Should be very soft consistency

steam too hot and the custard will be very hard and the consmme will separate out. Also the custard will have lots of air bubbles. next time reduce heat.

Will double check on the amount of stock used tonight.