Chinese Steamed Egg 水蛋

Last night shortly after 8 pm,   my mind kept flashing the image of traditional chinese steamed egg cake  and I just got the urge to make it then as my heart was telling me that I  must  have it  for my breakfast this morning. Ended up making the steamed egg cake. While I was whipping egg, my mum just came into my mind I was actually missing her that explained why I wanted to have this cake so badly, mum used to steam this egg cake for us. It bought back some fond memories when we were staying in Ghim Moh. The next thing that came into my mind was mum's steamed egg. In chinese, we called it Steamed "Water Egg", which is just like Japanese Steamed Egg "Chawanmushi". Mum has taught me how to cook that, I vaguely have an idea of it. I decided to give mum a call and also give me an excuse to chit chat with her. Mum does not like me to call too often as she feels that overseas call is expensive though I have assured her many times that the cost of overseas call has dropped over the years. I rang her, as usual my mum explained patiently over the phone the step by step and it was so comforting to hear her voice. It seems to be a long time since I last spoken to her. Actually, I rang home almost every 2-3days to talk to her or my son. But I still miss her though  I have just returned from Singapore a month. My mum and son are always on my mind be it where I am and what I am doing. Thank you for the recipe.

 
Ingredients:
1 Egg
100 ml water
1 Teaspoon  Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
A dash of ground white pepper
1 Ramekin (200ml)/ A small bowl

1.Bring water to a  low simmer and turn down the heat to the lowest possible.

2.Beat egg, water, soy sauce and pepper using a pair of chopsticks/fork until you see visible bubbles else it will not be well beaten. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a ramekin/bowl for steaming. The sieve will remove most of the bubbles, so that you get a smooth texture for the egg.

3. Cover the steaming dish with a cling film, it prevent water from condensing onto the egg mix  so that the egg will come out smooth. 

4. Put it into the steamer and cover it with a lid in a low heat. Once you see that the water in the steamer boils, open the lid slightly and continue to steam it for on a very low heat for 12-15 min. The time it takes to cook depends on heat of the water so be patient, you can open the lid and check if the egg is cooked by gently moving the ramekin/bowl. The egg is cooked if it egg doesn't wobble like jelly ..cooked egg will jiggle but will be firm. 

5.Remove from heat and serve while it is hot.

You have do your own variations by substituting water with stock then you will have to reduce the soy sauce or remove it completely. Or you add in mince meat, diced ham, sliced mushrooms or prawns (on the bottom of the ramekin before adding the egg mixture to create your own version of steamed egg. As for me. I just like to put mince pork.