Microwave Chinese Egg Custard: Speeding Up Traditions

Many Chinese dishes are steamed, and they take a long time to cook.  With the invention of microwaves, you would think that the Chinese would give up the lengthy process of steaming and go on a microwave diet like America has, but microwaves just can't reproduce the textures formed by the process of steaming.  Not only that, a lot of Chinese people don't trust microwaves.  (My mom doesn't at least, she thinks I'll get radiation poisoning from eating microwaved foods).  But luckily for me, I'm an American and I have no such qualms.  Thus, for dessert I present the microwave Chinese Egg Custard.  Using traditional steaming methods, an egg custard would probably take 20-30 minutes to cook, but with the magical microwave, that time can be cut in half!

Ingredients:

• 3 Eggs
• 2/3 Cup of milk
• 6 tsp sugar

Steps:

1. In a bowl,  combine eggs, milk, and sugar.
 

2. With a spoon or chopsticks, mix ingredients together until egg is smoothly dissolved.

3. Place in microwave on "high" for 5 minutes.

4. After 5 minutes, check consistency.  If watery and jiggly, microwave again for 2 minutes.

5. Keep microwaving for 2 minute periods until custard is stiff.

6. Check that custard is fully cooked by sticking a toothpick into it and making sure it comes out clean.

7. Enjoy!

 

*My recipe is based on the one found here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hong-kong-style-egg-tarts/ 

Egg-Drop Corn Soup

It is a miserable winter day: The weather is bleak, your sweaters are thin, and you're convinced the heating has been turned off on you.  In other words, it's a soup day.  However, it's too cold to go outside to buy soup and you don't want to pull on all of your cumbersome winter-survival gear.  Instead, you're going to make soup yourself.  And if you make a quick bowl of egg-drop corn soup, you may be able to prevent the frostbite from claiming all of your fingers.  Most importantly though, it doesn't cost much to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 Can of sweet corn
• 1 egg
• Salt
• Pepper

Optional Ingredients:

• Meat (Ham, chicken, leftover meat is good too)
• Vegetables (Spinach, carrots, whatever you feel like throwing in)

Steps:

1. Dump a can of sweet corn in a small pot.

2. Fill pot with water.  Waterline should be around an inch above the corn.
 (Chicken broth can be used instead of water, in which case salt would be unnecessary.)

3. Heat on stove on high heat.

4. When the soup begins boiling, turn the heat down to medium.

5. Crack the egg in and with a spoon or chopstick, immediately break apart the egg by swirling the utensil through the soup.

6. Add salt and pepper.  Taste to check saltiness.  (If you find it too salty, add more water).

**Optional Steps**

A. Dice your choice of meat/vegetables beforehand.  (I used ham, spinach, and green onions in this).

B. Throw in a handful each of meat and vegetables before adding salt and pepper.

C. Take off stove once vegetables are cooked.

Fried Rice: The Chinese Solution for Leftover Rice

 If you have a copious amount of leftover rice in your fridge that's just getting harder each day and you can't bring yourself to throw it away, but neither do you want to encourage the well-being of the local pigeon population, then fried rice is the solution to your problem.  Fried rice is an easy dish to make that renders dry old rice edible again.  It's also very flexible; you can throw in anything you want and customize it to your taste, allowing for room for a creativity and experimentation.
Here's a basic recipe I stick to:

• Cold, cooked rice
• 1 egg
• Oil
• Some type of vegetables (lettuce, spinach, choy sum, etc.)
• Pre-cooked meat (ham, beef, chicken, etc.)
• Green onions
• Salt
• Pepper
• Some type of sauce (sesame oil, soy sauce, fish oil)

You'll notice that I don't include amounts for the ingredients --it's because fried rice is meant to fit your tastes.  For instance, I don't like having a lot of meat in my fried rice, so I'll throw in a relatively small amount of meat compared to the veggies.

For this post, I made fried rice with what I happened to have on hand --lettuce, spinach, peas, ham, scallions, and fish oil.

Steps:
1. Dice meat, vegetables, and green onions into small pieces and place on the side.

2. In a greased frying pan, fry an egg with the stove on high heat.  While it is frying, use a spatula to scramble it.

3. Once the egg is cooked, turn down the stove to medium.  Add as much rice as you plan on eating to the pan.  Mix and stir with the egg.  Break apart any large clumps of rice.  **Note: If the rice is dry, drizzle water over it to add moisture.




4. Add vegetables.  Stir around for 1-2 minutes.




5. Add meat and green onions.  Stir some more.


6. Sprinkle salt and pepper in.  Taste to check saltiness. 

7. Drizzle in your choice of sauces and stir rice.  Rice should be light brown.  (If your rice is dark brown, it will taste very strongly of the sauces.  But if that's what you want, go ahead.)


8. Stir until until the dish is completely warm and the rice is soft.  Eat.


**Notes**
-Continuous stirring is important to keep things from burning.  If you notice things burn anyways, it means you didn't grease the pan enough.
-If while cooking you notice the rice getting dry again, just drizzle more water on it.
-Unless you really like salty foods, put very little salt  in or skip it altogether if you plan on using soy sauce.

An Explanation

It may seem strange that someone who proclaims she dislikes cooking in her "About Me" is writing a food blog, but let me clarify: I don't mind cooking for other people, but I despise cooking for myself.  To me, the time and effort spent making a lonely meal for one just isn't worth it, which is why when I'm by myself, I either feed on extremely unhealthy instant meals or skip eating altogether.  I've come to realize however, that soon I will reach the point in life where we are expected to fend for ourselves --and I can't live off of instant noodles unless I want to go to an early grave.  Thus, I must learn to make real food.

Be aware however, that when I say "real food", I don't mean the elegant dishes found on other food blogs that require you to slave in the kitchen all day and to run out to the store to buy phoenix tears and other fancy, expensive ingredients.  It simply isn't practical when you have little time (and you're lazy) and even less money (I'm a cheapskate anyway).  And this is where I take issue with a lot of food blogs --they post glowing pictures of delectable dishes and promise it's a breeze to make, but after looking over the recipes and realizing I don't have the means to make such beautiful food, I'm left with a watering mouth and a disappointed, and a very empty stomach.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way (I'm looking at all you college kids out there), so it is my goal to use this blog to share doable --and tasty-- recipes with those of you like me --the busy and broke, lazy and cheap people who still need and love to eat.