Three ways to enjoy Century Eggs | Chinese Cooking Demystified

Century eggs, a.k.a. Pidan! In this video, we'll teach you three recipes for how to enjoy them:

0:00 - 3 (or 4) ways to cook Century Eggs
1:34 - Shanghai-style Century Egg & Tofu
3:53 - Cantonese Century Egg Soup w/ Veg
5:22 - Hunan Pounded Roast Chilis & Century Egg
6:53 - How to Purchase a Good Century Egg

SHANGHAI-STYLE CENTURY EGG & TOFU

* Silken tofu (嫩豆腐/石膏豆腐), 1 block, ~400g

* Brine for the tofu: 1 tsp salt, enough hot water to submerge the tofu

* Century egg (皮蛋), 1

* Zha cai (榨菜), 15g. Preferably unseasoned, but the Sichuanese style appears to be the most available in the west. Something like this would be ok: https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/Spicy-Preserved-Vegetables/25442

* Sauce: 1 tbsp soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp water, 3/4 tsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp small dried shrimp (虾皮) - optional, ~1/16 tsp MSG (味精)

* Scallions, ~1 sprig

* Cooked oil: 1/2 tbsp oil (preferably peanut), 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil (麻油)

* Chili oil (辣椒油), 1/2 tbsp. Something basic and not overly seasoned like LKK would be perfect: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kum-Kee-Chili-Ounce/dp/B001NI726S/

PROCESS: Place the tofu in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, dissolve the salt in with hot, boiled water to make the brine and add it in with the tofu. Add enough water to submerge the tofu completely. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes (I usually do ~30).

Peel and slice the century egg into a dice. Mince the zha cai. Slice your scallions. I also prepare my sauce at this point. Once the tofu is finished with the hot water, pat it dry and slice it into 1/2 cm sheets. Halve in the other direction, transfer over to a serving plate. Top with the diced century egg and the minced zha cai.

Bring the sauce up to a rapid boil. Leave it that rapid boil for ~15 seconds, then pour it over the tofu/century egg/zha cai. Sprinkle over the scallions. Rinse and dry your little pot, add the oil/sesame oil mixture. Heat that up until it's smoking, ~210C, then pour it over the scallions. Sprinkle over the chili oil.

CANTONESE CENTURY EGG SOUP WITH VEGETABLE

Note that with this one, you can pretty much do whatever vegetable you want to do. If it can blanch, it can be cooked like this. That said, if you're working with a green vegetable and want to maintain the milky color of the soup, you can pre-blanch your vegetable and toss it in the soup at the very end (if you, say, use watercress in this soup straight like we did with the Napa, the soup will turn a greenish hue)

* Napa cabbage (娃娃菜), 350g. Cut into ~1.5 inch slices

* Garlic, 5 whole cloves

* Century egg, 1. Cut into rough chunks

* Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp

* Hot, boiled water; 1 cup

* Seasoning: 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/8 tsp MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp white pepper powder

* Cilantro for garnish

PROCESS: First, longyau: get your wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil - here, 1/2 tbsp - and give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface. Add in the garlic, and over a medium-low flame, fry until evenly golden brown, ~5 minutes. Remove the garlic together with the oil it was fried in.

Add in another ~1/2 tbsp of oil, and swap the flame to high. Add in the chopped up century egg, fry until blistered, ~30 seconds. Swirl over the wine, quick mix, then hit it with the hot water. Let it all come back up to a boil, then add in your vegetable. For the napa, we cooked it for about two minutes. Add the seasoning, mix well. Add back the garlic & garlic frying oil. Transfer to a serving plate, garnish with cilantro.

HUNAN POUNDED ROAST CHILI & CENTURY EGG

* Green chili peppers (e.g. Anaheims), 500g

* Aromatics: 3 cloves garlic, ~1 inch ginger

* Dry seasoning: 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder, 1/8 tsp MSG (味精)

* Liquid seasoning: 1/2 tbsp soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp dark Chinese vinegar (陈醋/香醋)

* Century eggs (皮蛋), 3. Chopped into ~1/2 inch chunks.

* Cilantro (香菜), 1 spring. Chopped.

PROCESS: Roast the chili peppers for 20 minutes at 200C. Slice off the tops. Transfer over to a plate, letting the moisture drip off.

Add the aromatics and dry seasoning to a mortar. Pound until pasty. Add the roasted chilis, pound to your liking, 5-10 minutes. Mix in the liquid seasoning. Add the cilantro and the century eggs, pound to your liking, ~30 seconds. Serve in-mortar, top over white rice.

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Footage of the century egg served in-mortar was courtesy of Blondie In China's video here. Nice video of Hunan food: https://youtu.be/qLWebBjuG6g

The BEFRS century egg clip in Taiwan was here (probably his best video): https://youtu.be/xBOjARb1BXY

The show of making the Taiwanese style was courtesy Angel Wong's kitchen: https://youtu.be/YjizOoFIEq8

And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
http://www.patreon.com/ChineseCookingDemystified

Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg