2 hours ago
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Egg foo yung is a type of omelette that perhaps began life as a type of egg dish in Guangdong province, but has since the early 1900s been a staple on American and British Chinese takeaway menus. I like to order it at Yau’s in Broughton near Scunthorpe or Chi’s in Kenton in Devon, where it arrives as a small, fluffy, delicate omelette, barely able to hold itself together for the amount of vegetables woven into it. Over rice, it is a form of heaven on a Saturday night. I haven’t tried to replicate that specific joy here, but this is a homespun version, for those Saturdays when neither Chi’s nor Yau’s are within range.
Mushroom egg foo yung over buttered rice
You’ll need a good nonstick pan, and make sure to cook the vegetables until there is no water left in the pan, or the omelette will become very delicate.
Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4
350g jasmine rice
80g unsalted butter
4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
300g shiitake mushrooms, halved and thinly sliced
4 tsp mirin
2 tbsp light soy sauce, plus extra for serving
8 medium eggs
¼ tsp fine sea salt
20g chives, finely chopped
4 tbsp neutral cooking oil – I use rapeseed
For the sauce
2 tbsp crispy chilli in oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
First, cook the rice. Put it in a sieve and rinse under the cold tap until the water runs clear. Tip the rice into a pan for which you have a tight-fitting lid, add 600ml just-boiled water and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat to a whisper and leave to cook for 15 minutes. Take off the heat, remove the lid, put 30g of the butter in the centre of the rice and cover again.
Make the serving sauce by mixing the chilli oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar in a small bowl.
Melt the remaining 50g butter in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat and, when it foams, add the garlic and mushrooms, and fry, stirring – the mushrooms will release water, so make sure to cook them until it’s all evaporated. Add the mirin and soy sauce, cook for a further minute, until the sauce evaporates, then take off the heat and leave to cool.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the salt and two-thirds of the chives (save the rest for decoration).
Once the mushrooms have cooled a little, add them to the egg bowl and mix well. Put a tablespoon of oil in the empty frying pan on a medium heat – to test it’s hot enough, put the tip of a wooden spoon in the centre of the pan: if bubbles form around it, the oil is ready.
Ladle a quarter of the omelette mix into the hot oil, then move in the sides to make a roughly 15cm-diameter circle, spreading out the mushrooms evenly as you do so. Cook for about 90 seconds, or until golden brown underneath, then flip (I do this using one spatula under the omelette and another one on top) and cook for another 30 seconds. Slide out on to a plate, cover with tin foil to keep warm and repeat with the remaining oil and omelette mix.
Spoon a quarter of the rice on to each of four plates, top each one with an omelette and a sprinkling of the reserved chopped chives, and serve with the chilli vinegar sauce alongside.
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