Xihu Omelette Recipe in English! 西湖煎蛋

(Near modern day Hangzhou)


0:14 Welcome to Everyday Eats (The title of the cooking series is called “tian tian yin shi”)

0:17 Master Chef Li Tiegang will teach you to make beautiful food

0:19 But before we started today, Master Chef Tiegang was laughing, saying that our audience should go to Zhejiang.

Yup. Xihu (The Western Lake)

Really to Xihu?

Yup.

0:29  Why?  Because today’s dish is called, “Xi Hu Omlette”

0:45 Narrator: Will the dish today be really hard to make?  No, it’s really easy!

0:59 Ingredients:

Main ingredient:  Chicken eggs

Supporting ingredients:  Chinese Chives, ground pork, and tiny shrimp

Seasonings:  Rice vinegar, soy sause, white sugar, etc.

1:11 The first step is to deal with the ground pork and the tiny shrimp.

1:18  I don’t get it.  What does the Xihu Omlette and pork have to do with each other?

1:26  This is to add some texture.  There’s also egg white and calcium.

1:30  All right, I’ll add some oil.

1:33  Don’t add oil, add water.

1:34  Huh?  Add water?

1:36  Yup

1:38  First we deal with the ground pork.  When using water to stir fry pork…

1:43  You add warm water?

1:44 Yes.

1:45  Why add water?

1:50  This way the outside is crispy, and the inside tender.  And there’s less oil.

1:58  Starting out meat has lots of fat.  Adding more oil is too much.

2:03  When there’s still some water, add the tiny shrimp.

2:08  Wait, wait!!!  I don’t understand!  You didn’t add oil and you’re adding it to the liquid?

2:17  Okay so there’s lots of calcium inside the shrimp skin, and there isn’t much flesh.  Typically you eat it and it doesn’t feel like there’s meat.  When we add it to the water, the flesh expands, so it tastes like there’s flesh.

2:29  Lots of friends don’t like to eat tiny shrimp, because it smells fishy.

2:35  Hey notice when I added the shrimp, the fishy stench escaped.

2:47  Notice the shrimp aroma is slowly coming out.

2:54  So the first shortcut to making this is to use water, not oil to cook the meat and shrimp.

3:03  Now the ground pork is crisp.

3:14-3:34  (Narrator sums up the conversation thus far.)

3:33  After cooking the pork and shrimp, we now beat the four eggs.

3:45  Add a pinch of salt to the eggs to add some flavor.  And then add some red rice vinegar.  This will help the absorption into the shrimp.

4:05 The vinegar also has a salty taste, so don’t add too much.

4:10  Now we cut the Chinese chives into two.

4:15 What, you’re cutting only once, leaving it this long?

4:18  Yup

4:28  Turn on the fire.  Add some oil, and then add some water.  Now we use this to cook the chives.

4:53  This is to keep it from leaking water, and it keeps the chive’s aroma.

5:08  If you just scald this in oil, the chives will break apart.

5:14  Oh, I smell the chives!

5:16  Now we add the shrimp and pork into the eggs.

5:24  Now the chives are cooked

5:24-6:00 (Narrator repeats)

6:05  We add less oil than we normally do when we fry an egg.  How hot should the oil be?

6:11 60% of the way there.  (Keep 1/3 of the egg aside)

6:18  (Repeating what’s inside the egg mixture)

6:36  Now we add the chives

6:50  Now we cover the chives with the rest of the egg batter to seal the aroma of the chives into the egg.  TURN DOWN THE HEAT TO LOW.  This is so that heat can cook into everything evenly.  Once you see the top solidify, bring the heat back up.

7:15  While we wait for the next two minutes for the whole thing to cook, let’s tell the audience how to fry the perfect egg.

7:26  - 9:08  (The next montage compares cooking eggs by itself, with rice wine, and adding)

9:09  When the egg is not translucent anymore, add vinegar

9:11 You can also add milk.  To tell you the truth I like to tell everyone may dad’s specialty.  When he steams eggs he adds a little milk.  It tastes delicate with the aroma of milk.  Try it at home

9:24  First stir the egg like this in the wok

9:25 Why?

9:28  So that you can tell the omelette is cooked.  And when you flip it, the color should look like this.

9:45  When you flip it over, add water.

9:56  Add it to the side

10:10 This is to keep the puffy texture.

10:31  Now we will make the Xihu vinegar sauce

10:41  Once the water is dry, look it poofs up!

10:58 Let’s set it aside

11:06  Now let’s cut and present this

11:20  (first boil water.  They didn’t mention this part)  Add some salt, less than two grams.  Add around 5 grams of sugar.  Add some soy sauce for color.

11:53  Next, bloom tapioca starch in water.  This must come before the vinegar.  Do this by eye

12:20  Next add the vingar (this is Chinese red vingar, NOT WHITE).  Around 20 grams

12:27  Now the sauce glistens  TURN OFF THE FIRE.

12:54  We’re done!

13:10  (Review)