Chinese Scrambled Egg White with Crab Meat & Dried Scallops

One of the most simple but beautiful Chinese dishes to make. Delicious to eat too!

If I could, I'd spend more time on this blog than I currently do. As you may already know, I am extremely passionate about homecooking and enjoy sharing recipes that I personally love to cook/eat and hope to inspire people to start cooking more often in the kitchen too. Besides that, there's always so many restaurants that I come across that I'm just yearning to tell people about. 

Too much to blog, too little time... #bloggerwoes

Anyhoo, this Chinese Scrambled Egg White with Crab Meat & Dried Scallops is actually a dish that I always enjoy eating but don't often see at restaurants. A few weeks ago, my dear friend Ivy invited me over dinner and made this dish for me and I was reminded once again by how delicious it was to eat. Love this! After that, I really wanted to make this dish at home too and what better opportunity to do that than when my family came over for Chinese New Year dinner (which you can read about: here).

If I'm not mistaken, this dish is of Shanghainese origin and there's a number of variations to it. Some people stir fry it with fish or prawns or what have you. Personally, I like to make it with fresh crab meat (if you can get your hands on some) and dried scallops to make it extra special. Not the cheapest ingredients to buy but as I said, it's good to cook for special occasions because it's definitely something that your friends and family will appreciate. To be honest, you could substitute with whatever you want, really. 

Besides being a fan of the taste, the other reason why I chose to make it for CNY dinner was because I wanted to cook a large number of dishes and so needed ideas for dishes that are really quick and easy to make. This was definitely that. The whole dish took about 10 to 15 minutes to cook and looked absolutely stunning on the plate, if I do say so myself. To me, this is one of those dishes that I find to be not as common for some reason so I do hope people try this one out and share with others. Seriously, too easy and delicious to make.

Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did. Also feel so happy to be sharing more homecooked Chinese recipes like these because it does seem like it's been awhile (apart from my last post). Feels like I'm reconnecting with my Chinese roots again -- hooray!

Happy cooking!

Chinese Scrambled Egg White with Crab Meat & Dried Scallops

(an original recipe)

Click here to print the recipe

Ingredients:

25g dried scallops *
2 - 3 tbsp oil
3/4 cup fresh crab meat (optional) **
7 egg whites
125ml water
1 tsp fish sauce
Dashes of white pepper

To serve:
Blanched broccoli
Sesame oil
Black vinegar (optional)
1 egg yolk

* Available at Asian grocery stores
** I bought mine from Victoria Market. It was in the freezer section and about AU$35 for 500g. Expensive but delicious to use for special occasions.

Method:

1. Soak the dried scallops for 2 hours in water or until soft. After that, drain the water and dry with paper towel. Break the scallops apart with fingers.

2. Heat up a pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add the scallops in and fry until golden and fragrant. Set aside.

3. If using crab meat, heat up the same pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add in the crab meat and fry until cooked through. Set aside.

4. Whisk the egg whites, water, fish sauce, white pepper together. Heat up the same pan and once hot, add 1 tbsp of oil. Add in the egg white mixture and using a wooden spoon, mix the egg white around continuously until scrambled and cooked through. Stir in the cooked crab meat, if using.

5. To serve, place the blanched broccoli around the plate. Add the scrambled egg white at the centre and drizzle with sesame oil and black vinegar (if using). Scatter the dried scallops around and top with an egg yolk at the centre. Enjoy!