Cook’s notes
Chinese sausage is such a wonderful thing to keep in stock. There are several varieties but the most widely availabe is lap cheong which is made with pork and pork fat, and dried. It’s salty and sweet and highly aromatic. We use it make yang chow fried rice, we add it to stir fried noodles and, sometimes, we enjoy it by itself.
In this recipe, chopped Chinese sausage and vegetables are whisked with eggs and cooked over low heat with slow stirring until the vegetables have softened a bit, the sausage has rendered some fat and the eggs are firm (I like to pull pan off the stove while the eggs are still wet).
The cooking time of 35 minutes indicated below may seem overly long for such a simple dish. But 20 of the 35 minutes is for cooking the rice with the Chinese sausages on top. No human intervention required during the process.
Cook your rice in the rice cooker (see full guide for buying and cooking rice). When it’s half-done, lay the Chinese sausages and top and let them soak up the steam. Why precook the sausages and not just cut and cook them at the same time as the eggs and vegetables? Dried Chinese sausage is hard and difficult to cut. It needs to rehydrate to soften it sufficiently to make cutting easier.
If you don’t need to cook rice (say, you have leftover rice from the previous meal), simply heat the Chinese sausages in a pan with a few tablespoons of water (you may also do this in the microwave). By the time the water dries up, the sausages should have softened enough.
Cook your rice in the rice cooker (see full guide for buying and cooking rice). When it’s half-done, lay the Chinese sausages and top and let them soak up the steam. Why precook the sausages and not just cut and cook them at the same time as the eggs and vegetables? Dried Chinese sausage is hard and difficult to cut. It needs to rehydrate to soften it sufficiently to make cutting easier.
If you don’t need to cook rice (say, you have leftover rice from the previous meal), simply heat the Chinese sausages in a pan with a few tablespoons of water (you may also do this in the microwave). By the time the water dries up, the sausages should have softened enough.Scrambled eggs with Chinese sausage and vegetables
Ingredients
- 1½ cups rice
- 3 Chinese sausages
- 3 tomatoes roughly chopped
- 3 bell peppers deseeded and roughly chopped
- 6 large eggs
- salt
- pepper
- 6 tablespoons cooking oil
Instructions
- Rinse and cook the rice in your rice cooker.
- Midway through the cooking, lay the Chinese sausages on top and replace the rice cooker cover. Leave until the cooker switches off.
- Take the sausages and roughly chop.
- Take one portion each of the sausages, tomatoes and bell peppers. Place in a mixing bowl with two eggs, a few pinches of salt and a pinch of pepper. Whisk thoroughly.
- Heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan. Pour in the egg mixture and cook over low heat, stirring slowly, until the eggs are firm.
- Repeat with the remaining eggs, sausages and vegetables.
- Place rice in three shallow bowls or deep plates and ladle the scrambled eggs, sausage and vegetables on top.
Clam soup with ginger and scallions
