Cantonese Steamed Eggs · Daddy Lau

Chop the 2 stalks of scallion and set them aside — they go on at the very end, for colour and a bit of bite.

Set a steamer rack inside your wok and put your serving bowl on top of it. Pour water into the wok until the bowl sits somewhere between a third and halfway submerged, then take the bowl back out and bring that water to a boil over high heat.

💡 Measure this with the bowl in place before you fill it. Too little water and the wok boils dry in eight minutes; too much and it slops over the rim into your custard.

Crack the 4 eggs into the bowl and add the 0.5 tsp salt, the 0.5 tsp chicken bouillon and the 1 tbsp of oil.

Mix with a fork or a pair of chopsticks until the seasoning is dissolved and the eggs are evenly broken up.

💡 Chopsticks, not a whisk. A whisk beats in air, and air becomes bubbles, and bubbles become the craters that ruin a smooth custard.

Get your 2 cups of water to 35–45°C (95–113°F) — dip a clean finger in and it should feel barely warm, neither hot nor cool.

💡 This is the one number worth being fussy about. Cold water makes the custard take forever and set unevenly; hot water starts scrambling the eggs in the bowl before they ever reach the steamer.

Pour a quarter of that warm water — 0.5 cup (120 ml) — into the eggs and mix until bubbles start foaming at the top.

💡 Splitting the water is not fussiness. A small amount first lets the water actually combine with the egg; dump all two cups in at once and you get water with egg floating in it, which steams into a watery, separated mess.

Pour in the remaining 1.5 cups (360 ml) of warm water and keep mixing until you see bubbles again.

Make sure the water in the wok is at a full boil and the stove is still on high, then lower the bowl of egg mixture onto the rack and cover the wok.

💡 The bowl goes in only once the water is already boiling. Starting it in cool water means the eggs sit half-warm for minutes and set into layers.

Leave the heat on high until the water comes back to a boil under the lid — anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes.

Now drop the heat to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes.

💡 Turning the heat down is the difference between silk and sponge. A hard boil drives steam through the custard and leaves it pitted with holes — this is the most common way steamed eggs go wrong.

Test it: gently shake the wok. The egg should wobble with a gelatin-like consistency — set, but still soft all the way through.

💡 If the middle still sloshes like liquid, give it another minute or two and check again. Steamed eggs keep firming up in their own heat after they come out, so err on the softer side.

Take the lid off, scatter over the chopped scallion and add a dash of white pepper to taste.

Lift the bowl carefully out of the wok with oven mitts and serve straight away, with rice.

💡 The bowl has been sitting in boiling water for ten minutes and its rim is far hotter than it looks. Mitts, not a tea towel.