Pea Sprouts with Duck Eggs (豆苗鴨蛋, Dau6 Miu4 Aap3 Daan6)

Pea sprouts are the shoots that are usually discarded after pea pods are picked from the plant. This classic Cantonese dish pairs the pea sprouts with two types of duck eggs – one salted and one preserved. The cooked salted duck egg is a duck egg preserved in salt, which results in a dark orange yolk and firm egg white. The preserved duck egg has a yolk that is dark green color and the egg whites are dark brown as the result of alkaline preservation. The preserved duck egg is also known as “hundred-year” and “thousand-year” old eggs. Be assured that preserved duck eggs are not that old! You can purchase all the ingredients for this dish at your local Asian market.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1	1	Cooked salted duck egg (鹹鴨蛋, haam4 aap3 daan6), diced
1	1	Preserved duck egg (皮蛋, pei4 daan6), diced
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
1 lb.	500 g.	Peas sprouts (豆苗, dau6 miu4)
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Water or stock

 

Equipment

14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan
		Egg slicer

 

Preparation Instructions

1. Remove the shells from the cooked salted and preserved duck eggs. Slice the eggs in the egg slicer and then rotate the sliced eggs 90⁰ and slice again, resulting in diced eggs
2. Wash and cut the pea sprouts.
3. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press and put into a small bowl.
4. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, and water or stock.

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the bowl with the ginger and garlic. Quickly stir fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant before adding more oil and then the pea sprouts. Stir fry all the ingredients together. The volume of the pea sprouts will decrease greatly as the pea sprouts cook and result in some liquid in the wok.
2. Add the duck eggs and the sauce ingredients to the wok and stir fry the ingredients together. The amount of the sauce ingredients might need to be reduced depending upon the amount of liquid resulting from cooking the pea sprouts. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve with steamed rice.