Steamed Egg Custard

Name: Steamed Egg Custard
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: Egg; Egg white; Chicken stock; Raw prawns; Toasted sesame oil; Light soy sauce; Spring onions

Steamed Egg Custard, plated as one serving.

137 kcal a serving, against 250 for the traditional version. That is 113 kcal off, or 45%, with 17.7g of protein. Serves 4. 20 minutes.

What the traditional version is

A rich, wobbly custard made by whisking whole eggs with chicken stock, poured over a layer of fatty pork shoulder and steamed until barely set. The whole dish is finished with a heavy pour of toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and scattered spring onions.

What changed, and what each change costs

150g of fatty pork shoulder for the same weight of raw prawns

Prawns deliver pure lean muscle and cook beautifully in the gentle steam. Pork shoulder renders grease directly into the custard, which tastes brilliant but hits your daily limits hard.

What it costs you. You lose that dark, meaty richness at the bottom of the bowl. Prawns offer a sweeter, much lighter flavour instead.

150g of whole eggs for pure egg whites

Dropping a few yolks removes a massive chunk of fat. The whites provide all the structural support needed to set the hot stock into a firm jelly.

What it costs you. This is a slightly paler, firmer custard. Nobody is going to mistake it for a bright yellow, impossibly rich pudding anymore.

15g of toasted sesame oil down to 5g

Sesame oil is fiercely aromatic. A tiny drop gives you the exact same toasted smell without leaving a thick oil slick floating on the surface.

What it costs you. The top of the custard won't have that classic, luxurious greasy sheen when you drag your spoon through it.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Egg
Egg white
Chicken stock
Raw prawns
Toasted sesame oil
Light soy sauce
Spring onions

How it starts

Roughly chop the raw prawns into small pieces.
Crack the whole eggs into a large jug and add the egg whites.
Warm the chicken stock slightly in a pan until it is tepid, then pour it into the eggs while whisking gently.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Chinese.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	250	137
Protein	17.2g	17.7g
Fat	17.7g	5.1g
Saturated fat	5.2g	1.3g
Carbohydrate	4.4g	4.4g
Protein per 100 kcal	6.9g	12.9g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Chinese prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. crustaceans, eggs, gluten, sesame, soybeans.

The method is in the book

This dish is an absolute triumph of texture. You get the same comforting, slippery mouthful as the traditional version, but without the heavy layer of rendered pork fat sitting in your stomach. The prawns give you something firm to bite into, contrasting perfectly with the silky custard. I miss the rich yellow colour of the extra yolks, but I don't miss the grease. It hits every savoury note you want on a cold evening.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Chinese, along with 55 more. Buy the paperback