Egg fu young is a very westernised dish; basically a Chinese take on an omelette. The name is said to derive from ‘fu young’, which is a kind of hibiscus with beautiful flowers. The dish consists of eggs cooked like an omelette, with a variety of fillings, served with a savoury brown sauce. You can adapt this recipe to use a huge variety of different fillings – I’ve used prawns, ham and chicken/turkey – but use any filling you like!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 100g beansprouts
• 75g left over chicken or turkey
• 75g raw prawns
• 75g ham, cut into small pieces
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Sauce

• 200ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp water

METHOD

• Prepare the sauce by adding all of the ingredients except the cornstarch and the water to a saucepan.
• Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in your frying pan, and put over a high heat. Add your garlic and spring onions, and allow to fry for a few seconds, until they begin to smell fragrant. Add the beansprouts and stir fry for a minute, then add the raw prawns, chicken and ham, and cook for another minute, or until the prawns are cooked through. Drain the excess liquid off and into your saucepan for the sauce – this ensures your omelette isn’t soggy when it’s cooked. Set the mixture aside, and when slightly cooler, add the beaten eggs and the soy sauce.
• Clean the frying pan, then add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan over a medium heat, and ladle in half of your egg and filling mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes, then turn over and cook for a further minute the other side.
• Drain the omelette on some kitchen towel and keep warm. Repeat the cooking process for the remaining oil and egg mixture.
• Finish your sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, and meanwhile mix the cornstarch and the water together thoroughly. When your sauce is boiling, add the cornstarch mixture, and stir until the sauce thickens and boils.
• Serve the omelette on a warm plate with the sauce spooned over the top. This will serve two adults for a main course or four for a lunch or snack. If you wish to serve more people, the best thing is to reduce the size of the frying pan you cook the omelette in, as thinner omelettes are harder to turn. Best served with plain rice.

Variations

Egg fu young is easy to adapt and you can use plenty of different fillings to vary the taste. If you’re a vegetarian, you can replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and leave out the meat. You can try bamboo shoots, peas, carrots, onion, peppers, mushrooms, celery, cucumber or water chestnuts. Just make sure that anything canned in water is drained thoroughly, and tougher vegetables like carrots and peppers are cooked through before you make your omelette. Left over roast meat is brilliant here – or try char siu or leftover duck. You can even play around with the sauce – some recipes call for chilli sauce, garlic, spring onions, vinegar, Chinese rice wine and sugar as added ingredients.