Steamed Egg Soup

I wanted to make a quick post about steamed egg soup, since I made it today as well. It's always been a staple for me just because of how easy it is, and it's serious comfort food for me as it was one of the foods I ate most often as a child. If you've never seen it before, it might be a bit strange - it's pale and almost gelatinous in texture. But I swear, it's delicious!

Basic steamed egg soup is incredibly easy save for one thing - the timing. But we'll get to that in a minute. First, for a small bowl, I crack one egg and sprinkle some salt. I always undersalt the soup accidentally. I've made this dozens of times now, and it's still a problem! Maybe one day I'll figure it out...

Anyhow, beat the egg and salt until more or less homogeneous. Then, slowly add some warmish water until the bowl is full, mixing as you go.

Once the mixture is complete, place it in a steaming pot, or assemble a steaming tray in a large pot. Add about an inch of water to the bottom, and keep the flame at about medium heat. There are a few tips and tricks out there about how to get the smoothest surface on your steamed eggs, but my family never really cared about that - and neither do I, for at-home eating.

Now, this is the difficult part: steaming time. If you don't steam the eggs for long enough, you'll end up with a murky semi-opaque liquid. If you steam them for too long, the solid steamed eggs will rise to the top, and I seem to always only find this out when it's too late and I break the inch-thick surface only to find clear water underneath! Trial and error helps a lot, as does experimenting with different heat levels. I like to use medium because the eggs don't steam too quickly; I tend to overcook them. Generally, I've found that they're done at around ten minutes, but as other conditions have varied, they've finished at anywhere from 8-12 minutes.

It does take a while to get the hang of cooking time, but the soup is so easy to whip up that it's not really an inconvenience, as far as I can tell! The soup can be enhanced with any number of things - my grandpa used to serve it with a tiny bit of sesame oil on top, or he'd steam it with green onions and bits of ham. Once you've got the basic method down, the soup can be enhanced in any number of ways!