RV Cooking: Egg Foo Yung
01-19-2015
The lovely modest omelet -- a pancake with mostly egg and sometimes a bit of flour and filled with meat, fish, or vegetables -- is a staple of every culture because it’s easy and it tastes good. It’s a crepe. It’s a frittata. It’s a tamagoyaki, a khagine, blintzes in Eastern Europe.
In America it’s Egg Foo Yung, a dish that probably had its origins in China, but the Chinese-y version of the omelet we know and love isn’t apparently Chinese per-se. How the modern Egg Foo Yung -- egg pancakes fried with fillings, then slathered in gravy -- came to be an American dish is murky at best. Some say Chinese immigrants invented it in San Francisco because their traditional ingredients were not available here. Another story may be modern folklore, but I like this one better -- there are references to an unnamed San Francisco Jewish immigrant in the early 20th century as the inventor of Egg Foo Yung. No matter who came up with it, it’s now a celebrated dish in Jewish households around Christmastime!
My take on Egg Fu Yung is a version that I found in an old 1972 edition of “Sunset Magazine’s Asian Cooking.” I’d be embarrassed to show you the page -- I still have it in a page protector all stained and well-used, even though the book it came from fell apart 20 years ago. Ginger is not found in this recipe, neither is garlic (“garlic powder” instead). But this was 1972 folks. The only relatively real Asian ingredients are soy sauce and bean sprouts (canned of course!Yuck.)
I have always used fresh bean sprouts because they give the dish a satisfying crunch and are more nutritious. Buy them in an Asian supermarket in whatever town you’re in, not in just any supermarket. You’ll know they are fresh because they are sold loose in a bin and are firm and white. The ones in plastic bags on the usual grocer’s shelf are generally a soggy disappointment. If you are lucky enough to have a farmer’s market with Asian farmers selling their wares, chances are you’ll get them super-fresh. But only attempt this recipe if your mung bean sprouts are at their peak because they are the star of the show!
While my kids were growing up, I used to make this once every couple of months and it was always a crowd-pleaser. It’s perfect for RV cooking because it’s like making breakfast pancakes on a grill. Everything gets thrown in a large bowl, you use a large mixing spoon, and there are just two pots: a saucepan and a fry pan.
Egg Foo Yung
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked white rice and 2 cups water (double that if your family likes white rice, you can always use the leftovers)
8 eggs (preferably bought at a farmer’s market and are organic and free range)
1/2 pound (8 ounces) fresh mung bean sprouts (more is fine)
1 cup thinly sliced green onions (about a typical bunch -- use only the green parts)
2 cups cooked crabmeat or cooked small shrimp (optional) or
(vegetarian) a bag of Beyond Meat Chicken-less strips, chopped into
bite-size pieces
a dash of black pepper
a dash of garlic powder
safflower or peanut oil
Foo Yung Sauce
3 teaspoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons sugar
6 teaspoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons vinegar (white, rice, or apple cider)
1 1/2 cups canned or your own homemade vegetable broth
Directions
Make Foo Yung Sauce first, by adding all the ingredients in the small saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened. Remove to a Pyrex cup or bowl for later microwave reheating.
Rinse out the saucepan and make the rice in it, according to directions on package. White rice is usually a 1-cup-rice-to-2-cups-water affair, brought to a boil, and allowed to steam on low heat, covered, for 10 minutes.
While rice is cooking:
Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add bean sprouts, green onions, seafood or other protein, pepper and garlic powder, tossing lightly.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, using just enough to coat the bottom. Add more oil as you go along to keep bottom of pan coated before each additional pancake. With a large cooking spoon, drop in about 1/4 cup of the mixture at a time, frying the patties as you would pancakes, turning once. Cook until set and lightly brown. Remove to a hot platter on paper towels. Do them all like this.
To serve, put a spoonful of rice and 2 pancakes on the plates. Allow everyone to pour on their own warmed Foo Yung Sauce. This dish really was popular on cold winter Minnesota nights. Yum!
About Blog Author Wendy Gorski: I'm a full-time traveler with my husband Nick, and we live in a 2011 Airstream travel trailer. In 2012, we sold our 4,000-square-foot house with its gourmet kitchen and bought our 100-square-foot tiny Airstream house. In this blog, I'll share recipes, tips, thoughts, and experiences as we careen across the country in search of adventure. All my recipes will be primarily plant-based, fast to cook, easy to clean up, and delicious!
In America it’s Egg Foo Yung, a dish that probably had its origins in China, but the Chinese-y version of the omelet we know and love isn’t apparently Chinese per-se. How the modern Egg Foo Yung -- egg pancakes fried with fillings, then slathered in gravy -- came to be an American dish is murky at best. Some say Chinese immigrants invented it in San Francisco because their traditional ingredients were not available here. Another story may be modern folklore, but I like this one better -- there are references to an unnamed San Francisco Jewish immigrant in the early 20th century as the inventor of Egg Foo Yung. No matter who came up with it, it’s now a celebrated dish in Jewish households around Christmastime!
My take on Egg Fu Yung is a version that I found in an old 1972 edition of “Sunset Magazine’s Asian Cooking.” I’d be embarrassed to show you the page -- I still have it in a page protector all stained and well-used, even though the book it came from fell apart 20 years ago. Ginger is not found in this recipe, neither is garlic (“garlic powder” instead). But this was 1972 folks. The only relatively real Asian ingredients are soy sauce and bean sprouts (canned of course!Yuck.)
I have always used fresh bean sprouts because they give the dish a satisfying crunch and are more nutritious. Buy them in an Asian supermarket in whatever town you’re in, not in just any supermarket. You’ll know they are fresh because they are sold loose in a bin and are firm and white. The ones in plastic bags on the usual grocer’s shelf are generally a soggy disappointment. If you are lucky enough to have a farmer’s market with Asian farmers selling their wares, chances are you’ll get them super-fresh. But only attempt this recipe if your mung bean sprouts are at their peak because they are the star of the show!
While my kids were growing up, I used to make this once every couple of months and it was always a crowd-pleaser. It’s perfect for RV cooking because it’s like making breakfast pancakes on a grill. Everything gets thrown in a large bowl, you use a large mixing spoon, and there are just two pots: a saucepan and a fry pan.
Egg Foo Yung
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked white rice and 2 cups water (double that if your family likes white rice, you can always use the leftovers)
8 eggs (preferably bought at a farmer’s market and are organic and free range)
1/2 pound (8 ounces) fresh mung bean sprouts (more is fine)
1 cup thinly sliced green onions (about a typical bunch -- use only the green parts)
2 cups cooked crabmeat or cooked small shrimp (optional) or
(vegetarian) a bag of Beyond Meat Chicken-less strips, chopped into
bite-size pieces
a dash of black pepper
a dash of garlic powder
safflower or peanut oil
Foo Yung Sauce
3 teaspoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons sugar
6 teaspoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons vinegar (white, rice, or apple cider)
1 1/2 cups canned or your own homemade vegetable broth
Directions
Make Foo Yung Sauce first, by adding all the ingredients in the small saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened. Remove to a Pyrex cup or bowl for later microwave reheating.
Rinse out the saucepan and make the rice in it, according to directions on package. White rice is usually a 1-cup-rice-to-2-cups-water affair, brought to a boil, and allowed to steam on low heat, covered, for 10 minutes.
While rice is cooking:
Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add bean sprouts, green onions, seafood or other protein, pepper and garlic powder, tossing lightly.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, using just enough to coat the bottom. Add more oil as you go along to keep bottom of pan coated before each additional pancake. With a large cooking spoon, drop in about 1/4 cup of the mixture at a time, frying the patties as you would pancakes, turning once. Cook until set and lightly brown. Remove to a hot platter on paper towels. Do them all like this.
To serve, put a spoonful of rice and 2 pancakes on the plates. Allow everyone to pour on their own warmed Foo Yung Sauce. This dish really was popular on cold winter Minnesota nights. Yum!
About Blog Author Wendy Gorski: I'm a full-time traveler with my husband Nick, and we live in a 2011 Airstream travel trailer. In 2012, we sold our 4,000-square-foot house with its gourmet kitchen and bought our 100-square-foot tiny Airstream house. In this blog, I'll share recipes, tips, thoughts, and experiences as we careen across the country in search of adventure. All my recipes will be primarily plant-based, fast to cook, easy to clean up, and delicious!
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