Century Egg and Tofu with Pork Floss Salad

This is another easy dish to add to your recipe arsenal.

Similar recipes are found in different cuisines throughout Asia. In the Shanghainese recipe, they mix chopped century eggs with chilled tofu. In Japan, it is popular to eat cold tofu with katsuobushi, soy sauce, and sesame oil. A variation of this recipe common in northern China is to slice century eggs over chilled soft tofu, adding liberal quantities of shredded young ginger and chopped spring onions as a topping, and then drizzling light soy sauce and sesame oil over the dish. The version we’ll be making is a traditional Taiwanese recipe: century egg over chilled soft tofu, drizzled with a vinaigrette and topped with pork floss, cilantro, and green onions.

What is Century Egg?

Also known as pidan, preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand year egg, or millenium egg. It is a Chinese delicacy made by preserving the eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to months. It is believed to have been discovered during the Ming Dynasty.

From Wiki:

“Through the process, the yolk becomes a dark green to grey color, with a creamy consistency and strong flavor due to the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia present, while the white becomes a dark brown, translucent jelly with a salty flavor. The transforming agent in the century egg is an alkaline salt, which gradually raises the pH of the egg to around 9–12, during the curing process.[2] This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavorful compounds.”

What is Pork Floss?

Imagine cotton candy or more like lint, but instead of sweet, it is savoury dried pork. In Chinese, this is called rousong. Pork floss originates from China. It is often used as a topping on various dishes. According to wikipedia, rousong is made by stewing cuts of pork in a sweetened soy sauce mixture until individual muscle fibres can be easily teased apart with a fork. It is then strained and dried in the oven. After a light drying, the meat is mashed and beaten while being dry-cooked in a large wok until it is nearly completely dry.

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Century Egg and Tofu with Pork Floss Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients:

300g of Soft Tofu (uncooked) 1 Preserved Egg (uncooked) 2 tbsp Pork Floss, (soften or crunchy, your preference) Handful of Green Onions Handful of Cilantro

Vinaigrette: 1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil 1 Teaspoon Chili Oil 1 Teaspoon Oyster Sauce 1 Teaspoon Water 1 Dash of White Pepper

Directions:

1. Drain the tofu of liquid. Sliced tofu and arrange on the serving plate.

2. De-shell egg, rinse, dry and slice/dice century egg, however way you want it.

3. Arrange the century egg on top of tofu.

4. Mix the vinaigrette together. Drizzle sauce over the tofu. Chill in the fridge for 5 minutes.

5. Top with pork floss. Then garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro.

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