Redemption Egg Foo Young Recipe

We love the new book Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden, with 100 Recipes, by Signe Langford, and think this recipe, exerpted from the book, is one that celebrates the outputs of your flock, while keeping you warm in the cooler weather to come. Enjoy!

Redemption Egg Foo Young
Serves 2

I failed Home Ec. I disappointed Teacher with my Chinese dinner; I still don’t know where I went wrong. Making a Chinese meal from scratch in small-town Quebec in the 1970s was a tall order. Mother only had a few cookbooks to work from, so I went with a menu of recipes found in the Five Roses Cook Book and the LIFE Picture Cook Book from 1958. I’m going for redemption with this brilliant egg foo young.

4 Tbsp (60 mL) vegetable oil, divided

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Half a green pepper, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

2 scallions, finely sliced, divided

1 cup (250 mL) fresh bean sprouts, washed and dried

10 wild-caught shrimp or BC spot prawns, peeled and deveined

4 free-run eggs

Sauce
3/4 cup (180 mL) organic chicken stock

1 Tbsp (15 mL) good-quality soy sauce

1 Tbsp (15 mL) oyster sauce

1 Tbsp (15 mL) seasoned rice vinegar

1 Tbsp (15 mL) mirin or Chinese rice wine

1 tsp (5 mL) coconut sugar (or substitute granulated sugar)

2 tsp (10 mL) cornstarch

1. Add about 2 tablespoons (30 mL) oil to a medium skillet over high heat.

2. Add shallot, garlic, green pepper, celery and most of the scallions, reserving some scallions for garnish; fry, stirring constantly, for about 1 to 2 minutes or until just softened.

3. Add the well-drained bean sprouts; fry, stirring constantly, for another minute.

4. Add the shrimp; fry until just turning pink and opaque. Transfer shrimp and sprout mixture to a dish and set aside. Put the pan to one side and allow it to cool.

5. While the pan is cooling, prepare the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together all sauce ingredients until well blended, with no cornstarch lumps. Set aside.

“Redemption Egg Foo Young” from Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden, with 100 Recipes, by Signe Langford, with photographs by Donna Griffith (Douglas & McIntyre).