Cover Chef Jason Tan from Euphoria shares his egg and onion dish (Photo: Euphoria)

How many ways can the experts cook an egg?

A simple egg inspires countless recipes from sweet to savoury, elaborate or straightforward. A classic French omelette is seen as a test of skills in some kitchens, whereas the velocity of an #eggporn ooze might hold greater importance in others—ultimately, the versatility of the humble egg will never cease to be a source of creativity and deliciousness. Below, we asked some of Asia’s leading chefs for their best egg recipe. Get cracking!

See also: 11 Most Luxurious Chocolate Eggs and Treats to Get this Easter

1. Cold-Smoked Soft-Boiled Egg with Smoked Fish

Tatler Asia
Above Danny Yip's recipe is a triple-smoke bomb (Photo: Danny Yip)

By Danny Yip, Founder of The Chairman (Hong Kong)

Smoke plays a big part in some of The Chairman’s greatest hits, including the camphor smoked goose, and this recipe also makes use of this particularly fragrant wood.

Ingredients

Eggs
Smoked fish of your choosing, shredded

For the marinade
3 litres water
370g light soy sauce
120g dark soy sauce
500g sugar
10 Sichuan peppercorns
6 star anise
1 cardamom pod, crushed 
2 sticks cinnamon 
4 dried bay leaves 
1 small piece dried mandarin peel
1 knob of ginger
1 shallot

Method

  1. Place the eggs into a pot of cold water and turn on the heat. Cook for 9 minutes, then drain and plunge into cold water. Peel and set aside.
  2. For the marinade, place all of the ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil. Allow to cool down completely.
  3. Place the eggs into a container and pour over the marinade so they are completely covered, and allow to marinate overnight.
  4. Remove the eggs from the marinade and pat dry.
  5. Place a bamboo steamer over a wok, wrapped in a kitchen towel. Light the camphor wood and place into the wok—there won’t be a lot of smoke, but the flavour will be strong. Be sure there is no flame. Add some cubes of ice to the wok, cover the steamer and smoke for 30 minutes.
  6. To serve, slice the eggs in half and place onto a plate. Shred the smoked fish and arrange on top of the egg yolk.

2. Mediterranean Scramble

By Bettina Arguelles, executive chef of Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel (Philippines)

Ingredients


For the chicken
1 chicken breast
2 tbsp greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
dash of paprika

For the eggs

4 egg whites, whisked to stiff peaks
30ml cream
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil

To serve
1 slice sourdough bread
olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful kale
chilli flakes (optional)
lemon juice

Method

  1. For the chicken, mix everything together well and marinate for at least one hour, and up to overnight.
  2. Grill the chicken until cooked through and tender. Set aside.
  3. Brush the sourdough bread with some olive oil. Grill to your liking, and set aside.
  4. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the minced garlic and kale and sauté until the leaves have wilted. Season to taste.
  5. For the eggs, heat up the cream and 10ml of extra virgin olive oil in a small nonstick pan. Season with salt and pepper. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites with a spatula. Once cooked through, remove from the heat.
  6. To serve, arrange the sautéed kale on top of the grilled sourdough bread. Slice the chicken breast and arrange on top of the kale. Top with the cloud eggs and garnish with chilli flakes, if using, as well as a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

3. Scrambled Eggs with Caramelised Onion and Sherry Vinegar 

Tatler Asia
Above Jason Tan brings sweet caramelised onions into a classic scramble (Photo: Jason Tan)

By Jason Tan, chef-owner of Restaurant Euphoria (Singapore)

Ingredients

10 organic eggs
40g cream 
40g unsalted butter 
sea salt, to taste 
freshly ground black pepper, to taste 
2 white onions 
10g sherry vinegar 
edible flowers and chopped chives, for garnishing

Method

  1. Put water in a bain-marie and let the water simmer until the temperature is about 70 degrees Celsius.
  2. Whisk the eggs and cream together in a mixing bowl.
  3. Place the mixing bowl on top of the bain-marie (ensuring the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and stir the mixture gently for 10 to 15 minutes. Make sure you scrape the base and sides of mixing bowl to achieve nicely textured scrambled eggs. Add in butter, salt and pepper.
  4. In a non-stick pan, caramelise thinly sliced onions, then deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar and reduce until it’s almost dry.
  5. Place the scrambled eggs on a shallow dish and garnish with caramelised onions, seasonal flowers and chives. Serve.

4. Turkish Eggs with Spicy Sausages, Garlic Yoghurt Spread

By Chai Chun Boon, chef of The Dining Room at Datai Langkawi (Malaysia)

“Turkish eggs, also known as Cilbir, is a comfort dish that I always wake up craving for on a lazy Sunday. It’s fast and quick to make, full of flavour and a dish that speaks volumes for its simplicity. It has definitely a dish that has trumped all the egg recipe repertoires that I’ve came across.

“Cilbir is traditionally poached eggs on a garlic yoghurt sauce with Aleppo butter. However for my rendition, I like to have it made into sunny side-up eggs with the addition of spicy sausages.”

Ingredients

4 fresh organic grade A eggs (preferably humane certified eggs)
2 x 100g spicy sausages (preferably natural casing with rough grind)
Toast (baguette or sourdough both work well )
50ml grapeseed oil or sunflower oil
parsley, for garnish

For the garlic yoghurt spread
1 cup Greek yogurt, at room temperature
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
1 pinch cayenne pepper 
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt or to taste

For the chilli butter
100g unsalted butter
¼ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp smoked Spanish sweet paprika
½-1 tbsp seedless bright chilli flakes (Korean or Japanese quality is consistent, bright coloured and perfect heat levels)

Method

  1. For the garlic yoghurt spread, combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season to taste. Spread some yoghurt over a plate.
  2. For the eggs, melt butter as needed to cover the surface of a non-stick pan on a medium-low heat. Crack the eggs into the pan and cook them gently over medium low till done to your liking. Slide the eggs above and within the circumference of the garlic yoghurt spread.
  3. Put the same pan used to fry the eggs over a medium high heat. Cut the spicy sausages into 20g or bite-sized pieces and pan-roast them until browned. The excess fat from frying the egg should be able to get the pan-roasting going, if not add some grapeseed oil or sunflower oil to assist on the cooking. Additionally, there should be substantial fat and flavour that’s released from well made sausages too that assist on the caramelisation of the sausages.
  4. Remove the sausages and put aside. Without cleaning the pan, melt butter on medium high heat to start the chilli butter recipe. Once the butter is melted and it starts to pop due to milk whey residue (liquid) within the butter being heated up with the presence of fat, it’s a sign to add in the spices to complete the butter recipe.
  5. Lastly add back the sausages and its resting juices, if any, into the butter to warm up before scooping them on to the eggs, spoon the hot butter all over the dish, sprinkle over parsley and serve with toast.

5. Fried Eggs and Omelettes

Chele González, chef of Gallery by Chele (Philippines)

“In Spain, we put an abundant amount of olive oil in a frypan, and when the oil is very hot we fry the egg (until the egg white gets toasted and crispy, which we called “puntillas”) but the egg yolk is runny. “Two eggs for me,” I would request from my mum.

Then, we slow-confit potatoes in olive oil, also. They become like fries but are cooked for a longer time so that it becomes crispy on the outside and very tender inside.

We then put the eggs on top of the potato and then we add whatever we have available at home—could be chorizo, sausages, jamon, mushrooms or, since I live in a cow region, flank or rump steak.

If I have to be the one who cooks, my mom likes tuna omelette. Open a high-quality tin of tuna preserved in olive oil, and mix with eggs. The key is that it has to be very runny inside, if not my mom would reject it.

For a big part of my life, I have eaten dinner with eggs like this for at least two to three nights a week, so it is very much part of my childhood.”

6. Spanish Omelette

By Corey Riches, chef of Bedu (Hong Kong)

 

Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil
3 Desiree potatos cut into 3-4mm slices
1 brown onion, thinly sliced
6 eggs
10g cumin powder
10g smoked paprika

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions while you cut the potato.
  2. Add the potato to the pan and cook for around 10-15 minutes—we're looking for both to be nicely caramelised.
  3. Break the eggs into a large bowl and set aside aside. 
  4. Strain the onion and potato and add to the egg mixture. Season salt and the dry spices. 
  5. Gently mix and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. 
  6. Heat a non-stick pan, add the egg, potato and onion mixture and cook on high for 1 minute. Turn down to a low heat and cook for a few more minutes until the omelette starts to get firm on the bottom.
  7. Flip and repeat. The omelette should have a gentle bounce.
  8. Serve to your taste—I like to serve mine with a garlicky and zesty labne and avocado on the side.

7. Stir-Fried Egg with Crab Meat

By Jacky Chung Chi Keung, Executive Chinese Chef, Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton Hong Kong Tung Chung (Hong Kong)

 

Ingredients

3 eggs
3g chicken powder
8g salt
3g sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp oil
80g bean sprouts
5g minced ginger
80g crab meat
5g shredded spring onion

Method

  1. Whisk together the eggs, chicken powder, 3g of the salt, sugar and cornstarch.
  2. Heat some oil in a pan and stir-fry the bean sprouts with minced ginger and remaining salt for 15 seconds. Remove from the pan.
  3. Quickly stir-fry the eggs with the crab meat, add back the bean sprouts, and cook until the colour of eggs turns golden. Tip: Stir-fry the egg in a circular motion in order to get a fine, mince-like texture.
  4. Garnish the dish with shredded spring onion.

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