Book Excerpt: Jia Sixie’s Scrambled Eggs from The Illustrated Wok

This recipe appears in all its glory in The Illustrated Wok, a collection of Chinese-inspired recipes from all over the world that is each illustrated by a different artist. Copies are available worldwide from The Cleaver Quarterly‘s online store and select stores.

Jia Sixie’s Scrambled Eggs

Chef Hsiang Ju Lin

Recipe serves 2

• 1 cup Yang Jiang Preserved Beans with Ginger (or other brand of sun-dried fermented black beans)
• 1 tsp salt
• Shaoxing cooking wine
• 3 large eggs
• 3 stalks scallions (white part only), cut fine
• 3 tbsp sesame seed oil

Place the fermented black beans in a microwave-safe container. Add salt and enough Shaoxing cooking wine to barely cover the beans. Microwave for 2 minutes. Allow to cool.

(When stored in a container with a tight-fitting lid, the softened beans will keep at room temperature for at least a year.)

Beat together the eggs, scallions and 1tbsp of the softened black beans. Heat a cast-iron skillet, and add sesame seed oil. When the oil is hot, add the egg mixture all at once and scramble the egg until it turns golden brown.

About the chef: Hsiang Ju Lin is a biochemist and pathologist who formerly worked at the University of Hong Kong and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She is also the daughter of Lin Yutang, the 20th century’s most celebrated interpreter of Chinese culture for Western audiences. With her mother, Tsuifeng Lin, she wrote Chinese Gastronomy, which later appeared as The Art of Chinese Cuisine. She is the author of Slippery Noodles, a culinary history of China.

Cover photo: Matt P Jager/The Cleaver Quarterly