Steamed Eggs

Ingredients

• 1 whole egg
• salt
• jiang (fermented bean paste)
• tea leaves

Instructions

1. Shell the eggs and place them in a bowl. Use a bamboo chopstick to beat the eggs one thousand times, then steam. This method yields an extraordinarily tender texture—for eggs grow tough if boiled once, yet paradoxically become tender again after thousand-fold beating.
2. If cooking eggs with tea leaves, simmer until two incense sticks have burned down completely.
3. Season with salt according to quantity: for one hundred eggs, add one tael; for fifty eggs, add five qian. Alternatively, simmer the eggs with jiang (fermented bean paste) instead of salt—this is also acceptable.
4. For other preparations: the eggs may be fried or stir-fried as desired. One may also mince yellow sparrow (small bird) and steam it together with the eggs, which is equally fine.