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Friday, February 22, 2013

Century egg or pidan also known as ...

Century egg or pidan also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, and millennium egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.
Through the process, the yolk becomes a dark green to grey color, with a creamy consistency and an odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, translucent jelly with little flavor.
Century eggs can be eaten without further preparation, on their own or as a side dish. In hors d'Ĺ“uvre a Cantonese wrap where chunks of this egg with slices of pickled ginger root is sometimes sold on a stick as street food.
Few food facts..
1 Iron eggs is a speciality egg-based dish from Taiwan.
2 Tea egg is a typical Asian savory food commonly sold as a snack. It is also known as marble egg because cracks in the egg shell create darkened lines with marble-like patterns. Commonly sold by street vendors or in night markets in most Chinese communities throughout the world.
3 A soy egg is a type of Chinese egg cooked in soy sauce, sugar, water, as well as other optional herbs and spices.
4 Chinese red eggs are bright pink colored cooked chicken eggs. The eggs are first hard boiled and then with a wet red calligraphy paper which is smeared all over the eggs to create a pink coloring.
In Chinese culture, it is common to find at the baby´s first birthday a bowl of brightly colored cooked chicken eggs on the guests´buffet or serving tables.
When we hear of "thousand year old egg" what comes to our mind is fossil or a recent scientific discovery.
But those who are familiar with Chinese cuisine know it's a type of food.
The thousand year old egg, also known as the century egg or the hundred year old egg, is actually more like the hundred day old egg, since it only takes that amount of time to make.
How is it done?
It is a regular egg (which could be from a chicken, duck, or goose) is covered with a coating of lime, ashes, and salt and then buried in a shallow hole for roughly 100 days. 
When the egg is uncovered and cleaned, it could keep fresh at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or a full month refrigerated.

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