Smooth, creamy, warming, comforting and quietly good tasting - that is a food to die for, is it not? One of my personal favorites in this category of comfort foods is the Chinese Steamed Egg Custard or 蒸蛋, which most Chinese probably grew up eating at the family table.
But come the time for me to make it by myself in my own grown-up little kitchen, I discovered to my dismay that this deceptively humble little dish is much more elusive than its simple appearance warrants. I made it again and again, but alas could not achieve the glass like smoothness that should have been.
Confused, I thought longingly back to my Grandma, seeing her in my mind's eye as she casually whipped this dish together: me, helping to stir the eggs, Grandma adding the water and salt by eye and then lowering the bowl into our old beat up rice cooker that still required water to be added around the cooking container. And then, presto!, the perfect steamed egg custard time after time. I didn't even know that there were other steamed egg textures possible! But then, there you go, that's Grandma magic for you.
