Who loves salted egg dishes?
Salted egg chicken, salted egg prawns, salted egg crabs … drool! Savoury, sweet and creamy, it lends an instant moreish luxe to anything it’s added to. But I’ve not thought about cooking it with pumpkin until I watched Cooking Ah Pa’s Youtube video.
It all started when I had a wedge of pumpkin that I bought from the weekly farmer’s market RexKL. I’d already made pumpkin curry with half of it, and wanted a different dish so I googled pumpkin recipes online.
One of the first hits was a salted egg pumpkin recipe by Cooking Ah Pa. I watched a few more videos cooking the same dish for comparison, like I always do, but I went back to the one by Cooking Ah Pa because of a clever hack at the end.
Instead of using salt, you season the dish by crumbling the whites from the egg on top. Bonus: this minimizes food wastage because typically when we cook salted egg dishes, we use only the yolk and end up discarding the whites.
This recipe is super easy. You start by coating the pumpkin cubes in a thin coating of cornflour and then fry it in oil. As pumpkin cooks fast, you end up with flesh that’s soft and creamy wrapped in a light crispy crust. The pumpkin is already super delicious on its own but when you toss it in that creamy sauce … totally next level! Who says plant-based foods are boring?
If you want something that’s luxurious while staying on the good side of healthy, I highly recommend this recipe. It’s great with white rice; hubs and I loved it so much and I see it appearing on our menu again, very soon!
Salted Egg Pumpkin
Equipment
- Wok or any pot deep enough to deepfry
Ingredients
- 1/2 small pumpkin, cut into cubes
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 2 salted duck eggs
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- oil for frying
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, then put in salted duck eggs and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from water, scoop out egg yolks and mash until you get a smooth crumbly paste.Scoop out the whites from one egg and crumble it.
- Toss the pumpkin cubes in cornflour until lightly coated.
- Heat up oil in a pot. Once hot, put in cornflour-coated pumpkin cubes and fry for 2-3 minutes. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
- Heat up 2-3 tbsp oil in a wok or pan. Add in curry leaves and mashed egg yolk. Wait for egg yolk to start foaming.
- Now add pumpkin cubes and toss until well coated. Sprinkle crumbled egg white and serve.
Notes
- The egg whites will provide sufficient saltiness, so there is no need to add additional salt.
- For additional crunch, you can sprinkle the dish with other umami toppings such as crispy dried prawns, fried shallots, etc.
For other plant-based recipes, try this scrumptious potato salad with roasted bell peppers.
Alexandra Wong is a Malaysian food writer, recipe developer and the author behind Cook With Ipohbunny. She shares practical family recipes, restaurant recreations and home-cooking tips inspired by Malaysian Chinese cuisine.