Using Egg Yolks in Chinese Dishes?

[sheetz]

I'm trying to plan a dinner menu and a lot of recipes require the use of egg whites while on the other hand there are very few which require the use of egg yolks. Normally I would just use the yolks in a custard or lemon curd but I was hoping to maybe incorporate the yolks somewhere into the menu this time. I know they could be added to fried rice and I've seen one recipe where yolks are used in a dessert soup, but beyond that I'm sort of at a loss. What do those huge Cantonese restaurants who use gallons of egg whites every day in soups and marinades do with all the yolks?

[Kent Wang]

Egg tarts. The dimsum kind. Those always seem very yellow and the best ones (e.g. from Lillian Cake Shop in Shanghai) have a very eggy flavor, leading me to believe that they're all egg yolk.

[Keith_W]

Hi Kent, a friend of mine who owns a cake shop says that egg tarts are made with duck egg - for superior flavour and to stop the egg tarts from developing cracks when they have to sit in a display window for more than an hour.

But I think you have the right idea - suggesting a custard. One of my favourite childhood foods is a savoury steamed egg custard with minced pork, salted eggs, and century eggs. I am sure the mere mention of this dish will provoke recognition amongst all those who were brought up with Cantonese cuisine among us We used to make it with whole eggs, but there is no reason why you couldn't make it with a mixture of whole eggs and egg yolks.

[Lisa Shock]

Commercial operations tend to save time by buying cartons of whites or yolks as needed. They are faster and have less labor costs because there's no time taken to crack and separate.

[Dejah]

Poaching the yolks gently until just firm would be great in a dessert soup.

I've never done this, but I wonder if it would be possible to salt the yolks and save for zongzi? I picture laying the yolks on a bed of coarse salt, then covering the top, gently, with a layer of fine salt so as to not break the thin covering? You'd have to keep it covered and in the fridge, but might be worth a try if you have too many yolks.

[dcarch]

Modified Golden Sand Shrimp?

dcarch

[sheetz]

Thanks for the suggestions! Right now I'm learning towards the steamed custard. It hadn't occurred to me because my mom always used salted duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. I even did a search and found hzrt8w's pictorial.

[Darienne]

Of course I could always give them to the pups, but I do have a lovely basic cake recipe which calls for 3 large eggs and 3 large egg yolks. It comes from One Cake, One Hundred Desserts .