All café dishes › Rice plates and baked rice
Minced beef rice with egg
窩蛋牛肉飯
“A plate of rice and a bowl of soup. Eat first, work after.”
Ingredientsserves 2
雜貨舖Cornflour· cornflour; the tablespoon for the marinade, 2 tsp in water for the gravy1 tbsp plus 2 tsp
街市Chicken egg (hard-boiled)· beaten and stirred into the gravy; the café's 窩蛋 version uses them whole and raw2
Method
- Work a tablespoon of soy, a teaspoon of sugar, the tablespoon of cornflour, three tablespoons of water and the white pepper into the mince with chopsticks, stirring in one direction until it is sticky and the water is absorbed; seal with a tablespoon of oil and rest twenty minutes. The water is the café's trick, and it is what keeps the mince loose and juicy.
- Heat the wok hard, add two tablespoons of oil, spread the mince flat and leave it thirty seconds to brown underneath, then break it into small crumbs and fry two minutes until no pink remains.
- Add the onion, ginger and garlic and fry one minute.
- Pour in the stock, oyster sauce, the teaspoon of soy, the dark soy and the half teaspoon of sugar; boil one minute. Stir two teaspoons of cornflour into two tablespoons of water and pour it in slowly, until the gravy is thick but still pours.
- Heat off. Pour the beaten eggs in a thin stream while stirring slowly, so they set in soft ribbons through the gravy rather than scrambling; that is the 滑蛋. A few drops of sesame oil.
- Rice on the plate, beef and gravy over, spring onion on top. The café original is the 窩蛋: a well made in the hot beef on the plate and a raw egg broken into it, stirred through by the diner at the table; see the caution on raw egg below.
Take care
- Contains soy and wheat (soy sauce, oyster sauce), mollusc (oyster sauce), egg and sesame. Mince must be cooked through, with no pink left at step two. The raw egg of the 窩蛋 version carries a Salmonella risk: Australian food-safety advice is that pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system should not eat raw or runny egg, and that their eggs be cooked until white and yolk are firm; the heat of the beef does not cook the egg through.
The story
Minced beef rice is the cheapest, fastest plate on the café board and the one Hong Kong people abroad make first, because mince, an egg and a bottle of oyster sauce are in every kitchen on earth. The minced-beef family comes three ways: 窩蛋 with a raw yolk (the café original), 滑蛋 with the egg stirred into the gravy, and 生菜牛肉 with lettuce and no egg. The yolk on the 窩蛋 is the same one that goes on 窩蛋牛肉煲仔飯, the same idea in a claypot.
Same counter
Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.