Claypot rice with beef and egg

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Rinse and soak the rice half an hour, then drain. Bruise the ginger and one spring onion and steep them in two tablespoons of water for ten minutes.
2. Work the ginger water into the mince a little at a time, stirring one way until it turns tacky, then add the light soy, sugar, chicken powder, Worcestershire, white pepper and starch, throw it against the bowl a few times, and seal with a tablespoon of oil last; fold in the onion and garlic and leave twenty minutes.
3. Rice, the same volume of water, a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt into the pot; lid on, medium-high to the boil, then medium-low five to eight minutes until the surface is pitted and nearly dry.
4. Spread the beef in one thin, even layer over the rice and press two shallow hollows in the middle. Lid on, lowest heat ten minutes.
5. With three minutes of the low heat left, crack the eggs into the hollows and put the lid back so they steam until the whites are set and the yolks just cooked; the mince must be cooked through, grey-brown with no pink left. The cha chaan teng original cracks a raw egg in at the end and lets the heat of the rice set only the edges of the white, which does not cook the egg through; for children, older people, pregnant women or anyone with a weak immune system, steam the egg until firm.
6. Pour a tablespoon of oil round the rim, medium-high heat, rotate the pot ten to fifteen seconds a side, four or five turns, until it smells of toast. On an induction or ceramic hob use a 16 to 20 cm heavy cast-iron pot instead of a claypot: drop to the lowest setting the moment it boils, do not tilt or spin the pot, and at the end turn up to medium for two to three minutes until it crackles and smells of toast, then off; the crust forms across the base only, thinner and more even.
7. Off the heat, lid on, rest five to eight minutes; on a ceramic hob move the pot off the element. Scatter the spring onion, boil the pot soy (three tablespoons of light soy, the dark soy, two teaspoons of sugar and two tablespoons of water) and pour it over at the table, then stir from the bottom up so the egg, beef and crust come together.

Take care

• Raw or lightly cooked egg 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 residual heat of the rice does not cook the egg through. Beef mince must be cooked through. The soy contains soy and wheat; Worcestershire contains fish (anchovy) and soy.

The story

The nested egg is a cha chaan teng signature, the same egg that sits on minced beef rice and on beef with silky egg. The claypot rice shops took that lunch-counter plate and put it over a crust in a claypot, and it became this dish. The Worcestershire in the mince is the cha chaan teng's touch, and the thing that separates it from an ordinary meat sauce.

Same technique

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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.