Sha cha with egg yolk

Ingredientsserves 1

Method

1. First, the plain fact: Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety advises everyone, not only children or older people, against dipping food in raw egg. So this saucer starts with a fully cooked yolk; the traditional raw yolk is step five, only for adults who know the risk and use eggs pasteurised in the shell.
2. The cooked yolk: boil an egg for ten minutes, until the yolk and white are set right through, peel it and mash the yolk.
3. Spoon two tablespoons of sha cha into the saucer and stir in the yolk; add a teaspoon of light soy if you want it saltier, and a little spring onion. Or leave the egg out and loosen the sha cha with a spoonful of the boiling broth; it is just as smooth.
4. This is for shaved beef: cook a slice, lift it out of the pot and dip it at once, while it is hot. Everyone uses their own saucer and nobody shares one. Chopsticks that have held raw meat never touch it, and nothing that has touched the raw meat is dipped back in.
5. The traditional raw yolk: use only eggs pasteurised in the shell, and never a cracked or dirty egg. Not for pregnant women, children under five, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Take the egg out of the fridge only when you are about to eat, crack it over your own saucer, keep only the yolk and stir it into the sha cha.
6. Finish the egg sauce that night and throw away what is left; it never goes back in the fridge. Only a clean, dry spoon goes into the sha cha jar, and the jar goes back in the fridge with its lid on.

Take care

• Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety advises everyone against dipping food in raw egg, because raw egg can carry Salmonella, so this saucer is made with a fully cooked yolk. If you use a raw yolk, use only eggs pasteurised in the shell and never a cracked or dirty one; it is never for pregnant women, children under five, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system.
• Everyone uses their own saucer and nobody shares one; chopsticks that have held raw meat never touch it, and nothing that has touched the raw meat is dipped back in. Leftover egg sauce is thrown away that night.
• Contains egg; sha cha contains fish, shrimp (a crustacean), soy and sesame, and some brands contain peanut; light soy contains wheat (gluten).

The story

Sha cha stirred with a raw yolk is a habit from Taiwan's sha cha hotpot, and plenty of Hong Kong hotpot regulars eat it that way. Now that the risk of raw egg is better known, more families use a fully cooked yolk instead, or loosen the sha cha with a spoonful of boiling broth.

Same kind

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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.