Egg Foo Yong - Retro Recipe Saturdays

Before I start today, I just want everyone to visit Emily at 52 Mantles: Thursdays are Your Days.  She is so sweet and kind to give me a huge Shout Out, and I am really appreciative.  Emily's blog 52 Mantels: is one I read every morning, and if you are not following her yet, I think it would be great if you did.  She has some really great posts.  Today's is an example Fabric Floral Embellished Onesie. I don't even have babies anymore, but this is just too darn cute.  Someone out there must have a baby to make this for.  Anyway,  I just wanted to make sure that I thanked Emily, and send a few of you her way, if you are not following her already.  By the way, she also has a great link party every Thursday.

Welcome to Retro Recipe Saturdays.  I was looking through my Aunt Char's cookbooks for something to cook for all of you today.  Something easy, fast, good and without having to do a full on grocery shopping, because it was 4:00 PM yesterday afternoon.  I decided on Egg Foo Yong from the Plain and Fancy Ways With Eggs cookbook, by the Poultry and Egg National Board, copyright was 1965.  It looked easy with just a few ingredients, the only thing that I needed to get was bean sprouts.  Easier said then done.  The recipe calls for canned bean sprouts, Safeway didn't have them.  Do they even still sell canned bean sprouts anymore?  I don't know.  Not at any of my grocery stores.  So I bought fresh alfalfa sprouts, and figured that Vitamin Cottage, my local health food store would have mung bean sprouts.  No such luck.  They didn't have any sprouts.  So this is a Chinese recipe with alfalfa sprouts.  If you can't go with the flow when cooking, then you are cooking you are out of luck.  So we have Egg Foo Yong made with alfalfa sprouts.  Different, but still good.   Oh, by the way, Safeway did have Mung Bean Sprouts, but they looked really bad, kind of brown and old, at least the alfalfa sprouts were pretty and green.

Also, as I was  trying to take pictures of  this recipe to do a tutorial, not such luck guys.  I forgot to put my sd card back in my camera.  It was still sitting in my computer, so I only have a picture of  the finished Egg Foo Yong on a plate with the gravy.  It figures, right?  At least it is an easy recipe.  Have fun!!!

Egg Foo Yong

Ingredients:
2 TB butter or margarine  - I used butter.  (No margarine in my house)
1 can  - 1 lb bean sprouts drained and liquid reserved ( I just used water in the gravy since I used fresh Alfalfa Sprouts.)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 TB finely chopped green pepper or parsley ( I used parsley0
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
4 eggs slightly beaten
vegetable oil for frying, at least 1/2 inch deep ( I used a nonstick skillet and Pam)

Directions

Melt butter or margarine in sauce pan.  Add bean sprouts, onion, celery, and green pepper or parsley; cook for about 5 minutes, until onion is transparent.  ( There should be little or no liquid left in the pan.)  Cool slightly.  Add salt and soy sauce to eggs; beat with fork until well blended.  Combine cooled vegetables and egg mixture.  Spoon about 1/4 of  the mixture into moderately hot oil spreading to form a cake 5 inches in diameter.  Any of the egg that runs out of the cake can be pushed back into the cake.  Cook until brown, about 4 minutes on each side.  Carefully turning once with a pancake turner and a fork.  Drain and serve with or without sauce.

Makes 4  5 inch cakes.

Sauce:

1 TB cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup juice from canned bean sprouts.  ( I just used 3/4 cup water)
1/4 cup soy sauce

Directions:

Stir cornstarch, sugar, and juice (or water).  Cook stirring constantly until clear and uniformly thickened.  Add soy sauce; serve hot with Egg Foo Yong

Makes 1 cup sauce

Now, I need to be totally honest about the recipe.  It was good, but not one of those recipe that you say, I want to eat all of it.  I like Asian food, but I am not a huge fan.  So this is a good recipe, and if you like Asian food you will like this recipe.  I would also really try to find mung bean sprouts instead of alfalfa sprouts, that may make a huge difference.  Remember this recipe is from 1965, so canned bean sprouts maybe harder to find today.

Let me know what you think of this recipe.  I love to hear your comments, and I always love hearing from you.

Enjoy!!!
Debi  

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