I love eggs. I go through a dozen a week. Poached, fried, sunny side up, over easy, scrambled, hard boiled, soft boiled, omelettes, and steamed (think chawanmushi). One of my favorite dishes to get at Chinese restaurants is the scrambled eggs with shrimp.
When I was still living in Hong Kong (oh.....pre-1985), every time my family got take-outs there would always be scrambled eggs with shrimp. Besides the baked pork chop rice, the scrambled eggs with shrimp was probably my favorite thing to eat. It's a Cantonese classic dish and thankfully I can get some really tasty ones here in NY (and in LA). Ever since I learned how to cook for myself, I've been trying to replicate this dish but I can never get it right (texture and taste wise). My mom said the cooks add MSG to the dish and obviously uses a wok.
Check out my recipe for scrambled eggs with shrimp and peas. I use my mom's method of cooking eggs. Instead of using salt, she adds few squirts of Maggi seasoning and undercooks it so it doesn't dry out.
Serves 1
2 eggs 8 shrimp (Cause it's a lucky number?) Handful of peas (Or no peas if you hate peas) Salt and pepper Maggi seasoning (No Maggi? Try a splash of soy sauce)
Put a frying pan on medium flames and add oil to the pan. When the oil and pan are hot, add in the shrimp. While the pieces of shrimp are frying, crack 2 eggs into a bowl, add few dashes of the maggie seasoning and pepper. Beat and whisk the eggs till none of the egg whites are visible.
When the pieces of shrimp are pink, throw in the peas. Season with salt and pepper. Give the shrimp and peas a good stir and cook for another 30seconds. If the pan is a little dry, add some more oil.
Pour in the egg and let it sit on the pan for a moment. Let the egg set around the edge a bit before stirring it. Stir and turn the egg mixture until it's done but still a little bit runny. You want to leave it runny cause it'll keep cooking itself afterwards. You don't want dry scrambled eggs.
Other variations: My mom usually cooks eggs with just slices of plain onions or whitebait or yellow chives. They are all delicious.
Funny fact: When I was around 7, almost every morning my mom would make scrambled eggs over toast for me for breakfast before going to school. I'm not sure why but I remember hating it. BUT, when she makes it over the weekend, I couldn't get enough of it. Weird.