There’s all kinds of reasons why the combination of Salted Duck Egg, Marrow and Pork don’t quite seem right, but when my ma made this for me a few weeks ago, it was so scrummy I just had to share this with you. It has vegetable, dairy and meat. It’s a clear soup with lots of chunk to it – it’s quite filling and refreshing too.
Additionally, it’s quite salty (hence the salted duck egg!). You could use regular egg if salty is not your thing.
Speaking of salted duck egg, my mum preserves her own (she said she will show me how to do this) otherwise you can just buy it from the Chinese supermarket. You will notice the shell has a blue-ish tinge and preserved eggs may be covered in charcoal or ash. You just wash this layer off.
Additionally, salted duck eggs are high in iron, calcium and zinc and have more protein than regular eggs but you can’t have it all the time – it’s super salty after all so you shouldn’t have it too often!
First of you need a marrow. One of my Nana’s neighbours, a lovely German lady grows these so gifted us with some:
A meat cleaver! Get one! They look scary but if you can get one from Chinatown. Get a sharpener too – they’re cheap from the Chinese supermarket.
You need to peel the marrow – lovingly – top and tail it, then half it.
Then scoop out the middle, which has seeds:
Cut these into chunks:
Put the marrow to one side for now.
Prepare the eggs (2 of them). Crack them into a bowl. The yolk in a salted duck egg is solid and reminds me of a glace cherry. Pick it out and cut the yolk into smaller pieces (about 4).
Get your meat (we used pork – you can use chicken) cut into bite sized pieces.
Presuming your meat is clean (ie. free from blood) you can then add this to some water. Boil it, get it cooked (it will turn white).
Add the marrow to this mix. Notice the dramatic dropping marrow:
Finally throw in the chopped egg yolk and the egg white. When you drop it in, make sure you give it a swirl too so you get that sort of silken egg effect.
It looks like that:
Add a dash of white pepper. You don’t need to add any salt.
Serve this. The salty egg, refreshing marrow and pork is a really comforting mix, but it’s the perfect soup for warmer temperatures too. It’s unusual but super tasty.
Let me know if you try this – what did you think?
My mum makes this, but without the salted duck egg, and with carrots to make it sweeter, and it’s one of my all-time favourite comfort foods, especially when the marrow is all mushy. I’m definitely gonna try adding an egg in next time! Have you ever tried making it with “shark fin marrow” (literal translation of the Chinese, it’s another sort of marrow/melon, but the marrow flesh is similar to shark fin texture, don’t know if you have ever tried it?), my friend’s mum grows these and it makes the texture of the soup even better!