Egg Jjim

Today, I will make a popular Korean steamed egg side-dish called gyeranjjim. It is very simple to make and delicious, so many Koreans like to eat this on a daily basis. It is simple to make, but it is not easy making it perfectly – if you want it soft, fluffy, and savory. It is very important to use the right ratio of ingredients and it is critical to control the cooking temperature and time for perfection. To share a great recipe with you, I made this recipe several times to get all of the measurements and times just right. So, you can just follow my instructions to get an amazing gyeramjjim. 🙂 Let’s get started.

Yield: 4 Servings

Short Korean Lesson

• GyeRan (계란) = Egg
• DalGyal (달걀) = Egg

Video Instructions

Main Ingredients:

• 6 Eggs (2 Pinches Salt & ¼ tsp Sugar)
• 1 tsp Green Onion
• ½ tsp Carrot

Broth Ingredients

• 1 Cup Water
• 2 Dried Kelp (1X1 inch)
• 1 tsp Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce (or ¼ Generous tsp Salt)

Directions

This is a small-sized Korean clay pot that I got at a Korean grocery store. You can also buy it on Amazon from the Korean Youtuber, crazykoreancooking. People gave the Korean clay pot many good reviews, so you can try it too. Anyway, this small-sized pot can contain about 3½ cups of water.

Pour 1 cup of water into the clay pot and put 2 (1 x 1 inch) pieces of dried kelp in it. The kelp will improve the flavor of the broth, but it is optional. Once the water starts to boil, cook it for about 2 minutes on high.

Break 6 eggs in a mixing bowl.

I don’t know about you, but I usually remove this white part attached to the egg yolk with a fork like this before cooking them.

Add 2 pinches of salt and ¼ tsp of sugar to the egg. Sugar really enhances the flavor of this dish.

Whisk the eggs thoroughly. If you whisk them hard enough, you will get some foam. That’s okay and it’s actually good for making fluffy steamed eggs.

Strain the egg mixture with a strainer to get a smoother texture. Set it aside for a while.

Finely chop about 1 tsp worth of green onion and ½ tsp worth of carrot. We are going to use these colorful vegetables as garnish. Of course, if you like the flavors in your steamed eggs, you can add more.

We also need some kind of lid to cover the clay pot. You can use the clay pot lid, or you can use any kind of bowl like this stainless mixing bowl to cover the clay pot later. Just make sure to use a dome-shaped bowl, so that you will have some space for the steamed egg to expand.

After 2 minutes, discard the kelp.

Then season the broth with 1 tsp of fish sauce. Fish sauce gives very good flavor to the dish. I used this Three Crabs Brand fish sauce for this recipe. However, if you don’t have fish sauce, you can season the broth with ¼ – ½ tsp of salt. For me, a ¼ generous tsp of salt was good.

Once it stars to boil again, pour the egg mixture into the broth.

Stir it gently and cook it for about 1 minute on high.

After 1 minute, reduce the temperature to medium and cook for about 4 more minutes. Occasionally, stir it so that it doesn’t burn to the bottom. You can see, as the time goes by, the egg mixture turns into chunks and it becomes stiffer to stir. This is your clue that it is almost done cooking.

When the egg is about 80% done cooking, which will be about 4 minutes later, quickly reduce the temperature to low. Then sprinkle the prepared carrot and green onion pieces on top.

Cover the egg with a lid or a bowl and let it finish cooking, which will be about 2 minutes later.

After 2 minutes, open the lid and you will see this beautiful, delicious looking fluffy steamed egg side-dish.

 

I love how soft the texture is and how much savory flavor it has. It is so simple to make this great Korean side-dish. Please try it someday and share your opinion about this recipe with us.