(This post was first published June 8, 2016.)
Egg Beranda was and still is one of our favourite Nyonya dishes. The ingredients are cheap and cheerful and so easy to make. We (my brothers and sisters) had them regularly and then one fine day we realised that mum wasn’t making that anymore. We were adults when we realised that. As we were all grown up, we requested mum to cook that dish when we return home for visits. Alas, it wasn’t as tasty as we anticipated. So we decided that we should all learn to cook it properly.
I am currently enjoying it regularly as I have revived it years ago.
It is called egg belanda or telur belanda or telur beranda. I used to think that it is cooked the Dutch way, as Belanda means Dutch in the Malay language.
I did some research as found out that beranda or belanda style of cooking means cooked in a sweet, salty and sour sauce . In the Penang area, it is usually cooked in tamarind to get the sour taste. The sweet taste comes from the added sugar and the salty taste from the salted fish.
Mergui Salted fish is the salted fish of choice. It originates from Burma or Myanmar. The recipe call for 75g, but if you like, you can increase it to 100g.
This dish is best served with rice.
You can get tamarind here in the page.
For salted fish, used by Malaysian, I cannot find it in Amazon, but there are other types available.
Egg Beranda
Equipment
- Frying pan
- Spatula
- sieve
- Heat proof bowl or container to hold the sieve
Ingredients
- 6 Large eggs fried half-moon
- 75 g Salted fish cut to cubes or thin slices
- 2 Onions, medium cut into rings
- 4 cloves Garlic use fat ones – sliced length wise thinly
- 1 Green / red chili cut into chunks – roll cut
- 1 Medium carrot cut into fancy shape
- 30 g Tamarind paste mixed 50 ml water to extract the juice, or, ¼ to 1/2 tsp tamarind Concentrate mixed with 50 ml water.
- 300 to 400 ml water Add more if you wish
- 1 tbsp Sugar, or to taste
- 2 shakes White pepper powder
- 1 swirl light soy sauce
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a non-stick pan, spray with some oil (or use 2 tbsp of oil) and crack in the egg. When the egg white is set at the bottom, fold the egg into half so that it forms a ‘half-moon’ shape. The egg yolk should be in the centre. Leave it to set and gently flip it, so that the egg is evenly cooked, while still soft.
- Remove from pan and set aside. Repeat for all the eggs.
- Top up the oil to about 1cm.
- Fry the salted fish in the hot oil till crisp. Dish out and set aside.
- Pour out the oil and wipe the pan.
- Add in the onions and garlic and fry for 2-3minutes.
- Add in the carrots and toss for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the tamarind water, eggs, salted fish,
- Pour in enough water to cover the eggs. Bring to the boil and simmer for 4-5 minutes for the flavour to seep through; when the onion is soft.
- Put in the chili and stir and check for taste.
- Add a swirl of light soy sauce.
- Dish out and finish with a dash of pepper.
- Garnish with chopped spring onions or chopped coriander.
- Sieve with rice and other accompaniments.
