Seared Zucchini and Scallion Eggs (Inspiration from Korean Restaurant's Banchan Selection)

This recipe was created with the memory from my last trip to Vegas. If you ever dine at a Korean restaurant then you'll notice plates after plates of refillable simple appetizers taken over the entire table. Banchan, the general name for all the small and yummy dishes that serve on the side of main meal. Typically you'll see items like assorted kimchi, stewed potatoes, fish cakes, and some type of sesame oil and salt marinated vegetables. On a higher scale, you might find marinated seafood and stewed beef tendon as your banchan selection.

However, the Korean joint in Vegas was serving some kind of seared eggs with zucchini encased inside. The dish has a slight touch of sesame oil and tastes even better when I dumped a spoonful of kimchi on top. Since I'm now far away from Vegas, why not recreate this dish with the memory from my palate?

Seared zucchini and scallion eggs -

Ingredients?

• 2 eggs
• 1 zucchini
• 1 stalk of scallion
• 1 big pinch of sea salt
• Some olive oil
• Some sesame oil
• Some white pepper powder
• Some Sriracha sauce
• Optional - cilantro
• Optional - kimchi

How?

Chop off the very top and bottom ends from the zucchini. Slice the remaining section, about 2 mm in width. Discard the stem from the scallion and chop the remaining into smaller pieces.

Break two eggs into a big bowl. Add in one big pinch of sea salt, some white pepper powder, and chopped scallion. Beat well and set aside for later use.

Drizzle some olive oil and sesame oil to the pan, about 3 to 1 ratio. Usually I'll say drizzle enough oil to evenly coat the bottom of the pan. However, this time drizzle enough oil to coat the bottom plus about 1 more tablespoon of the oil mixture. Both eggs and zucchini can suck in a lot of oil and that's why this recipe calls for more oil.

Turn to medium high heat and evenly lay the zucchini slices on the bottom. I used about 14 zucchini slices here. Just make sure all the slices are in contact with the oil, otherwise you might end up with uncooked zucchini slices on the edges.

Sear for about one minute, flip all slices to the other side and sear for another minute. Pour in the egg mixture and just wait till the mixture settles a little bit. Press the eggs down with a spatula, making sure the zucchini slices are "encased" inside the egg mixture. Carefully flip the whole seared eggs when it's about 70% cooked through.

It might be a wee bit tricky to successfully flip the seared eggs. Well, there's always a way to go around it. Just slide the eggs onto a big plate first. Take another plate to cover the eggs. Hold both plates and flip it the other way around, like how you do it with turnover cakes. So now you'll see the already seared side on the top, just carefully slide the eggs back to the pan to finish searing the uncooked side, about another minute or two or till the bottom turns slightly browned.

I cup the eggs in half to fit into my rectangular shaped plate -

You can serve it with some Sriracha sauce and top the eggs with chopped cilantro. To make it even better, simply dump a big spoonful of kimchi over the eggs. The acidity and spicy kick from the kimchi will definitely bring the flavors of this side dish to another level.

Other Asian side dish recipes:

• Chinese cold dish using chicken, cucumber, bean sprouts, and lots of appetizing seasonings
• Baked/roasted pork belly
• Garlicky eggplants stir fry with scallops X.O. sauce