Fresh shiitake & salmon scrambled eggs on toast
Salmon and fresh shiitake scrambled with soft eggs and piled onto wholemeal toast — a warming start to a changeable spring day.
- 18 min
- Serves 2
- Stir-fry
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yang Deficiency means feeling the cold, with cold hands and feet, and Awakening of Insects brings sudden temperature swings on top of chilly air-conditioning. Spring is the time to nurture yang as it rises: salmon, ginger and black pepper warm the stomach and dispel cold, while shiitake and eggs keep the dish nourishing rather than drying.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 8 min- 1Pat the salmon dry with kitchen paper, cut it into 2 cm cubes and season with a little salt and black pepper. Wipe the shiitake clean with damp kitchen paper and slice them.
- 2Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Toast the bread until crisp.
- 3Heat the wok, add the oil and fry the ginger until fragrant. Stir-fry the shiitake for 1 minute, then add the salmon and toss gently for 2 minutes until it changes colour.
- 4Turn the heat to low, pour in the eggs and push them gently with a spatula. When half set, turn off the heat, let the residual heat finish them, then pile onto the toast and grind over a little more black pepper.
Cautions
- Avoid if you are allergic to fish; diced chicken works instead.
Chef's tips
- Take the salmon off the heat as soon as it turns opaque and is just cooked through — overcooked, it turns tough.
- Don't soak fresh shiitake; just wipe them clean so they don't turn watery in the wok.
The TCM view
Salmon is sweet and warm, warming the stomach and building strength; ginger is pungent and warm and black pepper pungent and hot, warming the middle and dispelling cold; fresh shiitake is sweet and neutral and strengthens the spleen; eggs are sweet and neutral and nourish yin, balancing the pungent warmth. Warming foods on a neutral base follow the rising yang of this term, warming you without fuelling liver fire.
