Salted Egg Yolk Cornflakes (CRISPY)

A wooden spoon full of crunchy salted egg yolk cereal.

5 from 5 votes

Salted Egg Yolk Cornflakes (CRISPY)

1 of the most popular Chinese New Year snacks in Singapore, it is also 1 of the easiest and quickest to make, requiring only 4-6 ingredients.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: Chinese, Fusion, singaporean, Southeast Asian

Servings:

Calories: 214kcal

Author: Zen

Equipment

steamer Substitute: pot
Fork or grater Not needed if you use salted egg powder
Frying pan and heat proof spatula
Baking tray and parchment paper or Silpat If baking the cornflakes to a crisp

Ingredients

For the Salted Egg Sauce

3½ Tablespoons unsalted butter (50g or 1.8 oz) You can use salted butter as an alternative, just don't add any salt later. However, keep in mind every brand adds different amounts of salt so it's difficult to control the salt level in that case
5 sprigs curry leaves washed well and plucked off the stem. I didn't dry my leaves but, if you don't, there may be some splatter when you add them to the butter
1 teaspoon chilli flakes/ powder or to taste. I didn't make them super spicy as a lot of kids like to eat this. You may want to add more if you like chilli. If you don't have chilli powder/ flakes, slice up a few small red chillies (chilli padi/ bird's eye chilli) instead but make sure you cook off the moisture- remember to remove the seeds if you don't want it super hot. Also, don't touch your eyes after handling the chillies!
1-1½ Tablespoons white caster sugar or to taste. If you change the amount of chilli, you will need to change the amount of sugar as well, for the sauce to be balanced. Substitute: white granulated sugar
3 salted egg yolks preferably steamed, if not boiled works. For conscientious cooks, grate the yolks to get them super fine. I just mash mine well with a fork but it's almost impossible to get a smooth sauce as there will be yolky lumps. An easier way is to substitute with 36g/ 1.27oz of Knorr's salted egg powder- no more lumpy sauce!
½-¾ teaspoons salt or to taste. Some yolks are saltier than others- it depends on how long they've been brined for- so taste the sauce before adding the salt.

Crispy Salted Egg Yolk Cornflakes

2½ C cornflakes, unsweetened If you use sweetened cornflakes, don't add the sugar! Note the weight of cornflakes per cup may vary depending on their shape so feel free to add more or less.

Instructions

Preparing the eggs

Pre-heat your oven to 350F/177C/160C fan
If your eggs come cooked, separate the yolks and whites.
Note: Keep the yolks and use the whites for other recipes (suggestions on how to use salted egg whites in this link)
If uncooked, crack the egg and steam only the yolks for 10 minutes. (If you steam/ boil the entire thing, it can be difficult to separate the 2 cleanly and some precious yolk is wasted.)
Either grate or mash the yolks finely with a fork then set aside. Grating gives you a smoother sauce.
Note: If you don't have salted eggs, you can use the powder instead. My recommendation is Knorrs salted egg powder (they're not paying me FYI) as it comes unseasoned and is made with real eggs- use 36g/ 1.27oz to substitute for 3 yolks)
Alternatively, the quickest way is to DIY salted eggs is to cover raw egg yolk (duck or chicken) with salt and cure for 4-8 hours in the fridge, then treat it like a regular salted egg yolk.

Cooking the Salted Egg Sauce

Wash the curry leaves well and pluck the leaves off the stem. Don't discard the stems. Dry the leaves to avoid oil splatter later.
Heat the pan on medium, then add the unsalted butter. When melted, add the curry leaves and chilli powder. Stir-fry till aromatic, about 30 seconds. (Be careful not to let the chili burn!)
Increase the heat to medium-high a,dd the mashed salted egg yolks, stirring continuously. The sauce will froth and bubble.
Add the sugar and taste. If it's not salty enough, add the salt.
Once frothy, add the cornflakes and gently stir, trying not to crush any of the cereal. Stir till well-mixed. Some people like to stir fry till the sauce is a bit drier but I prefer to pop mine in the oven as it's more efficient (see below.)

Drying the cornflakes in the oven

Put parchment paper or Silpat on a baking tray and spread out the cornflakes and curry leaves. I used 2 as I don't like to crowd the cornflakes- this helps them to crisp up faster and avoid steaming.
Leave the cornflakes in the oven for 5 minutes, then turn the tray around and stir the cornflakes. This is to avoid any burning as ovens have hot spots. Leave the cornflakes in for another 3 minutes before checking the colour. They can take anything from 8-12 minutes (total time) to dry out- you will know they're done when the colour turns an amber brown. If you want to skip the turning and stirring, that's fine too but some cornflakes will be browner than others and not as presentable.
Note: to save energy, I sometimes pop the cereal in to dry when baking other stuff. You can also dry them for 7-8 minutes on 425F/ 218C but the cereal will burn quickly so you need to watch it!
When done, take the trays out, and allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container. (It is still a bit soft when hot but very crisp when cool!) Best to eat within 1 week but it may keep for longer.

Notes

If you like an extra creamy sauce you can add in milk powder (preferred) or 1-2 Tablespoons of evaporated milk (sub-optimal as it'll take slightly longer to crisp up the cornflakes in an oven.)

Different egg yolks have different weights- my 3 yolks came up to 53g FYI. Make sure the shells aren't cracked- toss any cracked ones.

Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its accuracy.

Nutrition