Stir-fried Fresh Milk

Stir-fried Fresh Milk

　　Stir-fried Fresh Milk is a specialty from Daliang Subdistrict, Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province. This dish is primarily made from fresh milk, egg whites, and starch, and has a unique flavor. With its snowy white color, vibrant ingredients, delicate milky aroma, silky texture, and delicious taste, it is considered a unique delicacy of the Lingnan region.

　　Stir-fried Fresh Milk originated in Daliang Town, Shunde County, hence the name. The area around Daliang features many small hills and lush grasslands, where local water buffaloes are raised. Though the milk yield is low, the quality is high—with less water content and more fat, giving it a particularly rich and fragrant taste. This milk is used to make popular local treats such as cow milk cake and double-skinned milk, which have long been favored by food enthusiasts. Especially, Stir-fried Fresh Milk has earned fame both in China and abroad for its distinctive flavor.

　　Daliang, formerly known as Fengcheng, is a land of fish and rice, where people pay great attention to food, especially excelling at stir-frying and steaming various dishes—hence the saying “Fengcheng Stir-fries.” In 1932, when Shanghai’s New Ya Cantonese Restaurant first opened, it offered the dish “Stir-fried Fresh Milk.” At that time, the recipe was directly adapted from Guangdong practices: egg whites, fresh milk, and cornstarch were mixed and then directly stir-fried in a small pan of oil—a technique called “hard stir-frying.” But this method was quite challenging; a slight misstep in heat could burn the dish, making it tough, and it couldn’t be prepared in large batches. Renowned chefs at New Ya, such as Yin Jiu, Yin Guang, Shan Mingdao, and Jiang Jiefu, continuously experimented, breaking away from tradition and drawing inspiration from the technique used in “Hibiscus Chicken Slices.” They changed from “hard stir-frying” to “soft stir-frying,” placing the well-mixed egg and milk batter into a larger pan of warm oil, letting it set naturally before draining and stir-frying. This resulted in a fresh milk dish with a clean white color and a soft, tofu-like texture. As a result, this method quickly gained popularity in Shanghai. With its light flavor and rich milky taste, this dish has remained beloved by diners.

　　Daliang is a land of beautiful scenery, home to a particularly fine breed of dairy cattle. Their milk has low water content, high purity, rich nutrition, and is slightly thicker than milk from other regions, offering an exceptionally pure and aromatic taste that’s smooth and delicious on the palate. Although the yield is not high, the quality is outstanding. Stir-fried Fresh Milk is a dish that requires precise cooking—once prepared, it must neither break nor burn, maintaining a snowy white appearance and a silky-smooth texture. It’s truly excellent. This dish has long been recognized as one of Guangdong’s famous specialties. In its preparation, Stir-fried Fresh Milk uses ingredients such as fresh milk, egg whites, shrimp, ham, chicken liver, crab meat, and fried olive seeds. Since I don’t have chicken liver, crab meat, or olive seeds at home, I’ve omitted them for now. Today, I’m using pine nuts instead of olive seeds, along with shrimp and Jinhua ham—the flavor still turns out quite good.