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Stir-fry eggs with tomatoes (西红柿炒鸡蛋)

April 11th, 2020

Prep: 15 minutes

Cooking: ~20 minutes, depending on how saucy you want your dish

Serves 4 (Adjust accordingly! You could add more tomatoes/more eggs depending on what you're feeling)

Eggs stir-fried with tomatoes. A classic Chinese home cooking dish! This is one of those dishes where ingredient quantity/cooking methods depend a lot on personal preference. So adjust according to how you like it! The recipe here is how I've always made it and how my 阿姨 used to make it back at home!
EDIT (230423): I've recently been really into this recipe for tomato and egg, so I've updated this recipe to take a few things from J. Kenji Lopez's recipe! Also note - the pictures are outdated! The new recipe has more ingredients!

The 3rd degree burns I'd get would be worth the shower I could take in this sauce

Method

1. Chop the tomatoes and garlic. For the tomatoes I chopped them into fourths and removed the stemmy portion. You could chop these smaller or keep them larger, depending on how you want your tomatoes in your final dish (do you want mushier tomatoes (smaller) or more solid pieces (larger)). Chop and dice garlic, chop spring onion into thin "coins", discarding the stem.

2. Make a cornstarch slurry by adding the cornstarch with equal parts water and mixing. Add your eggs, two tablespoons of the slurry, as well as the white pepper and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Beat the mixture until mixed and homogenous.

3. Add oil to your wok/pan and fry your eggs over medium heat. Keep pushing the cooked eggs around so that the uncooked eggs make contact with the bottom of the pan. I like to keep my eggs just slightly runny when I remove it from heat. Transfer to a plate for use later.

4. Oil your wok/pan once again and fry your chopped garlic and spring onions until fragrant under medium heat, about 30 seconds. Add your chopped tomatoes and stir fry until some of the juices run from the tomatoes, and turn down the heat to medium low. Add the ketchup, soy sauce, and a tablespoon or two of the cornstarch slurry, and continue stir frying and mixing. Add water according to how saucy you want your dish. Keep stewing on low/medium low for around 15-20 minutes, or even longer. The longer you stew the tomato, the more the flavor of the dish comes out. But if you stew it for too long, then your tomatoes become mush without any texture. It's a balance between the two.

5. Add the fried eggs with the stir fried tomatoes. Mix and continue letting the mix simmer until the water reduces to the desired consistency, about 5 minutes, or however mushy you want your tomatoes. Salt to taste and serve!

6. Enjoy on some rice! I made this along with some spinach and fried halloumi. I know this sounds weird but I eat fried halloumi with everything!

Ingredients
  • Tomatoes - 6 medium-to-small sized, I like Roma tomatoes for this
  • Medium eggs - 8
  • Garlic - 3 to 4 cloves
  • Spring onion - 2 shoots
  • Cooking oil - 3 tablespoons
  • Ketchup - 2 tablespoons
  • White pepper - 3/4 teaspoon (approx)
  • Cornstarch - 1 1/2 tablespoons
  • Salt - to taste
  • Light soy sauce - a dash (optional)
Tools
  • Frying pan
  • Mixing bowl
  • Cutting board + knife