The basics: Tomatoes and eggs 番茄炒鸡蛋

[abcdefg]

Tomatoes and scrambled eggs 番茄炒鸡蛋 is one of those simple, "go-to" dishes that even newly-wed brides and bachelors with tiny efficiency kitchens can easily whip up. The ingredients are available in all parts of China from the rural deep south to the industrial frozen north. It can be served at breakfast as a meal by itself, or at supper as a side dish which furnishes both a vegetable and a protein colorfully combined. You will find some variations, but the fundamentals are pretty well established. I made it this morning; let me show you how it went.

 

Two large free-range eggs 土蛋 from Mr. Yang at the local market. Two small vine-ripened tomatoes 番茄 or 西红柿。Decided after starting that they were a little small, so I added a third one. One smashed and chopped garlic 大蒜/蒜茸。 I had a crisp stalk of celery 芹菜/西芹 left over from last night.  

 

 

 

 

A word about proportions 比例。Some cooks prefer a one-to-one balance of eggs and tomatoes, but most opt for having a little more tomato.

 

I usually add a bit of minced scallion 葱花, but this morning I didn't have any in the fridge. Sometimes I will use a small palm-full of pre-cooked green peas as a color and texture ingredient. Today the celery served a similar purpose. Whatever you add, it need to be just a small amount and mild of flavor so as to not overpower the other two "star" ingredients.

 

Remove the skin of the tomatoes by dipping them for half a minute or so in boiling water. Cool quickly under the tap and the skin will slip right off. This improves the texture of the finished dish as well as making the tomatoes release their juice more easily during the final sauté. But, truthfully, it isn't the end of the world if you omit this step.

 

 

Core and coarsely chop the peeled tomatoes.

 

Then turn your attention to the eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

Crack them into a small bowl and add two tablespoons of cooking wine 料酒。 It's fine to use water if you don't have cooking wine on hand. Stir them up well with a fork or pair of chopsticks, but you do not need to actually whip them like you would for a soufflé

 

 

Oil a wok that you have preheated over a medium flame. You do not want the wok to be too hot, because you only want to cook the eggs a little bit. Stir them quickly a few times until about 70% done, and remove to a warm dish you have placed nearby. (I rinse that dish with warm water, so it doesn't cool the partially-cooked eggs.) This egg stage is where you can go wrong; if you cook them too long or too hot, they will be tough 老 instead of fluffy and soft.

 

Still with medium heat, stir-fry the celery and garlic together until you can smell the garlic aroma, then quickly add the tomatoes. (You don't want to burn the garlic because it will develop a bitter taste.) Add a sprinkle of salt and half teaspoon or so of sugar.

 

Chinese think of tomatoes as a fruit more than as a vegetable and they always worry that it will be too sour. If this dish were Italian, French, or Greek, I would use more salt than sugar. But since we are cooking Chinese, we will follow the local custom and preserve the traditional seasoning properties.

 

Now add back the egg, stir it all up, giving it another half minute or so. Serve while still slightly soupy. Some recipes call for adding a couple tablespoons of catsup, but they are in the minority and a traditional cook would consider that overly trendy.

 

Serve it up; that's all there is to it. Some Chinese dishes are fine made ahead and eaten at room temperature, but this one is best enjoyed right away, while still nice and warm.

 

 

This is available in just about every Chinese restaurant all over the world. But you can just as well give it a whirl at home for yourself. Ingredients are readily available in the west as well as in the Middle Kingdom, and the results are attractive as well as tasty. Last but not least, it's even pretty healthy.

[imron]

I've always made this with doing the tomatoes first, putting them aside, and then adding them back in to the cooking eggs.  I think I'm going to try it the other way now to see the difference

[abcdefg]

I found some on-line versions that do it the way you said, Imron. I think this dish is pretty forgiving and has no absolute right and wrong, as long as one does not overcook the eggs and make them tough.

[imron]

3 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

I think this dish is pretty forgiving and has no absolute right and wrong

Yep!

[Publius]

Yes, very basic. And everybody does it slightly differently. I prefer a higher egg-to-tomato ratio. Have never used garlic before. And I add salt to eggs before stirring them up (people in the north 口味比較重)

[lips]

will be eating it in 5 minutes. 

[abcdefg]

That's great, Lips! Please let us know how it turns out.

[Teasenz]

What you're saying about adding sugar is really true. In the past I always tried to make the tomato egg dish and I always failed. It tasted 'Western'. Later I found out it's indeed the sugar that makes it taste 'Chinese'. I like the taste much more with sugar. I guess I'm more Chinese ;)

[abcdefg]

That "tomato dishes should be sweet" thing stumped me for a long time too, @Teasenz. Took years to become used to it.

 

I used to sometimes have lunch at a street stall near where I studied and their summer special was sliced tomatoes liberally sprinkled with sugar, offered as a side dish to accompany a bowl of rice noodles.They were vine ripened and deep red in color; tons of flavor. Once I asked the proprietor to just let me have the tomatoes plain, without sugar. She reluctantly agreed after strongly warning me about how sour they were. (They seemed perfect to my palate.)

 

One of the things I buy first when I return to the US annually is ordinary canned tomato juice. Have never gotten used to sweetened Chinese tomato juice which is popular here.

[Tianjin42]

Good old  番茄炒鸡蛋, a real mainstay and brilliant dish when I couldn't find much else in the far corners of China.

I will try this - I have made it before but always felt it was lacking something; my own version tasted a little western and a little bland. I added sugar but presumed there was another dash of something else in there that I was missing. 

[889]

They add sugar! And all along I thought Chinese tomatoes were just naturally sweeter than our foreign tomatoes.

 

It's interesting that such a common dish as this, available anywhere anytime throughout China, wouldn't have been showing up on the Chinese table for much more than a couple hundred years, what with those tomatoes and that sugar.

 

Interesting too that fresh tomatoes don't show up in the Chinese diet, either, given their popularity everywhere else.

 

Finally, should we do something about that offensive Chinese name for the tomato? A similar term in English would long ago have been dropped.

 

[Angelina]

I have noticed how 西红柿 is used more often in Northern China, while 番茄 is more of a southern name. So, use 西红柿 @889

[zander1]

24 minutes ago, Angelina said:

 

I have noticed how 西红柿 is used more often in Northern China,

 

 

Yeah I rarely see 番茄, although ketchup at western restaurants is always 番茄酱.

[abcdefg]

5 hours ago, 889 said:

Interesting too that fresh tomatoes don't show up in the Chinese diet, either, given their popularity everywhere else.

 

I frequently invite Chinese friends over for dinner and we cook the meal together. I've done most of the shopping ahead of time, after telephone consultation regarding preferences for the main items. Arriving friends will pick up this or that on the way over.

 

But sometimes I do get surprises. Last year instead of making a plain cucumber salad 拍黄瓜, I added a few pieces of a really delicious summer tomato.

 

This caused great consternation and looks of puzzled disapproval. I thought at the time it was mainly because it was taking an unwelcome liberty with the classic Chinese 凉拌 dish. But I came to learn that it was also at least in part because eating raw tomatoes is just too uncivilized, just too savage.

 

Raw fish, raw shrimp, raw beef; sure, no problem. But Heaven save us from the deadly raw tomato. Even if sprinkled liberally with sugar, it's just not quite acceptable most of the time.

 

 

[Publius]

4 hours ago, zander1 said:

although ketchup at western restaurants is always 番茄酱.

In Cantonese it's 茄汁 ke4*2 zap1. The etymology seems complicated, unclear who borrowed what from whom, maybe a round-trip borrowing?

 

4 hours ago, abcdefg said:

instead of making a plain cucumber salad 拍黄瓜, I added a few pieces of a really delicious summer tomato.

I think a plain 涼拌西紅柿 (sprinkled liberally with sugar) is fine. The horror is you mixed them up lol. They have different, conflicting flavors imo. It's like using 木耳 and 蘑菇 in the same dish, it's just weird.

 

Btw, do you do the shaking thing when you make 拍黃瓜? You know, put all the ingredients into a bowl with lid on and shake the hell out of it. I learned that trick from a colleague who used to be a chef. Makes the process so much fun.

[dtcamero]

that so funny... in bars in japan you'll often encounter a classic dish - the 'tomato salad', which is simply a single sliced fresh tomato with mayonaise for dipping. they'll usually have a little salt to sprinkle on it available somewhere too. it's delicious... and a very different conception of the tomato from the chinese.

love eggs and tomatos though, fantastic simple dish.

[Guest realmayo]

36 minutes ago, Publius said:

Btw, do you do the shaking thing when you make 拍黃瓜?

 

I do that for roast potatoes... certainly fun! Will try with cucumber....

 

42 minutes ago, dtcamero said:

a very different conception of the tomato from the chinese

 

I like how in some parts of Asia at least, an avocado is never savoury but always used for dessert.

[abcdefg]

@Publius -- I've never tried shaking cucumber salad. Just beat it up real good with the side of my big knife 菜刀。Interesting idea, though.

 

@realmayo -- Absolutely right about the avocados. I've enjoyed avocado smoothies throughout Malaysia and Indonesia, made like a sweet and refreshing milk shake and served in a tall glass with a straw.

 

So many different regional twists on how to use the same great ingredients! Discovering things like that is part of what makes travel interesting for me.

 

 

[889]

Tomato-and-eggs make the best 饺子, too.

[lips]

14 hours ago, 889 said:

Finally, should we do something about that offensive Chinese name for the tomato? A similar term in English would long ago have been dropped.

Bugger, this spooks the Eskimos, I'm sure.