China · Home-style
Stir-Fried Tomato and Egg
Soft, collapsing tomato wrapped around softly fried egg, sweet and sour at once. The most widely cooked dish in Chinese homes.
There is no single inventor of this dish; it is the shared inheritance of every family that learned to cook eggs, and recipes vary mainly in how much sugar is allowed. The tomato is cooked well past comfortable, until it gives up its water and turns to pulp, because that is what makes the sauce cling. Keeping the egg out of the wok until the tomato is done is what keeps the curds soft rather than rubbery.
Ingredients
- tomato1 pieces
- eggs1.5 pieces
- cooking oil4 ml
- salt2 g
- sugar2 g
- chopped scallion10 g
Directions
- 1
Wash the tomato.
- 2
Optional: peel the tomato.
- 3
Remove the stem and cut the tomato into chunks no larger than 4 cm.
- 4
Crack the eggs into a bowl, add 1 g of salt per serving, beat until even.
- 5
Heat the wok and add the cooking oil.
- 6
Once the oil is hot, pour in the egg and stir until it sets and just starts to yellow.
- 7
Turn off the heat, plate the egg and return to the heat.
- 8
Add the tomato, press it with the spatula and stir for 20 seconds, or until it collapses.
- 9
Return the egg to the wok and toss until even.
- 10
Add the remaining salt, the sugar if you prefer a sweeter version, and the scallion, then toss until even.
- 11
Turn off the heat and serve.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.