I know… Some of you don’t immediately associate Tomatoes with Asian cuisine. But remember: Marco Polo brought tomatoes BACK from China along the Silk Road a thousand years ago! And there is no simpler Asian celebration of the tomato than this easy dish…
Looks great, tastes even better! This classic recipe uses only 2 main ingredients, yet captures the exotic flavour and character of Asian cuisine in a dish you’ll enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Simple, easy, fail-proof…
You probably won’t find this dish on any Chinese/Asian restaurant menu. But it’s a traditional fave in millions of Asian homes. And it’s a great way to practice your Wokking tehniques…
What you need
Believe it or not, the main ingredients in this ‘fry-up’ are just fresh, ripe, tomatoes and room temper-ature eggs. That’s it. The rest of the components are merely ‘helpers’ and universal staples: Scallions, Sesame Oil, Mirin, salt, white pepper and sugar. Which is not to say you couldn’t jazz the dish up with additional veggies if the mood takes you…
What you do
Cut the tomatoes into 3/4 in / 2 cm chunks.
Chop the scallions fine, for garnishing.
Whisk-up the eggs with the salt, pepper, Sesame Oil and Mirin. Which for at least a minute to ensure you incorporate lots of air, for fluffy eggs.
Scramble the eggs with a little cooking oil over medium heat in a wok or high-sided frying pan. Set aside for assembly later.
In the same pan you used for the eggs, turn the heat up to high and sizzle the tomatoes and some of the scallions.
After about 1 minute, add salt, sugar, and a little water as necessary throughout cooking, to ensure the dish doesn’t get too dry.
Add the eggs and continue cooking for another minute or so, until the tomatoes are softened through. Continue to stir fry (keeping the food moving) until the tomato liquid forms a thickish ‘sauce’; another minute or two.
Serve over rice. Garnish with more chopped scallions if desired.
Tips and hacks…
I recommend you also add some fresh garlic (as prompted in the video).
As hinted earlier, you could enhance this dish with any number of other appropriate traditional Asian Veggies. Depending on their density and moisture content they may take different time to cook. You might want to par-cook each to a common stage of doneness before going ahead with the recipe as directed. Add them at assembly time, when you plop the eggs back in with the tomatoes…
The Sesame Oil is important to the flavour of this simple dish. Don’t omit it out of a desire for speed or convenience! You should have a little bottle of it in your pantry at all times, anyway…
You can substitute unsweetened apple juice for the Mirin (Chinese cooking wine) with no discernible harm to the dish.
My take
I love this dish. It reminds me of my dear, departed birth Dad’s weekend breakfast favourite: Stewed Tomatoes. He often plated them right beside scrambled eggs, too. But he never served them over rice!
And I love the way this simple, fail-proof recipe can step into the fray when all the other options seem too heavy, or too much trouble…
~ Maggie J.