tomato & egg

Happy Friday! Hope you had a restful week.

What comes to mind when you think of your favorite comfort food? This dish is one of mine! You develop this slightly sweet and tart sauce that coats the soft, jammy tomatoes, clouds of egg, and BAM — perfect pairing over a steaming bed of white rice.

My mom probably cooked this once a week when I was a kid — and now knowing how easy and quick you can get this dish on the table, I get why 🙂

Notes / FAQs:

• What is a cornstarch slurry?

  • Using a cornstarch slurry (mixture of cornstarch and water) is a staple technique in Chinese cooking. This is used to thicken liquids and creates a smooth, thick sauce or coating. Fun fact, the first time my grandma told me to mix these together, I used hot water (hot water dissolves things, right?), and it ended up in a clumpy mess — which is why it’s noted specifically room temp or cold water.

• What kinds of tomatoes should I use?

  • You can use any tomatoes! I find that hothouse tomatoes (the big round ones you see most often at the grocery store) are mostly water, and don’t have much taste, so I personally like tomatoes on the vine or even roma tomatoes. Just keep in mind that depending on the tomatoes you get, you may have to adjust your amounts of sugar.

• You’ll probably notice this in most of my recipes, but I like cutting aromatics like ginger into wide slices (as opposed to julienned / thin match sticks), because I don’t like biting into pieces of ginger. When they’re bigger and more visible, they’re easy to fish out before eating 🙂 They’re also less likely to burn!

• Some people like adding a bit of ketchup in their tomato & egg recipes — I personally prefer the natural tartness from the tomatoes, contrasted with the bit of sugar we add.

This dish comes together quickly, so have everything ready and on hand when you start cooking!

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Recipe:

tomato & egg

PREP:   5 minutes
     COOK:   10 minutes
     TOTAL:   15 minutes

Ingredients
for 2 servings

• 3 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, sliced into wedges

• 3 large eggs

• ½ teaspoon sesame oil

• 2-3 slices of ginger, cut ⅛ inch thick

• 1 teaspoon Chinese brown slab sugar (or regular brown sugar)

• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

• ½ + ¼ teaspoon salt

• cornstarch slurry: 2 teaspoon cornstarch + ½ c room temp or cold water

• canola or vegetable oil for cooking

• green onion for garnish

Instructions

Cooking the eggs

1. Crack your eggs in a bowl, add sesame oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and whisk well.
2. Heat up your pan to medium heat, and add ½ tablespoon of canola or vegetable oil. Once it's hot, add the eggs to the pan.
3. Don't touch the eggs for 10 seconds, and let the edges set a bit. Then, using your spatula, gently swirl around the pan in a circular motion to push the folds that start forming. Repeat this a few times, and this should give you soft layers of eggs.
4. Once the eggs are almost done (about 5-10% of the eggs are still liquid), you can take it out of the pan. Total cook time should be no more than 1 minute!

Cooking the rest

1. You can wash your pan in between these steps, but I don't bother to. Any crusty parts of the egg that remain in the pan usually dissolve with the tomatoes later!
2. Your pan should still be on medium heat -- add another ½ tablespoon of canola or vegetable oil. Add your ginger, and cook for about 1 minute.
3. Next, add your tomato wedges, ½ teaspoon of salt, and sugar. How long you cook your tomatoes here depends on how in tact you like the tomatoes to be. I like mine a bit on the jammier side, which takes about 2 minutes of cooking.
4. Add your Shaoxing wine, and cook for another minute. At this point, there should be some liquid in the pan, mostly released from the tomatoes. Taste this and make sure that the salt, sour, and sweetness is balanced. If you want it to be more sour or tart, you can add a touch of vinegar (something my mom does).
5. Once you're satisfied with the taste, mix your cornstarch slurry in its bowl and add it into the pan. You should see the sauce thicken up almost immediately. If you like more sauce, just add more water here. Cook for 15-20 seconds.
6. Add your eggs back in, and break them up into chunks. Once you mix everything together well, garnish with green onions, and you're done!