Stir-fried Tomato and Egg
Simple Stir-fries
Stir-fried tomato and egg (番茄炒蛋) is probably the most popular home-cooked Chinese dishes of all, but it’s not one that’s often found at restaurants. That’s because it’s so simple that anyone can cook it, and so you don't need to go out for it.
If you want to learn how to cook Chinese dishes, start out with things like this and go for the restaurant-style dishes later.
Some say that this dish is the national dish of China, not just because it’s found all around the country, but also because it is the colours of the Chinese flag.
Cooking time
30min
Diet
Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 3 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 2 spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
- ½ tsp cornflour, mixed with a little cold water
- 5 eggs, beaten
Method
- Heat a wok over high heat and add 1 tbsp of oil.
- Add the tomatoes and fry for about 2 minutes until they start to soften.
- Add the salt, sugar, spring onions and ½ cup of water or stock.
- When the spring onions soften, stir through enough of the cornflour slurry to thicken the tomato mixture to a saucy consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- Remove the tomato mixture from the wok and rinse the wok. Return the wok to the heat and add the remaining oil.
- Add the eggs and stir once every 15 seconds or so until the eggs set to the texture of a loose omelette.
- Add the tomato mixture to the eggs and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, then serve immediately.
Tips
- Some people like to add cornstarch or sesame oil to the eggs as well.
- It would be common to add a pinch of MSG to the tomatoes or eggs while cooking, but if you don't want to do that and still want more savouriness you can add a bit of chicken stock powder, or a dash of fish sauce or soy sauce instead.
- Eat this with rice. That's what it's made for.
