Stir-Fried Eggs with Tomatoes
番茄炒蛋 (Fan Qie Chao Dan)
Stir-fried eggs with tomatoes is a common Chinese dish, especially popular among students. It is quick and easy to make from cheap ingredients, and punches well above its weight in terms of flavor. A New World food, tomatoes made their way to Asia through the Philippines, then a holding of Imperial Spain. From there they spread through the rest of East Asia, reaching China only in the late 1800s.[1] This is one of relatively few Chinese dishes that employs tomatoes, using the umami of the fruit to create an intensely savory dish. Usually eaten with rice, stir-fried eggs with tomatoes are stable under refrigeration and microwave reheating.
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 tomatoes
3 scallions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
Begin by beating four eggs in a bowl, while heating vegetable oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. When the pan comes up to temperature, pour the beaten eggs into the pan and fry for about three minutes, until it starts to crisp on one side. In the meantime, thinly slice the garlic, and slice the tomatoes into 1 cm thick wedges.
Once the eggs begin to solidify, break up the omelette and add the garlic, frying for another minute until the egg is fully cooked and the garlic is fragrant. Then add the tomatoes and brown sugar to the pan. Stir the tomatoes through the sugar to help them color, then cook covered for 2-3 minutes. The steam from the tomatoes should be sufficient to soften the fruit, without creating too much liquid.
Once the tomatoes soften, we can remove the lid and add the final touches. Because they are picked so early and ripened with ethylene, supermarket tomatoes generally taste somewhat bland. We’ll reinforce them with two tablespoons of ketchup. The ketchup helps the whole dish, and particularly the tomatoes, taste more “tomato-y,” while also bringing a fair amount of acidity to cut the sweetness. Add the chopped scallions as well, and stir.
Don’t dally at this stage—overcooking will result in the tomatoes becoming mushy and releasing liquid, waterlogging the dish. Keep the pan on the heat for just a minute or so to allow the scallions to cook and the ketchup and tomato juices to come together, then serve.
Substitutions
Most kinds of tomatoes can be used for this dish. If you are using real, vine-ripened tomatoes, home grown or from a farmer’s market, you can dial back on the ketchup, or even omit it entirely. This dish works best with fresh tomatoes—older tomatoes will turn mushy quickly and release a lot of water. If this happens to you, use a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. Mix a small amount of cornstarch with cold water, then pour into the pan while the heat is still on.
The use of ketchup in the Taiwanese version of this dish results in a final product sweeter than preparations of this dish found on Mainland China.[2] To prepare this version, beat some salt in with the eggs before frying them. Skip the ketchup and sugar, and add instead a teaspoon of rice wine vinegar along with the tomatoes.
If you prefer a softer texture for the eggs, cook them in the style of American scrambled eggs (low heat and intermittent stirring) before introducing the other ingredients.
[1] The word for tomato in Chinese, fan qie, translates to “foreign eggplant.”
[2] The use of ketchup in several Taiwanese dishes is often attributed to the heavy presence of United States Air Force personnel on the island during the Cold War.
Recipe
Prep Time: 2 min Cook Time: 10 min Total Time: 12 min
Difficulty: 1/5
Heat Sources: 1 burner
Equipment: nonstick skillet
Servings: 4
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 tomatoes
3 scallions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
Instructions
1. In a bowl, beat the four eggs.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the eggs, breaking them up once they solidify.
3. Add the garlic and fry for a minute until fragrant.
4. Add the sliced tomatoes and brown sugar to the pan, and cook covered for 2-3 minutes, until tomatoes are softened.
5. Add the ketchup and scallions, and cook together for another minute, stirring to bring the dish together.
