The Comforting Chinese language Dish My Mother Made When Life Received Busy

Within the West, eggs are sometimes related to breakfast and brunch. However rising up in Hong Kong, I discovered that eggs had been completely acceptable dinner fare. A minimum of as soon as per week, my mother would put together Chinese language scrambled eggs with shrimp, char siu (barbecued pork), or tomatoes, which we might eat alongside steamed fish, a stew of some variety, sautéed greens and—in fact—rice. Of all of the variations on Chinese language scrambled eggs, my favourite is the model with tomatoes. 

Affectionately known as “tomato egg” in Chinese language households, the dish consists of soppy, jammy tomatoes folded into tender scrambled eggs. A contact of Shaoxing wine brings a refined sweetness, whereas soy sauce and toasted sesame oil give it savory depth. Each household, nevertheless, has their very own model of tomato egg. As Severe Eats contributor Jenny Dorsey wrote in her James Beard award-nominated recipe for the dish, “the variations of tomato and egg are infinite and ever-growing.” 

Most variations, together with Dorsey’s, require only a few pantry staples and take lower than 20 minutes to whip up. To make it, you begin by gently scrambling eggs in a wok or skillet. As soon as the eggs are cooked, you switch them to a plate and add scallions, garlic, and ginger to the wok or skillet and prepare dinner till they’re aromatic and softened. Then in go the tomatoes, and as soon as they’ve softened, the eggs return in and every little thing is stirred collectively.

Whereas the recipe on our web site doesn’t name for ketchup, I do take a web page out of my mother’s guide and sweeten the tomatoes with a tablespoon or two of ketchup, together with a pinch of sugar, which reinforces the tomatoes’ pure sweetness. The dish is very scrumptious when made with ripe, in-season tomatoes, however I substitute with drained canned complete plum tomatoes when there aren’t any plump, juicy tomatoes close to me. Simply as tomato egg was a staple of my mother and father’ desk rising up, it has develop into a go-to dinner for my household at present—and when my son is sufficiently old to prepare dinner, this may in all probability be the very first thing I train him, as a result of everybody ought to have a couple of fast, simple, and budget-friendly egg recipes of their again pocket.