Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes ("鸡蛋炒西红柿") is probably the easiest, and yet the most classic home cooked meal in Chinese families. I grew up eating a lot of it, either with rice or egg noodles. It's additively good, and still just as addicting for the grown-ups.

I like to share with people this story each time they tell me how much they love my Lightly Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes. That was when I just started graduate school in London 7 years ago, I very often would cook a concoction of eggs and tomatoes, and minced beef (the way they call ground beef in London). There are 12 dorm rooms with 12 kids living in a corridor where we shared one giant kitchen. Everyone loved my beef, egg, tomatoes concoction and they even brought friends over when I was in the kitchen. In fact, a friend joked at one time:"If I forget your name some time in the far future, I would definitely still remember you as 'minced beef'."

I will show you how to make the same thing minus the minced beef, for a more classic recipe. What's noticeably different from the traditional recipe, is that I combined both fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes to make the final product more moist, and I used a small amount of tomato paste to give it a more intense flavor.

2-3 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 medium fresh field tomatoes or vine-ripened tomatoes, halved and cut each half into 5-6 thin wedges
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (with no salt added)
• 3 small shallots, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons of minced ginger
• 6 extra large eggs, beaten really well and whisk in 1 teaspoon of kosher sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground white pepper
• 3 tablespoons of canola oil
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of low sodium light soy sauce (I use Kikkoman)
• 1/2 teaspoon of turbinado sugar (you can use brown or white sugar)
• kosher sea salt and ground white pepper
• cilantro for garnishing
• a dash of toasted sesame oil (the dark kind)

Directions:

1. Heat the canola oil in a medium pan on high heat. Pour in the egg mixture when the oil is very hot. Turn down the heat immediately after you pour the eggs in. Push and stir the mixture as you would when making an omelet (instead of scrambled eggs), and lightly break the omelet into strips when they are half running and half solid . Turn off the heat and remove the eggs from the pan when there is still a thin layer of egg liquid swimming on top of the solid egg mixtures. Set aside.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium pan on medium heat. Add the shallots and ginger and cook for about 3 minutes or until translucent. Add the tomatoes. Sprinkle a pinch of salt (<1/4 teaspoon). This will release the juice from the tomatoes. Also, seasoning along the cooking process will make sure that you get layered flavors. Cook for another 5 minutes, when you see the tomatoes start yielding juice into the pan.
3. Add the canned diced tomatoes into the cooking pan, 2 teaspoons of the tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of turbinado sugar. Cook for 3 minutes and turn up the heat on high for another 3 minutes so that half of the liquid is reduced.
4. Mix the cooked eggs back into the pan with the tomatoes. Be careful not to break the eggs too much. Turn off the heat, add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, mix well. Drizzle one dash of toasted sesame oil in the end and garnish with chopped cilantro on top. Serve with brown rice.