How to Make Tomato and Eggs

Last time I was in Japan, I lived with a host family that cooked all my meals for me. This time around, I’m living in a co-op style dorm with 5 other ladies, meaning I need to cook for myself. I’ve lived in an apartment on campus for the past two years and during that time I’ve practiced making food that takes a little bit of skill/effort (at least more than pasta) but isn’t too hard to throw together (in my opinion). One of these things is 番茄炒蛋 (fan qie chao dan, meaning tomato stir-fry eggs), since it’s delicious and the ingredients aren’t too hard to obtain. If you are from a different Chinese speaking region you might call it something else, but that’s what I call it. Anyway here’s what you need:

Ingredients:

• 1 (roughly) fist-sized tomato
• 3 eggs
• 1 sprig of green onion
• 3 T vegetable oil
• 1/2 t sugar
• salt to taste

Tools:

• wok or large frying pan
• a utensil of your choice to go with that (I use chopsticks)
• a sharp knife

Process:

1. I start out by peeling the skin off the tomato. You can omit this step if you want, but I find that it tastes better without the skin. The skin doesn’t peel of too easily by itself, but if you score an X on the bottom, extend the lines towards the stem, then boil the tomato for a few minutes, it peels off quite nicely.
2. Cut the tomato into bite sized pieces. I usually cut it into quarters, then quarter each quarter.
3. Chop up the green onion and split it into 2 piles.
4. Whisk the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar and some salt. I like my eggs sweet but you can choose to ommit sugar if you like. Mix in a pile of onions.
5. Put 1 T of vegetable oil in the frying pan on high heat. Add the other pile of onions into the oil and let it sizzle for like 10-15 seconds. Add the tomato pieces in and stir fry it. Add salt to taste and if it’s too sour, add some sugar to neutralize it a bit. Stir fry it for like 2 minutes.
6. Move the tomatos to a bowl or plate and then clean the frying pan. Cooking the eggs and tomatoes separately is the trick to making delicious 番茄炒蛋. When the pan is clean, add 2 T of oil to it and heat it up on a medium heat. Then pour the eggs in and scramble them on a lower heat. I tend to let them puff up and drag my chopsticks through it while it’s runny and let it slowly harden. When the eggs are mostly done, add the tomatoes back in and stir everything around. I prefer my eggs a bit yolky, so I consider 80% cooked done but feel free to cook it all the way if you wish.
7. Serve it on a plate or bowl (or whatever else you prefer). You can feed 1-2 people with this.

So yeah! The one I made the other day is on the bottom left. Hope you learned something!

EDIT: I made this again the other day and here are some pictures: