As Chinese as ... Tomato Fried Egg!
Nov. 1st, 2012 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranAnother one from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. This is actually a really common Chinese recipe and the ingredients are so simple: eggs; tomatoes; and whatever else you want to flavour it with.
First take some lightly beaten egg and fry it in about three tablespoons [1] of oil in the wok. Use a wok scoop to move the cooked bits back into the centre so the uncooked yolk can run out. You'll want golden, but still soft and a bit runny inside. I used two eggs here.
Next, remove the egg and put in a roughly equal volume of ripe tomato, cut into segments. And before you start thinking that tomatoes aren't authentically Chinese, where did you think all those chillies came from?
And salt and sugar to taste (I used a shake of salt and half a teaspoon and sugar) and fry the tomatoes until they smell cooked. Some recipes use shallots (and MSG) too, and it looks like everyone has their own special way of doing it.
Finally, add the eggs back in, mix well and there you have it: Tomato Fried Egg, or Fānqié Chǎo Dàn (番茄炒蛋). [2] Serve with rice.
[1] "Three tablespoons" seems to be code for "enough oil to stirfry things in". If you have a wok, you'll know the amount by sight because the oil will make a certain sized circle.
[2] Incidentally, fānqié (番茄), meaning "tomato", literally means "Barbarian Eggplant". The other common term for "tomato", xīhóngshì (西红柿) means "Western Red Persimmon". So, both names give a clue as to where the fruit came from. And to all my "barbarian" readers, don't take it personally, okay?
First take some lightly beaten egg and fry it in about three tablespoons [1] of oil in the wok. Use a wok scoop to move the cooked bits back into the centre so the uncooked yolk can run out. You'll want golden, but still soft and a bit runny inside. I used two eggs here.
Next, remove the egg and put in a roughly equal volume of ripe tomato, cut into segments. And before you start thinking that tomatoes aren't authentically Chinese, where did you think all those chillies came from?
And salt and sugar to taste (I used a shake of salt and half a teaspoon and sugar) and fry the tomatoes until they smell cooked. Some recipes use shallots (and MSG) too, and it looks like everyone has their own special way of doing it.
Finally, add the eggs back in, mix well and there you have it: Tomato Fried Egg, or Fānqié Chǎo Dàn (番茄炒蛋). [2] Serve with rice.
[1] "Three tablespoons" seems to be code for "enough oil to stirfry things in". If you have a wok, you'll know the amount by sight because the oil will make a certain sized circle.
[2] Incidentally, fānqié (番茄), meaning "tomato", literally means "Barbarian Eggplant". The other common term for "tomato", xīhóngshì (西红柿) means "Western Red Persimmon". So, both names give a clue as to where the fruit came from. And to all my "barbarian" readers, don't take it personally, okay?
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Date: 2012-11-01 03:28 pm (UTC)Funny thing is that a pretty close version was a common quick-fix dish both in my home and in my husband's, guess quite a few Italian houses have their own. :)
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Date: 2012-11-01 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 11:58 pm (UTC)I do object to people calling Celts barbarians for exactly the same reason.
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Date: 2012-11-02 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-03 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-03 10:52 pm (UTC)