rice again

This dish consisting primarily of eggs and tomatos can be found on tables accross China. Named “xi hong shi chao ji dan” or “fan qie chao dan”, my friends and I when we first arrived in China simply referred to it as “that egg tomato shit”.

It’s an easy dish to cook and a good complement to steamed rice.

Indredients

4 Large ripe tomatos
4 Eggs (from Chickens, believe me in China you should specify)
Spring Onions
MSG* or Salt
About a heaped tablespoon of Corn Starch

Preparation

Finely chop your garlic and spring onions. Quarter your tomatos. Beat your eggs in a small bowl adding a pinch of salt to bring out the flavour.

1. Add a generous splash of oil to your wok and heat until it spits back.

2. Pour in your eggs as if to make an omlete. This part comes down to personal taste. Some people like their eggs in chunks others like it more scrambled, some even like to add the eggs after the tomatos so they mix in with the juice while they cook for a more sloppy mixture. Personally I like to add the eggs first, slowly turning over a high heat as the eggs cook. The idea here is not to make an ommlette but to allow the eggs to stay together into sizable chunks. I like to keep cooking until they are almost browned.

2. Next add the spring onions and stirfry with the egg quickly followed by the tomato pieces. The juice will ooze from the tomatos as they soften. Add a sprinkle of MSG* to bring out the flavours.

3. Take your cornstarch and mix in with about 2/3 cup of hot water stir out the lumps and add to your tomato-ey egg mixture in the wok. The diluted cornstarch mixture will thicken the tomato juice now in the bottom of your wok.

4. It’s at this point that you may decide to add some water for more sauce and MSG, or Salt to taste.

* A note on the use of MSG. MSG is used throughout asia as a flavour enhancer and is simply Glutamate carried by salt hence the “monosodium” tag. Many people are sensitive to MSG in foods but there is little emperical evidence that it is dangerous. Glutamate occurs naturally in many foods and is an additive in many processed foods we eat every day such as stock powders and cheeses.