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| Place of origin | China |
|---|---|
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Egg, tomato, salt, sugar, oil |
| Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 番茄炒蛋 | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 西红柿炒鸡蛋 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 西紅柿炒雞蛋 | ||||||||||
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Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs (Chinese: 番茄炒蛋/番茄炒鸡蛋/西紅柿炒雞蛋) is a common dish in China and Taiwan. It is usually served as a main course. Because of the simplicity of preparation, it is popular in student canteens and is often paired with steamed rice.
Shakshouka (Arabic: شكشوكة) is a very similar dish eaten in the Levant of the Middle East. The dish is also considered a main dish in various parts in the Arab world.
A version of this dish, called ginisang kamatis at itlog, is also eaten in the Philippines, usually during breakfast, and paired with garlic fried rice, or sandwiched between sliced pandesal.
History
Scrambled eggs have been eaten in China for thousands of years, but cooking them with tomatoes is a result of mixing Chinese and Western cuisine. Western restaurants using tomatoes in their cuisine began to appear in China during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican era, influencing Chinese to experiment with tomatoes in cooking. This was particularly prominent around Shanghai, which was the most cosmopolitan Chinese city at the time. In the 1920s and 1930s, stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs was sold at restaurants. It was around the 1940s that records of the home-cooked style stir-fried tomato and scrambled egg dish emerged.
Preparation
The eggs are scrambled, and the tomatoes are sliced into wedges. In Francis Lam's recipe published in The New York Times, the eggs are first cooked, then set aside as the tomatoes are cooked. Finally, the eggs are added back to the heat with the tomatoes, and they are stirred together until combined and fully cooked.
Alternatively, as in J. Kenji López-Alt's version of the dish, the tomatoes are stir fried first for approximately two minutes and salted. The eggs are added to the heat next, and the dish is cooked until done to taste.
Some versions of the dish include ketchup.
See also
References
- Lam, Francis (2017-02-02). "The Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs My Chinese Mother Made (Published 2017)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
In Chinese cooking, this dish is like air, present and invisible.
- "History of the Tomato in Italy and China: Tracing the Role of Tomatoes in Italian and Chinese Cooking – Noodles on the Silk Road". Retrieved 2020-08-10.
- Lam, Francis. "Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ^ Lopez-Alt, J. Kenji (2022). The Wok: Recipes and Techniques. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 165–67. ISBN 978-0-393-54121-2.
- AsianCookingMom (18 January 2020). "Stir-fried Tomatoes and Scrambled Eggs (番茄炒蛋)". Asian Cooking Mom. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
Further reading
- "做好番茄炒蛋的四大要点(图)_美食频道_新华网" (in Chinese (China)). News.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on August 30, 2008. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
External links
- Lam, Francis (2 February 2017). "The Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs My Chinese Mother Made". The New York Times.
- Lam, Francis. "Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs". The New York Times. (recipe)
