Grandma’s fan qie chao dan (番茄炒蛋) – stir-fried tomato and egg

If you give my Ama a few tomatoes from the garden, she’ll tell you how pretty they are (they are!) and how our tomatoes are THE BEST (I started them from seed, so I’m pretty biased too), and then she’ll stir-fry the tomatoes with eggs.

Use the best tomatoes you can, whether homegrown or from a farmer’s market. You only need a few, but this simple dish is all about the fresh sweetness of tomato. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d even bother making this dish in the winter. Maybe try Ama’s garlic chive eggs instead…

These are Purple Russian tomatoes, also known as Ukrainian Purple. Flavor-wise, these are definitely the nicest plum tomatoes I’ve grown so far. We were also lucky enough to have some eggs from my mom’s chickens. A humble garden-to-table feast!

Ingredients

• 3-4 fresh tomatoes, or a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes
• 3-4 eggs (depends on size)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce, plus 1 tsp mixed into the eggs
• 1 tsp mirin, you can substitute 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Prep your ingredients, because the eggs will fry up quickly, and you’re only going to cook the tomatoes for a minute or so.

Beat the eggs, and add in 1 tsp of soy sauce.

Mince the garlic cloves, and put them in a little bowl with the soy sauce and mirin (you can use 1/2 sugar if you don’t have mirin, or just leave it out). This will get added at the end to give the dish a wonderful sweet shoyu garlic smell.

Chop the tomatoes into wedges, or halves if using cherry tomatoes. Chop the cilantro into 1-2 inch lengths.

Heat up your frying pan or wok, and add 2 tbsp of oil. You can check if the oil is hot enough by putting a drop of beaten egg into the pan. It should bubble up.

Fry the egg like an omelet, push the egg around and try to get it in contact with the hot oil so it cooks evenly.

Once your egg is nearly cooked, you can add the tomato chunks and fold them in for just a minute.

Then drizzle on the finishing sauce (garlic, soy sauce, and mirin), throw in most of the cilantro (reserve a bit to garnish the top), and give it a quick stir in the pan. Remove from heat, plate, and add the remainder of the cilantro.

Enjoy over rice, or on some Taiwanese toast. Happy summer gardening!