Tomato and egg is a home dish. Restaurants will cook it if you ask; they will not build their reputation on it. That is why it is the right first recipe. You can taste your heat, your sugar-acid balance, and your nerve.
Ingredients
- 3 ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 4 eggs
- 2 spring onions, whites and greens separated
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tsp sugar, plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tbsp light soy
- 3 tbsp oil
- Pinch of salt
- Cooked rice, to serve
Method
Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Heat a wok or wide pan until a drop of egg sets on contact. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, pour in the eggs, and scramble them just until set but still glossy. Lift them out. Do not brown them into rubber.
Return the pan to a high flame with the remaining oil. Stir the garlic and spring onion whites for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes. Leave them alone until their cut faces pick up colour, then toss. They should collapse at the edges and stay in pieces at the centre. Sprinkle the sugar. When the juices look like a thin sauce, return the eggs, add soy and white pepper, and fold. Taste. Under-ripe tomatoes want more sugar; sweet summer tomatoes want more white pepper and a drop of rice vinegar if you have it.
Scatter the spring onion greens. Serve immediately with rice.
Notes
This is not a chili dish. If you want heat, add a sliced fresh chili with the garlic, not a ladle of chili oil at the end. Do not add ketchup. If the only tomatoes you have are pale, roast them in a hot pan longer and accept that this will be a different plate.