My New Favorite Comfort Food

 What’s cooking? Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs

There’s something about January that makes even decent weather feel drab. It has rained – or seemed that way – about every other day this month, so much so that my hubby keeps turning to me and saying, “Does it always rain this much in Austin?” Of course, now that we’ve been here for 15 years, he’s more aware of the weather than he lets on, but we have had a remarkable amount of precipitation lately. And when it wasn’t raining, we’ve had lots of overcast days, quite a few very cold days, and with that much water in the air, when it warms up – as it did this week – we get heavy fog.

So what to do in these periods of gloom? Comfort food. Whatever it is that your mom used to make when you stayed home from school with a cold or flu. It was warm and soft. I’d say chicken soup is my favorite comfort food, with bean soups and risottos right behind, except that I’ve recently discovered a Chinese dish that tops them all: Stir-fried Tomatoes and Eggs, served over a bowl of white rice.

It was Francis Lam’s contribution in his last New York Times column a few years ago, so I thought of it the way I think about my grandmother’s brownie recipe, which I will give to you when I stop blogging. It’s that last hurrah – the writer’s favorite recipe. And I know the idea of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs sounds a little weird, but you will not believe how good this simple combination is and how quickly it comes together. The gentle mix of flavors – the fragrant rice wine in the eggs, the subtle hit from the fresh ginger and sweet ketchup in the tomato sauce – combine in a wave of umami that cradles the softly scrambled eggs as they finish in the sauce. Even my prince perks up when I tell him that’s for dinner. I often have to hide the leftovers so I can have them for lunch the next day.

Start by assembling the ingredients.

The only caution I will give you is that the dish spends so little time (no more than 15 minutes) actually cooking – and that includes all those movements between steps, like the time to get the eggs out of the pan, time for a last-minute stir of the cornstarch mixture, etc. So the only way to successfully pull it off is to have every ingredient (yes, every one) ready in little bowls. If not, you will drive yourself crazy from the 15 seconds on this and 2 minutes on that, and something will overcook, which will be bad.

Chinese Stir-fried Tomatoes and Eggs

Adapted from Francis Lam in The New York Times

Kitchen Goddess note: Making rice is not part of Lam’s directions, though I don’t know why not, because that’s the first thing you need to do. Rice generally takes a half hour, so if you start it before you begin gathering your ingredients and assembling your mise en place, it’ll be ready when the eggs and tomatoes are. Or maybe you’d like to make it the day before and re-heat it in the microwave. Either way, get the rice ready before you start the eggs and tomatoes. This dish is best eaten warm.

Active Time: 30 minutes

Serves 2-3. I would say 3-4, but at my house, at least one person always goes back for more.

Ingredients

6 large eggs
½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry (not rice wine vinegar!)
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 pound beefsteak tomatoes in season, or one 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes in juice (In the off-season, KG prefers heirloom tomatoes for the texture, if they’re available, but canned ones work just fine.) 
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced or grated ginger (from about ½ -inch nub)

Steamed rice, for serving

Directions

Get the rice started, following the directions on the box. (Kitchen Goddess note: KG and Ina Garten both recommend Texmati for its flavor and aroma. Jasmati – made by the same company – has longer grains and is plumper, softer, and a bit more moist, but the flavor is equally good.)

Set your mise en place:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs well with the sesame oil, the rice wine (or sherry), and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl (think custard cup), stir 2 tablespoons of water into the cornstarch until it dissolves. Add the sugar and ketchup and stir until the entire mixture is well combined. Set aside.

3. If you will be using fresh tomatoes – and let me say here that in the summer when beefsteak tomatoes are available, you would be a fool not to use them in this dish – core and slice them into ½-inch wedges. Set them aside in a mixing bowl. If you are using canned tomatoes, open the can and set it aside.

4. Grate/mince your ginger and put it in a small bowl. Set aside.

5. Slice the scallions and put about three quarter of them into a small bowl, and the remaining quarter into a separate small bowl. Set both bowls aside.

Now that you have your mise en place, heat a wide (10- or 11-inch) skillet over high heat with 3 tablespoons of the oil. (Mr. Lam recommends a non-stick skillet, but I’ve never had a problem with my heavy-duty stainless.)

When the oil begins to shimmer, add the larger portion of the scallions and stir them around for 20-30 seconds, until they give off a good aroma. Give the eggs a final stir and pour them into the pan, stirring constantly until the eggs are just set but still a bit runny, which will take about 45 seconds. Pour the eggs back into their mixing bowl, and wipe out the pan. (The Kitchen Goddess has never wiped out the pan, but Lam recommends it, so... your choice.)

Move the pan back to the stovetop over high heat, and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the ginger and stir until it is aromatic, likely about 15 seconds. Add the tomatoes all at once, with a sprinkling of kosher salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes until the flesh softens and the juices have begun to thicken. (If you are using canned tomatoes, add the juice from the can as well and give the tomatoes an extra couple of minutes  – total 4-5 minutes – for those juices to thicken to a saucelike consistency.)

Reduce the heat to medium. Stir the cornstarch-ketchup mixture one last time and add it to the pan. Continue stirring the sauce until it reaches a boil and thickens. Taste the sauce and add salt or sugar or ketchup if you like. (I have never added anything.) It’s supposed to be a savory, sweet-tart sauce.

Stir the eggs in the bowl again to “chunk” the curds, then add them to the sauce. Cook, stirring the mixture for about another 20 seconds (less depending on how runny you like your eggs) to finish the dish, and scatter the remaining scallions over the top.

Serve over steamed rice.