East and West, Part II

I miss my mom!

A wonderful cook who never used any recipes, she is the inspiration of my cooking, especially when I first got married.  

However, since we were thousands of miles apart, I only imitated the dishes by memory and by adding a lot of imaginations and creativity.

One of our favorite dishes from childhood days is Sautéed Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes番茄炒蛋.  How my mom made the dish was history and since she is in heaven, I have come up with my own version.  With the special sauce that I invented, it is a true example of East Meets West.

If you look up the history of tomatoes, you may be able to understand the translated Chinese name of this vegetable – foreign eggplant!  It is a vegetable imported from the Americas and the West.  Of course, since I grew up in Hong Kong, we were fortunate to have all sorts of imported goods and we grew up eating tomatoes without thinking too much of the name.  Now China is actually the number one country in terms of growing tomatoes.

Fun junior female had a go with this dish recently in college and she had big success because she said some of her friends are asking for the recipe.  So here we are, it is my pleasure to share with you our special East Meets West recipe:

Prepare the eggs as you would scramble eggs.  How many eggs?  I usually do one for each person.  Use your cooking spatula to cut them into small pieces on the wok or pan before you set them aside, that is with the fire turned off, of course, otherwise the eggs will be overcooked.  

Use about 4 to 6 cooking tomatoes and cut them into wedges.  Then it is your choice to use either some spring onions or onions, julienne them and set aside.  To start the wok, use some finely chopped fresh ginger and garlic and stir fry in couple tablespoons cooking oil.  When the flavor of the ginger and garlic are out, put in onions and the tomatoes, stir fry them until they begin to get tender, but not becoming soggy.  

Now is the time to put in the special sauce:  a combination of ketchup and miso paste with some sugar.  Stir them well and if the sauce becomes too thick, put in some water as you see fit.  The thickness of the sauce is a personal taste.  If somehow you find the sauce becomes too runny, don’t panic.   Mix one or two teaspoons of corn starch in cold water and pour into the sauce, the corn starch mixture will help thicken the sauce.  This step is only necessary if you find the sauce too runny.  If you add just a little bit water when you stir the ketchup and miso, you should not need the corn starch mixture.

I usually work very fast but if you know you are not as efficient as me, you should turn the fire to low whilst you are working on the consistency of the sauce.  The last thing you want to see is the tomatoes and onions become a paste.  When you are satisfy with the sauce and it taste tart, savory and sweet at the same time, you can add the egg pieces and stir them well together with the tomatoes and the sauce.  Taste it one more time and if it is too tart, add a little bit more sugar.  Serve it with white rice, and I mean a lot of rice because your folks will want to mix the sauce with the white rice.  

Ah, yes, the fond memories of me fighting with my five other siblings who would be the last person to get the dish with the sauce so that we could have one more bowl of rice!  Have fun and I hope no one is fighting.  Till next time.