Chinese Tomato Scrambled Egg - Fan Qie Chao Dan!

Oh hello people!

I did not post anything yesterday, because I was so freaking tired after the IndoSoc of our Uni organised the largest Indonesian festival in the UK. It was an awesome day but it was very tiring as well! Kudos to the main committee and everybody!

So today I went to London for shopping (it was 30% off at Harrods) and that is the reason why I post this recipe quite late. While I was at Harrods Knightsbridge, I circled around the Food Hall and found that they have nice-looking ready-to-cook food. They all looked awesome and I am going to give them a try one day (hopefully in a week's time as I'll be going again to London!)

Talking about Posh Food - this particular recipe - Chinese Tomato Scrambled Egg or Fan Jie Cao Dan in Chinese (番茄炒蛋）- is not that posh as in you can only find them in particular restaurants. In fact, this dish is very homemade-y and is always available at small Chinese restaurants and even the canteen! I think the reason is simple. This recipe is very easy to make, and yet it is one of the tastiest food (my favourite food nonetheless). This recipe is 100% truly inspired from my true love of this dish whilst studying in China (and my extreme effort to recreate the dish before I left China for good). While I was doing my South Beach Diet (I dropped 1.6 stone - 10 kgs), I often had this dish for dinner along with a bed of veggie or veggie stir-fry. They worked on me very well!

In my early stage of cooking - I was very surprised about how flavourful tomatoes were. The tomato juice in this recipe will be absorbed by the egg, giving the scrambled egg a unique and delicious taste. Also, one of the best things about this recipe is that the only seasoning one needs is salt and thus the true flavour of tomato really rocks the dish! The one by two kitchen's secret to success for this recipe lies in the spring onions and the method of cooking - so pay attention but feel free to improvise!

I do recommend this dish for people who want to cook for their loved ones at home - especially for beginners! You will awe them for sure!

This recipe serves approximately 3 people in a typical Chinese dinner set (along with other dishes)

Ingredients:

1. Two large eggs - beaten
2. Five medium-sized tomatoes/plum tomatoes - ripe
3. Salt
4. Spring Onion (1 stick)
5. Oil

How to Prepare:

1. Chop the spring onion to small pieces
2. Cut each tomato to 4 pieces
3. In a pan, heat two tablespoons of oil
4. Pour 3/4 of the spring onion to the pan; fry and stir for around 2 minutes
5. Pour the beaten eggs to the spring onion and oil
6. Let the eggs set for a while (approximately until the eggs have created a base) then quickly scramble a little before all the eggs set; quickly transfer to a plate and set aside (NOTE: scramble a little and not to the texture of English breakfast's scrambled egg!)
7. Heat a tablespoon of oil and pour the remaining spring onion onto the pan; stir
8. Put the tomatoes to the pan; stir and wait until the tomato starts to cook and the juice comes out a little
9. Quickly put the half-cooked eggs on to the pan, stir fry
10. Occasionally using the wooden spoon press the tomatoes to help the juice comes out
11. Stir fry until the eggs have absorbed the tomato juice and turns slightly brown in colour
12. Transfer to a plate and serve!

P.S.: To excel well it is important to learn the tricks of scrambling the egg before all the egg sets and not to over-scramble them (different to scrambled egg in English breakfasts!)

Note: Some Chinese restaurants seem to add soup to the mixture and making it soupy - however I tend to not make it soupy to simplify things and to prevent using other flavouring rather than just salt and the real taste of tomato.

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.