Tomato Eggs

Tomato Eggs

Oh, how I love this dish.  This is a meal that my grandma and mother have cooked many times as I was growing up.  It is very warm and comforting, and that is why I love it.  Now, I have made some liberal changes to suit my more mature tastebuds, but it still has the same effect on me whenvery I make this.  It is basically stewed tomatoes with scrambled eggs.  My grandma's version is very sweet--she was not very fond of tartness so she added sugar to hers.  I've helped my grandma many times to make this.  As soon as I could figure out how to use a knife safely, she allowed me to peel, cut and seed the tomatoes.  She'd soften the skin in a pot of boiling water.  Once the tomatoes were cool enough to handle, the skins slipped off.  She would just gouge holes so the seeds could come out but I am a bit more concerned about neatness so I'd quarter, cut into sixths or eighths depending on the size of the tomatoes and the scooped out the seeds so I'd have nice clean wedges.  I don't know why it matters to me because once you cook it, the shape is not one bit recognizable.  The measurements aren't very precise, but I don't think the dish would suffer.  I make it based on what I like.

Eggs:
1 tablespoon butter
6 eggs, beaten

Heat a large frying pan or work over medium high heat.  Melt butter.  Add eggs; cook and stir with spatula until eggs are softly set.  Remove eggs from pan to a dish; set aside.

Tomatoes
8 to 10 plum tomatoes or 5 to 7 large tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
1 yellow or white onion, peeled, coarsely chopped or thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
dash rice wine, to taste
dash soy sauce, to taste
black pepper
heaping soup spoon's worth of cornstarch--you may need more or less depending on how juicy the tomatoes are and how thick you'd like the sauce.

Bring to boil a large pot of water over high heat.  Add tomatoes and heat until the skins split.  You may have to give them a nudge with a slotted spoon to make sure all the tomatoes are submerged.  Remove tomatoes as the skins split.  Once all of them are out of the water; let cool until you easily handle them.

Peel and seed tomatoes as you wish.  You don't have to cut them into wedges like I do, you can even coarsely crush them with your hands.  Save any juices.  Save a little on the side; dissolve the cornstarch to add later to thicken sauce.

Heat a large frying pan or work over medium high heat.  Melt butter; fry onions until translucent.  Add rice wine and soy sauce to taste.  Sprinkle with pepper.  Add tomatoes with juice; cook over low until tomatoes are softened to your liking.  Increase heat to high; bring to boil.  Add the tomato juice with cornstarch quickly and stir until mixture comes back to a boil and thickens.  The sauce will look cloudy at first, when it is cooked, it'll look kind of translucent and shiny.  Stir in scrambled eggs; stir to warm through.  Serve over cooked rice.  I use brown, but my grandma always served it with white rice.


Makes 4 to 6 servings.