Tomato and egg stir-fry

Tomato and egg stir-fry (西红柿炒鸡蛋) is a home-style Chinese dish of soft scrambled eggs cooked with tomato wedges in a wok.

What it really is

Eggs are beaten with a pinch of salt and poured into hot oil, then set in large soft curds and removed from the wok. Ripe tomatoes are cut into wedges and cooked until they soften and release juice, then the eggs go back in with a little sugar, salt and often spring onion. The sauce is the tomato juice thickened lightly by the egg, with no added stock or starch in the classic version.

It is a staple of everyday Chinese cooking and is sometimes served as one dish among several with rice. It differs from plain scrambled eggs in the sweet-sour tomato liquid and the wedge-cut tomato, and from tomato sauces for noodles in that the eggs are the main body of the dish.

How it's served

• Served hot on a shared platter with steamed white rice.
• Eaten as one of several home-style dishes at a family meal.
• The sauce is spooned over the rice or eaten with it.

How to write it on the menu

• Name it as tomato and egg stir-fry, listing eggs and tomato as the two ingredients.
• Flag EGGS on the allergen list; no other common allergens are present in the classic version.
• State whether it is made with sugar, as the sweet-sour balance is part of the classic dish.
• Variants: some kitchens add spring onion or use less sugar; say so if the dish is made without egg.