Ask people who grew up in China to name the taste of home and a remarkable number will say tomatoes and eggs. Xihongshi chao jidan is the everyday dish of family kitchens, school canteens and office cafeterias, one of the first things many children learn to cook and, by common report, the dish that students abroad miss most. Its history is shorter than you might expect. Tomatoes entered Chinese cooking with Western restaurants in the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic, especially in cosmopolitan Shanghai; the dish was being sold in restaurants by the 1920s and recorded as home cooking by the 1940s.

There are two main ingredients and a handful of small family disagreements, about garlic, about peeling the tomatoes and about sugar, which most cooks add to round off the tomatoes' sharpness. The eggs are scrambled soft and set aside, the tomatoes are cooked until they slump into a juicy sauce, and the two are reunited for the final minute. Made well it is silky, sweet, sour and savory, ready in ten minutes, and best eaten over a bowl of hot rice, which is precisely what an early race morning calls for.

Steamed rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup (200 g) jasmine or other long grain white rice
• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) cold water

Method

1. Rinse the rice in the sieve under cold running water, rubbing the grains with your fingers, for about a minute.
2. Put the rice and water in the saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir once, cover, turn the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes without lifting the lid. Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

The eggs

Ingredients

• 5 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Shaoxing wine
• 1 pinch ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) neutral oil

Method

1. Crack the eggs into the bowl, add the salt, Shaoxing wine and white pepper and beat with a fork or chopsticks for about 30 seconds.
2. Heat the wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates instantly, then add the oil and swirl it around. Pour in the eggs; they should puff and sizzle at once. Wait 5 seconds, then push the set edges toward the center with the spatula in large, slow folds, letting the runny egg flow underneath.
3. When the eggs are about three quarters set, with some wet, glossy egg still visible, slide them onto the plate. They will finish cooking later in the sauce.

The tomatoes and finishing

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 lb (570 g) ripe tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) neutral oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 scallions
• 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 to 4 tablespoons (30 to 60 ml) water
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Method

1. Put the wok back over high heat, add the oil, then add the garlic and the white parts of the scallions. Stir for 15 seconds.
2. Add the tomato wedges and stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes, pressing a few wedges with the spatula to help them release their juice.
3. Add the sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons of water and stir for 30 seconds. Taste: it should be pleasantly sweet and sour. Add more water if the pan looks dry, or a pinch more sugar if the tomatoes are sharp.
4. Tip the eggs back into the wok and fold them gently through the tomatoes for 30 to 45 seconds, breaking them into large pieces. Turn off the heat, add the scallion greens and the sesame oil if using, and fold once more.

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