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Chinese Home Cooking · 家常菜

蝦仁番茄炒蛋

Tomato & Egg Stir-Fry with Shrimp

The most-cooked dish in China, with shrimp folded in. Everything hinges on three small decisions: sugar to tame the tomato's acid, eggs pulled while still wet, and shrimp that leave the wok before they're done.

Serves2–3
Prep20 min
Cook10 min
LevelEasy
材料Ingredients

The Shrimpvelveted, so they snap

  • Peeled, deveined shrimp (26/30), tails off8 oz / 225 g
  • Fine salt¼ tsp
  • Baking soda (optional — for bounce)¼ tsp
  • Cornstarch1 tsp
  • Shaoxing wine1 tsp
  • White pepperpinch

The Eggsfour, seasoned before they hit the wok

  • Large eggs4
  • Fine salt½ tsp
  • Water (keeps them tender)1 tbsp
  • Shaoxing wine1 tsp

The Tomatoes & Sauceripe fruit, and sugar — not optional

  • Ripe tomatoes, on the vine3 medium (~450 g)
  • Garlic, thinly sliced2 cloves
  • Ginger, minced (optional)1 tsp
  • Sugar1–2 tsp
  • Light soy sauce½ tsp
  • Ketchup (for color, if tomatoes are pale)1 tsp
  • Salt, to finishto taste
  • Neutral oil (peanut, canola)3 tbsp
  • Toasted sesame oil½ tsp
  • Scallion greens, sliced1 stalk
做法Method
  1. Wake up the shrimpToss the shrimp with the salt and baking soda and leave them 15 minutes in the fridge. Rinse thoroughly under cold water — leftover soda tastes soapy — then pat them properly dry. Coat with cornstarch, Shaoxing, and white pepper. This thin jacket is what keeps them plump instead of rubbery.
  2. Peel the tomatoesScore a shallow X in the bottom of each, drop into boiling water for 30 seconds, then into ice water. The skins slip off. Cut into 6 wedges each, and as you go, scoop the seedy jelly into a separate bowl from the firm flesh — the jelly becomes the sauce, the flesh stays in pieces.
  3. Beat the eggsWhisk eggs with salt, water, and Shaoxing until uniformly yellow with a light foam on top — about 30 seconds. Season now, never after; salt added later sits on the surface and weeps water.
  4. Sear the shrimp — undercook themHeat a wok until it just smokes, add 1 tbsp oil, and lay the shrimp in one layer. 30 seconds a side, until they turn opaque at the edges and curl into a loose C. Pull them out now. They'll finish in the sauce, and a shrimp curled tight into an O is already overdone.
  5. Scramble in big soft curdsWipe the wok, get it hot again, and add 2 tbsp oil — more than feels right. Pour in the eggs; they should puff at the edges immediately. Wait 5 seconds, then push slowly from the outside in with a spatula, making large folds rather than small flecks. Slide them out while the center is still glossy and wet — roughly 70% set.
  6. Build the tomato sauceSame wok, 1 tsp oil, garlic and ginger for 15 seconds until fragrant but not colored. Add the reserved tomato jelly and the sugar, and let it bubble hard for 2–3 minutes until it thickens and darkens into a glossy sauce. Stir in soy and ketchup if using.
  7. Add the fleshTip in the tomato wedges and cook 1–2 minutes, just until they soften at the edges but still hold their shape. Taste: it should be savory-sweet with the acid rounded off. Add sugar or salt as needed — this is the moment to fix it.
  8. Fold everything backReturn the eggs and shrimp. Fold gently — 20 to 30 seconds, no more — so the curds break into the sauce without dissolving into it. Off the heat: sesame oil, scallion greens, one last toss. Serve immediately over hot rice, which will soak up the sauce.

A Note from the Kitchen

Sugar isn't a sweetener here, it's a corrector. Supermarket tomatoes are acidic and underripe, and without a teaspoon or two the dish tastes thin and sour no matter how good your eggs are. Add it early, with the tomato jelly, so it has time to cook in.

Cook everything separately, then reunite it. Shrimp, eggs, and tomatoes all want different heat and different timing — crowding them into one pan means watery eggs and grey shrimp. Three quick passes in the same wok take ten minutes total.

Splitting the tomato into jelly and flesh is the trick that separates a good version from a soupy one. The seedy interior carries almost all the water and glutamate — cook it down hard into a sauce, and the wedges stay intact instead of collapsing.

Frozen shrimp are fine, and often better than the "fresh" ones at the counter, which were usually frozen anyway. Thaw them in cold salted water, then dry them well — wet shrimp steam instead of searing.

Variation — with yu choy, no egg (番茄蝦仁油菜). Blanch 8 oz of yu choy cut into 2-inch lengths: stems into salted boiling water for 45 seconds, leaves for the last 15, then shock in ice water and squeeze dry. Going in raw, they release enough water to undo the sauce you just reduced. Fold them in for the final 15 seconds so they stay green.

Dropping the eggs leaves nothing to absorb the sauce, so rebalance: raise the shrimp to 12 oz, add 3 tbsp chicken stock along with the tomato jelly, and finish with 1 tsp cornstarch slaked in 1 tbsp water so the sauce clings rather than pools. Keep the sugar — without the eggs to soften it, the tomato's acid comes through sharper, not less.