Tomato, Shrimp, and Eggs - The Possibilities

One of my favorite blogs is Wanderingchopsticks. I have made several of her recipes and found them understandable, clear and yummy. I recently made a recipe of hers that was so fast and easy, I think we all need to add it to our repetoire. It is predicated on having the ingredients on hand (tomatoes, eggs, shrimp and rice.) But we takasissies usually have at least rice, eggs and tomatoes and from there you can build a variety of meals based on this recipe. I happen to have shrimp so this all came happily together.

I made a couple of small mods to the recipe. It was really good and I can see the possibilities in this recipe. It can easily be turned into an indian dish (southern or northern), mexican, italian, etc. with an adjustment to the spices. Here is the recipe with my notes at the bottom:

Chinese Tomato Egg Shrimp Stir-Fry

modified from Wandering Chopsticks

Ingredients:

3 eggs, scrambled (seasoned w/fish sauce* and white pepper)

3 Roma tomatoes chopped OR 1c.canned diced tomatoes

handful Shrimp peeled & deveined (I figure for this type of dish 5-6 per person)

¼ c. onions sliced

1 small clove garlic minced

Optional: A pinch of sugar and/or salt.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion

Instructions:

1. Peel and devein the shrimp. Chop into 3 pieces each. Set aside.
2. Heat skillet or wok with oil and when hot add the onions & garlic, stir fry until soft and translucent.
3. Add tomatoes and simmer on medium heat until softened. Add raw shrimp.
4. While the shrimp and tomatoes are cooking, scramble the eggs and leave them in big pieces.
5. Check on the tomatoes and see if they've softened. Add in the eggs along with just a pinch of salt and sugar.
6. Then gently stir the mixture. You want to keep the egg pieces as whole as possible so the mixture doesn't become mush.
7. Garnish with cilantro/green onions. Serve with rice.

Thoughts:

Indian: At step 2: OMIT onions and garlic use Hing instead.Add curry leaves and cumin seeds. At Step 3: Add turmeric, coriander pwdr, grated ginger. At step 5: Optional: add 1 tsp-tbs of tamarind and a slurp of coconut milk. At step 7: heat mustard seeds and red chili. When seeds sputter add to tomato egg mixture.

Mexican: add chili powder, more onions and garlic, and crushed chicarones. Garnish with fresh salsa: cilantro, lime, red onion, jalepeno.

European: use basil leaves as garnish. Add thyme to the tomato base and a splash of red wine. For Greek use oregano and maybe a little cinnamon and anise flavored alcohol or fennel also works. For Hungarian, paprika and marjoram and more garlic maybe a bay leaf.

This is one of those versatile recipes that can move into whatever region you want.

Read more:
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-tomato-egg-shrimp-stirfry.html#ixzz0d1pBKLDG