Tomato, prawn and scrambled egg on rice
Tomatoes cooked down to a sweet-sour sauce with soft egg and prawns — tangy, refreshing and easy to eat even when the heat kills your appetite.
- 20 min
- Serves 2
- Stir-fry
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yin-deficient people often have a dry mouth, restlessness and hot palms and soles, and the sweating of Grain in Ear depletes fluids further. Sour-sweet tomato generates fluids and relieves thirst — the classic idea that sour and sweet transform into yin. Eggs nourish yin, and a modest amount of prawns adds goodness without dryness when balanced by tomato.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 10 min- 1Pat the prawns dry and toss with a little salt and the cornflour. Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt.
- 2Heat oil in a wok, scramble the eggs until about 70% set and remove; stir-fry the prawns until pink and remove.
- 3Fry the tomatoes in a little oil until soft and juicy, add the ketchup, sugar and salt and simmer for 2 minutes until slightly thick. Return the egg and prawns, toss and spoon over the rice with spring onion.
Cautions
- Not suitable if you are allergic to shellfish; go easy on tomatoes if you have excess stomach acid.
Chef's tips
- Use fully ripe tomatoes and cook them until juicy; take the egg out at 70% set so it stays tender when returned.
The TCM view
Tomato is sweet, sour and slightly cold, generating fluids, relieving thirst, aiding digestion and cooling the blood. Eggs are sweet and neutral, nourishing yin, moistening dryness and nourishing blood. Prawns are sweet and warm, tonifying the kidneys; a small amount balanced by cool tomato stays gentle. Sour and sweet together generate yin fluids, just what yin deficiency needs now.
