Weekend Wokking with Tomatoes!

And I thought the potato was hard to deal with, but in a way, the tomato is even harder!

As of this post, this lone tomato is the only one I've been able to harvest from my garden. Soon enough, I'll be rolling in tomatoes.

Oh, I could think of a million things to do with it, but most of them don’t involve cooking, at least not this time of year. Right now, the most appealing thing I can think of is to pick a sweet little sungold off the vine and pop it in my mouth. However, that wouldn’t make a very interesting post and since I’m hosting Weekend Wokking this month, I thought it’d look better if I actually made something. As luck would have it, I found a recipe in my Food of Thailand book (see right side bar) that looked interesting and for which I had all the ingredients. I love when that happens.

I’m no history expert, but I’m pretty sure the tomato is not native to Thailand and is not widely used in Thai cooking. However, it makes an appearance in a few dishes, such as som tom, hot and sour soup, and Thai-style sweet and sour pork. It seems to be more widely used in Thai restaurants here in the States, where I’ve seen it served in fried rice and even pad kee mao. I’m not a purist, so I don’t mind at all.

The one thing to consider about stir-frying tomatoes is the ripeness of the tomato. I prefer to use harder tomatoes. In fact, those picked-before-their-peak, store-bought tomatoes usually work well because they have firm flesh. They will soften without dissolving, if you know what I mean. Using riper tomatoes will give the stir-fry a little more of a tomato-y sauce. It’s all a matter of preference, really.

I should also talk a little about the other ingredients in this dish because they are special as well. The first is Thai eggplant. Most of you have probably encountered these before. For those who haven’t, it’s a small round fruit (vegetable??) with an eggplant flavor. Usually the green and white ones are available, but there are some that are completely white and even some purple ones. These varieties have a lot of little seeds, but they are completely edible. I think they give a pleasant crunch to the dish, kind of like fish eggs on the outside of a sushi roll. Unlike it’s bigger, more familiar relative the purple eggplant, it is less spongy. Some people may find that steaming Thai eggplants for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on size) gives a nice soft texture. Usually I’m too impatient to do this. I just cut them into quarters and add them to the food, allowing an additional 5 to 10 minutes to cook. If you can’t find Thai eggplants, you could certainly use the more familiar purple kind or the Chinese purple eggplants. The only difference to the dish would be the texture.



The other ingredient is Chinese black vinegar. Often I see recipes say that balsamic vinegar can be used as a substitution. I would be hesitant to use balsamic though. The Chinese vinegar is a lot sweeter and much less acidic than balsamic. It’s also made of rice and not grapes. I suppose in a pinch you could use balsamic, but use less to account for the acidity.

Now for the dish…it’s tasty! I’m not saying that to be snobby. I was actually quite surprised. It was the first time I’d made it, and I was a little nervous scanning over the list of ingredients. I mean, two tablespoons each of palm sugar and Chinese black vinegar??!! I figured it would be way too sweet, but it turned out wonderfully balanced, both in flavor and texture. The flavor of the ginger comes through nicely too. For this particular dish I used firm cherry tomatoes, which I left whole. They held up to the stir-frying quite well, not tearing and releasing their juices. The result was an explosion of sweet tomato flavor with each bite. Just be sure to let the stir-fry cool slightly otherwise you’ll get a very hot explosion of flavor! If you want a saucier stir-fry, try cutting up the tomatoes.

BTW, the chicken is totally optional in this dish. I added simply because I had some to use.



Spicy Thai Eggplant and Cherry Tomato Stir-fry
adapted from The Food of Thailand
serves 3 to 4 adults

• ¾ pound Thai eggplant, cut into halves
• roughly ½ pound cherry tomatoes
• 2 tbs fish sauce, plus a couple of splashes to prepare the eggplant
• 2 tbs Chinese black vinegar
• 2 tbs palm sugar (or 1 tbs brown sugar)
• 1 tsp to 1 tbs sambal oelek (this completely depends on your tolerance for heat)
• 1 tbs minced ginger
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 chicken breast or two thighs, thinly sliced for stir-frying (optional)

I normally don’t pre-cook my Thai eggplants, but I did this time, so I recommend you doing it. Toss the eggplant halves with a couple splashes of fish sauce and steam them for 5 minutes or so, until they soften a bit. You don’t want them to be mush. When done, remove them to the side until needed.

While the eggplant is steaming, make the sauce by combining the fish sauce, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

In another small bowl, combine the sambal, ginger, shallot and garlic. These will go in the wok at the same time, so it’s just as easy to put them together ahead of time.

Heat your wok over high heat until very hot. Add about 2 tbs oil and when that begins to smoke, add the chicken. Stir-fry it for about a minute or two, just until it’s almost done. Remove to a bowl.

Add more oil to your wok if necessary. Throw in the sambal mix and stir-fry until fragrant, about 20 seconds or so. Make sure it doesn’t burn. You’ll know your doing it right if you start to cough on account of the chili hitting the wok. ☺

Throw in the eggplants and tomatoes. Combine with the sambal mix, but don’t over stir or you’ll break the tomatoes. Once the vegetables appear to soften slightly (about 2 minutes), add the chicken back in. Toss a little, then add the sauce mix by drizzling it down the sides of your wok. It should caramelize fairly quickly due to the sugar content. Coat the chicken and vegetables with the sauce and once the chicken is cooked through, you’re done! Remove to a plate, immediately, but allow it to cool for about 5 minutes before digging in.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

If you’re interested in participating in Weekend Wokking, there’s still time! Send me your entries before midnight on the last day of the month. If you can’t make this round, check out whose hosting in the future. And check out Wandering Chopsticks; she’s the one that started it all.

Added: Check out the round-up!

Tomato Soup Everybody Can Enjoy

It’s hard being the sole cook in the family. Having to come up with nutritious, delicious meals that both adults and kids will eat is not as easy as it sounds. And what about the shopping? Sure, it’s great if I have time to stroll around a store, but normally I shop during my lunch break. If speed shopping where a sport, I’d win gold. Did I mention I do it 2 or 3 times a week? I’ve found that if I buy for the whole week, a lot of food goes to waste. So I shop for only 2 or 3 days at a time. Then I get home from work and have to throw it all together. Anyone else in the same boat?

If it were up to me, we’d probably eat rice and a spicy stir-fry 6 days a week. But that wouldn’t go over very well with the boys. Nor is it a varied diet, is it? Once or twice a week I ask Sonny what he’d like for dinner. Allowing him to choose gives me a little break from having to come up with something. Even if it’s something I don’t feel like eating, I’ll make it. A kid has got to be allowed to choose every once in a while, right? Today he wanted tomato soup, and even though I wasn’t in the mood for it, I threw one together. To keep it interesting, I added a few Mexican spices. I got the inspiration off the back of a commercially available tomato soup, of all places.

When I make tomato soup, I like to use the sweetest tomatoes available. Unfortunately, tomato season isn’t until July or August. My own tomatoes won’t even be ready until August or even early September. Rather than use overpriced, bland, grocery store tomatoes, I used fire-roasted canned tomatoes. I think they worked out great, adding a little extra complexity to the soup.

Tomato Soup with Mexican Spices
feeds 4 to 6

• 1 tsp chile powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin, toasted
• 1 tbs dried (Mexican) oregano
• 3 large cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 28oz cans fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 ½ cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
• salt as needed, about 2 tsp
• honey as needed, about 2-3 tbs

In a large pot over medium heat, add about 2 or 3 tbs of olive oil. When it’s hot, add the onions and fry them until they are well caramelized. It may take about 15 minutes or so. Don’t skimp on this step because the onions are a large flavor component of the soup. Canned tomatoes, even good quality ones, are not very sweet so the caramelized onions need to make up for this. Add the garlic and spices and continue to cook for about a minute more.

Put the onion mixture and tomatoes into a blender and process it until smooth. To get a smooth soup, strain it through a fine mesh strainer back into the pot. I never waste solids; I always freeze them and use them later in something. Put the pot back on the stove, add the stock or water and season with salt. If the soup is too acidic for your taste, add honey (or sugar) as needed. Bring the soup to a boil then let it simmer for 10 minutes or so. Ideally you would make this soup a day or so in advance to allow the flavors to meld, but we still enjoyed it the same day. For an extra touch, you could sauté up some Mexican chorizo and add it in.

Serve with homemade Mexican crema (or sour cream), grated cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro and crusty bread.


This soup freezes beautifully, so if you make more than you can eat, freeze it for a day when you don’t feel like cooking.