Tomatoes always make me thinking of Italian or Spanish cuisines as they use a lot tomatoes in their cooking. But actually this is an universal vegetable and my mom has prepared the tomatoes in a chinese way very so often especially when I was small, as the sourness of the tomatoes are thought to increase my appetite. I was not so fond of eating at that time and feeding me was quite a pain.

This summer, we have a very good harvest of tomatoes, they came out so nicely. Thanks to Philly’s small tomato plants, it made it much easier for us than growning directly from the seeds.

as seen in #21400-TasteSpotting/10.09.08

Ingredients:

• 800g fresh tomatoes (any type is fine, I use cherry ones this time as they are bigger than the normal ones and I have plenty of them from our garden)
• 1 big onion slices in pieces
• 2-3 thin slices of ginger
• a few cloves garlic, cut in thin slices (I came across a real fresh garlic here which the stalk and the flesh of the cloves are still a bit green, see picture below)
• 500g pork chop or pork loin, cut into thin, small pieces of bite size

Marinade for pork:

• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• pinches of white pepper 
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1. Tenderize the pieces of pork on both sides using a wooden meat tenderizer or by chopping lightly, horizontally and vertically with a chopping knife.
2. Place the pork in a bowl and marinate with the above ingredients for at least 30 minutes.
3. Boil some hot water and pour to a deep pan, place the tomatoes in the pan and leave for 10 mins. You can then remove the tomato skins easily. Cut them in halves or quarters (depends on size of tomatoes you have) and keep aside.
4. Heat some oil in a wok or large flat pan, fry the pork in the pan until they turn golden brown. When this is done, turn the pork to a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil and keep aside.
5. You can use another pan or wash and dry the current pan. Heat some oil in the pan, and add in the garlic and ginger, fry for half a min, then add in the onion and keep stir frying. When the onion is almost cooked, you can add the chopped tomatoes into the pan, turn to medium high heat when it starts boiling, gently squash them and simmer for 5 mins. When the sauce gets thicker, you can add a tablespoon of sugar to it.
6. Lastly you can add the panfried pork back to the pan and mix into the sauce. I have modified a little from my mom’s version by adding a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce to give some spice to it but this is optional, you can also leave it out which is comepletely fine. Let it boil and simmer for another 10 mins and it’s ready to serve.
7. I would personally serve with rice as it’s my mom’s way and reminds me my childhood.