Mexican egg cups with roasted tomato and chile sauce

Sometimes you want something a little flavourful for breakfast (or even breakfast for dinner). Some members of our household (never me) go running on Sunday mornings and I tend to take that time to whip up a breakfast/brunch that’s a bit heartier and more complicated. Also if you’re just hosting friends for brunch and want a dish that will impress, give this recipe a try. These eggs in a spicy tomato sauce served in a crispy tortilla bowl look nice and offer up some delightful Mexican flavours.

As with many chile sauces, the chile you use defines the flavour. I’ve provided a few options below. You can really use any dried chile so explore something new. I like to use costeño amarillo, which I brought back from Oaxaca, Mexico. This doesn’t work as well with fresh chiles.

Yield: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

Chile sauce 

Makes 1.5 cups sauce

chiles*
1/2 onion
3 roma tomatoes or 2 dozen cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1/4 tsp freshly ground cumin
1/2 tsp of sugar
juice of half a lime
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

* I used 3 costeno amarillo chiles (med spicy) – this would also work with 3 dried red chiles that you find in the stores (spicy), 2 guajillo chiles (fruity not too spicy), 1 pasilla chile (earthy not too spicy), 2 chipotle chiles (smokey and medium spicy)

4 fresh corn tortillas
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese (cheddar, jack, queso fresco)
1/2 avocado, thinly sliced
Bit of finely chopped tomatoes or pico de gallo


To make tortilla bowls:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Make sure your tortillas are soft and pliable so they don’t crack. If they are a bit dry, sprinkle them with water, wrap in a damp paper towel, and microwave for about 30 seconds.

Spray each tortilla all over with some cooking spray. Then manoeuvre the tortilla into an oven-proof dish (I used some onion soup bowls) so they’ll create a bowl. Bake for about 10 minutes until lightly browned and crispy. Set aside when ready. Don’t remove from the bowls.

To make the sauce:

Stem and seed the dried chiles. If using larger chiles, splitting them open so you can flatten them. Heat up a comal or a non-stick frying pan and dry roast the chiles in the pan. Heat them for about 20 seconds on each side, flattening with a spatula, so they get soft. Be very careful not to blacken the skin otherwise your sauce will be bitter. Wispy smoke is okay, more than that they’ll be burnt and bitter. Place the roasted chiles in a small bowl of boiling water for 20 minutes so they can rehydrate.

Thickly slice the onion. Put it along with the garlic with its skin still on, onto the comal or frying pan. Roast them until they are blackened on both sides. Put the tomatoes on as well. If you’re using larger ones, they’ll take a bit longer to roast. Turn them frequently until blackened all over. The cherry tomatoes won’t take very long. Let them get black on one side then roll over so they get another blackened area. Don’t let them burst open because it’s messy and you’ll lose most of the meaty good stuff.

With the garlic, once it’s ready put to the side and let cool, then slip off the skin. Put the other roasted ingredients as they’re ready into the jar of a blender. Add the cumin, oregano, salt, and sugar as well as the rehydrated chiles and 1/2 cup of the chile water. Blend it all together until you have a smooth, yet fairly thick sauce, about 3 minutes. If it’s too thick add a bit of plain or the chile water to thin it out a bit. Squeeze in the lime juice.

In a small sauce pan, heat the oil to a high heat. The sauce needs to really sizzle when you pour it in so test with just a drop to see if it’s hot enough. When it is, pour the sauce from the blender jar into the pot. It’ll sizzle and sputter a bit so watch out. Turn the temperature down to med-low and simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The colour will darken and the simmering allows the flavours to all blend together. If it begins to dry out and stick to the bottom of the pot, just add a bit of water.

Check for seasonings and let rest a few minutes while you bring it all together.

Bringing it all together:

Put the oven back on to 350F. Sprinkle the bottom of each tortilla cup with a pinch of cheese (or more if you desire). Put them back in the oven for 7 minutes or so until the cheese melts.

Cook the eggs. If you are an egg poacher, then knock yourself out and poach four eggs. If you prefer to fry them, then make it so. Cook them so the yolks remain soft and runny.

Once the cheese has melted, take the tortilla cups out and, if you prefer, remove them from the bowls you’ve cooked in and put on a plate. Gently place your soft eggs in the cup. Top with a generous dollop of the spicy tomato sauce. Garnish with the sliced avocado and tomato/pico.

Serve them up and enjoy.

© Gail J. Cohen 2017

What to cook with your tomato harvest 1: Shakshuka

Shakshuka, the traditional Israeli breakfast dish, is an easy and fantastic way to use the glut of tomatoes that home gardeners get in late August and early September. When I was a kid my father occasionally made (or more likely asked my mother to make) heuvos con tomate, a traditional sephardi Jewish dish. It was always very special because it was a very unusual treat. This shakshuka recipe is pretty much the same thing and probably why I like it so much. And as a bonus, it is pretty low calorie and low fat!

At this time of year, I’m eating at least one tomato meal a day. Yesterday was a three-tomato-meal day. I choose to plant heirloom tomatoes in my garden, so generally I do not cook with them but when you’re bringing in armfuls of the beauties each day, you have to do something with them.

For the most part, the tomatoes I have also vary in colour from yellow, to orange, to green, purple, and red so the sauces made with them don’t tend to be the traditional deep red you expect but more often a lighter orange. Don’t be fooled by the colour, the taste is pure essence of tomato! So use whatever tomatoes you have around but freshly picked ones will definitely give you the best flavour.

Yield: 2 generous servings

Ingredients:

2 large or 4 medium tomatoes of any type
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 roasted red pepper, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 fresh chile (serano, thai, jalapeno, or cayenne), seeded and chopped (optional)
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs: oregano, parsley, thyme, and/or basil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp kosher salt
pinch of sugar (optional)
Pepper to taste
4 eggs

Boil some water and blanche the tomatoes so you can easily remove the skins. Once you remove the skin, dice the tomatoes. You can remove the seeds if you want, but that is not time in my life that I like to spend, so mine has seeds!

Chop the onion, garlic, and chile pepper. Heat the oil over med-high heat in a medium-sized frying pan (I prefer cast iron for this dish). Saute the onions for 5 minutes or so until they start turning golden brown. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.

Add the tomatoes, roasted red pepper, herbs, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper to the pan. The chile is optional but the heat adds a nice dimension to the dish. This amount won’t make it too spicy but if you’re not too keen on the heat, you can use half a chile instead. Check the flavour and if it’s very tangy, you can add the pinch of sugar.

Simmer over med-low heat for at least 10 minutes, you don’t want the sauce to be too watery. Often with garden tomatoes there is quite a bit more liquid than store bought so you should simmer until most of the liquid is evaporated, up to 18 minutes or so. Check your seasoning and add more salt and pepper if you need it.

Once the sauce is a good consistency, gently crack the eggs over the sauce and delicately place them in the pan. Cover and steam until the eggs are done to your liking. I prefer runny yolks, which usually takes about 5-6 minutes. If you prefer the white and/or yolk harder, just cook for a couple more minutes.

To serve: using a large serving spoon, gently take one spoonful of egg and the shakshuka at a time and spoon into a flat, wide bowl. Sprinkle with the chopped fresh parsley and serve piping hot with some crispy toast on the side.

© Gail J Cohen 2016

Salsa verde: once you go green there's no going back

Salsa verde can mean a lot of different things from a totally fresh sauce to one much more complex. This version of Mexican salsa verde is tomtaillo-based and has become one of my favourites.  Of course, it was the very first dish that was prepared for me when I arrived in Oaxaca last year. So simple and so mind blowing. Enjoy it, over and over again.

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 lb tomatillos husked and washed
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves with skin still on
½ white onion sliced
1 fresh jalapeno or serrano chile
Juice of ½ a lime
2 tsp of oil

Dry roast the tomatillos, garlic, chiles, and onions on a comal or in a large non-stick frying pan. Once the garlic is blackend, take it off the comal and cool it, then peel and put it in a blender.

You can definitely use canned tomatillos for this. It doesn't have quite the same fresh flavour but it works and you don't need to roast them, just toss in the blender and keep going.

Add all the other ingredients to the blender and blend it all until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. If it’s very thick, add a bit of water to thin but don’t make it too thin.

Heat the oil in a pot and once it’s very hot, pour the tomatillo mixture into the pot so it sizzles. Stir and boil for a couple of minutes and then it’s ready to use in any variety of delicious ways.

Good tasting isn't always good looking when it comes to food!

The most simple dish involves dry frying a couple of corn tortillas, daubing some salsa on a plate, then layering salsa and tortillas, and toppping with some queso fresco and sliced avocado or guacamole . Makes a great breakfast. Add a soft fried egg and now you’ve some perfection. We probably eat this for a light dinner even more often than breakfast.

For a bit more of a substantial meal, you can poach or grill some chicken and serve it with rice, avocado and a bit of salad.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Blueberry-avocado smoothie

I've not really been feeling particularly creative in the kitchen the last few weeks. Lots of repeating the easy, well-tried, known-to-not-disappoint dishes.

This morning though, I woke up with a hankering for a smoothie. There was a literally a hole-in-the wall juice bar near where I used to live. They made an apple and avocado smoothie which kind of rocked my world. Never thought of drinking avocado but I was open to try anything made with the beautiful green fruit. So wilth that fine memory in mind, I tried this out this morning and it was delicious.

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp orange blossom honey
1-1/2 cups of 1% milk

Waz it all up. Drink it all up.  Smile all day.