Spanish Baked Eggs Recipe

This was my second attempt at baked eggs and I was very pleased with it :) It's all about the tomato sauce that the egg cooks in. I like mine bold and punchy.

Few things I found that contribute to a really good tomato sauce in baked eggs:

• Use a dry cured chorizo, not fresh chorizo sausages. I made the mistake of buying the fresh chorizo sausages and this does not help to flavour the tomato sauce at all. I'll put some pictures of the differences at the end of the post.
• Use good quality canned tomatoes - look for the words San Marzano, and be sure to chop them. I used mine whole last time (I was lazy hahaha) and it was so difficult to eat!
• Red capsicum and smoked paprika powder - absolutely must add into the sauce. For a small amount they make the biggest difference from an ok sauce to a WOW sauce.
• Taste, taste, taste. Eventhough canned tomatoes and chorizos alone are flavourful, seasoning is still needed. I didn't add any seasonings last time because 1. Poorly written recipe didn't say to season. 2. I didn't taste because again, I was lazy lol.
• Canned tomatoes need to be 'cooked' and reduced to really intensify the flavour. I used mine straight from the can and into the oven last time - eww. I had a lousy recipe but I should have known better.

Serves: 2

Prep & Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pc of chorizo

1 small onion

1/4 of a capsicum

1 canned tomatoes 400g

1/2 tsp Smoked paprika powder 

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper powder (more if you like more heat)

2 eggs (room temperature)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced.

2. With medium fire, heat a pan with a teaspoon of cooking oil.

3. While oil heats up, cut chorizo into half. Slice the first half into roughly 10 pieces and set aside. For the other half, remove skin from the chorizo, separate filling as much as possible and sprinkle onto pan.

4. With low-medium heat, cook the chorizo until all the fats are rendered. About 10 minutes.

5. While the chorizo cooks, finely chop the onions.

6. Half way through, push the chorizo filling to a side and put the slized chorizos into the pan and cook for the remaining 5 minutes flipping over half way. 

7. While the chorizos cook, dice the capsicum.

8. Remove all chorizos from pan without removing the oil, keep the pan heated at medium-low. 

9. Add the onion and cook until slightly soft, then add the capsicum.

10. While the onions and capsicum cooks, roughly chop the canned tomatoes.

11. Return the chorizos into the pan and add the smoked paprika and cayenne pepper.

12. Stir in all the tomatoes including the liquid from the can.

13. Increase heat to medium-high until the mixture starts to simmer, then reduce heat to medium and simmer the sauce until it reduces and thickens, approximately 15 minutes.

14. Taste and adjust seasoning according to your preference. I added some salt and pepper, and about half a teaspoon of sugar to balance the flavour.

15. Spoon the tomato sauce into 2 cocotte (mini casserole dish), ramekins, gratin or terra cotta dishes. Whatever floats your boat. Be sure not to fill it up to the brim, only 3/4 full. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of the sauce.

16. Using a spoon make a well in the centre of the sauce. Crack the egg into the dish. Spoon the reserved sauce randomly onto the edges of the dish, making sure the yolk is still visible.

17. Bake for 12-18 minutes - baking time varies. Cold eggs will take longer to cook. Mine was done in 15. Once the eggs are opaque and not translucent it's done, they continue to cook slightly even when taken out of the oven.

18. Season eggs with some salt and cracked pepper, serve with salad and crusty toast. (In our case, it was leftover Dominos garlic bread!)

Here is an example of chorizo NOT to get for this recipe:

Credits: http://assets1.hallygroup.com/assets/Coles-Finest-Chorizo-Web_13081_1.jpg

The flavour is just not as smoky and intense as the real deal. Which is this:

Credits: http://www.jamonesibericoscastillaromero.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/chorizo-iberico-extra-cular-rojo-corte4.jpg

Looks similar but the sausages are soft because they're fresh meat, a dry cured chorizo is so firm you can use it to whip a bitch. The sausages are also a lot leaner so there isn't much fat to render whereas the dry chorizo is a complete opposite of, which is what helps to flavour the sauce.