I was given 2 recipe books for Christmas:
Nigelissima and
Cook with Jamie. I don't want to turn this into a food blog, but there will be a fair few cooking posts in the near future. Today's recipe was not the first (in fact, I have quite a backlog already), but as it's New Year's Day, and this was listed under the heading 'To Start the New Year', I thought I would post this one today. (See how far I've come?! I can do out-of-order posting, occasionally...). So, from
Nigelissima, Eggs in Purgatory... Or what to eat when you're feeling like hell... (Yes, that's really the subheading. No, I didn't feel like hell this morning).
Ingredients:
1 x 15 mL tablespoon olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled
1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1/4 teaspoon pouring, or to taste
1-2 eggs
2-3 teaspoons grated Parmesan.
To serve:
grated Parmesan (optional); chilli oil (optional); bread (mandatory).
(I feel I should come clean here - I estimated with all the quantities except the tomatoes and eggs. And I didn't actually time anything, just estimated - but I have excellent internal timing, if I do say so myself).
Method:
Pour the olive oil into a small frying pan, then grate in (or mince and add) the garlic, scatter in the chilli flakes and put the pan over a medium heat, stirring, for 1 minute.
Tip in the tomatoes, stir in the salt (I don't use salt), and let it come to a bubble. It's got to be hot enough in which to poach an egg.
Crack in the egg/s, sprinkle the Parmesan over it, leaving some of the yellow yolk still exposed, and partially cover with a lid. Let it bubble for 5 minutes (make coffee and toast), by which time the white should be set and the yolk still runny, but keep an eye on it.
Remove from the heat and serve - if so wished - sprinkled with a little more Parmesan and some chilli oil, and some bread to dunk.
Super easy. Super-carbed as well though... but I can get over that. With the first mouthful, I realised just
why this is great if you're not feeling so crash hot. And why this is such an apt name. Eggs in Purgatory are mighty fiery! Even with just a sprinkling of chilli flakes at the beginning, the whole dish was rather hot, and I had to get tissues and turn on the fan. This will be a dish for when I have a cold, for sure. The other tiny dilemma was just
how to eat this - I thought a spoon might be necessary but it turned out that a fork was just fine.
Happy New Year!
