Monday, March 15, 2010

Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

I love poached eggs because I love the acidity with the eggs.  I also love eggs done in a kind of Tex Mex style with tomatoes or beans or veggies.  I've mentioned before but my go to easy meal is eggs with a cube of frozen cilantro from Trader Joe's, red pepper flakes, and slightly sautéed green peppers and onions, topped with cheese and Paul Newman's (or Target's) black bean and corn salsa.  This kind of combined the two.  Poaching eggs in tomato sauce rather than water?  Genius! (I wish it was my idea, but the idea came from either google reader or Smitten Kitchen, go figure)

So my friend came over to cook and bake on Saturday (see previous post for the results of baking).  We had high hopes of making something fantastic we couldn't really make for ourselves.  But by the time we got together we were both pretty hungry.  So these became a form of "throw together what i have lying around eggs" with slightly Tex-Mex influences.  I made the sauce, she made home fries with potatoes and peppers, so I can't tell you what that was, but here's what I did.  Note that she did not salt the potatoes and I used one can of no salt added tomato sauce, I actually thought they could have used more salt.  It's actually kind of growing on me, I still do not salt my pasta water (to my family's dismay) or my eggs, potatoes, or vegetables.  But when I am adding lots spices, making beans, in oatmeal, or in tomato based things, I do add salt.  I get everything no salt added and add significantly less than the regular stuff though.  And I use sea salt (Kosher salt for baking).

16 oz tomato sauce (this might have been a little much for serving, but was a good amount for cooking)
1 clove garlic minced
1 shallot minced
Oil for cooking garlic and shallot
Swig of red wine (optional, I think the Trader Joe's Cabernet Sauvignon was maybe a little too intense for this recipe)
Dash of sugar
Oregano, basil, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, salt and really anything else to taste
Fresh cilantro
Leftover tomato, chopped into chunks
4 eggs

Cook the garlic and shallot in a wide, preferably shallow pan until brown.  Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, sugar, and spices, bring to a boil, stirring as needed.

Crack the eggs into the tomato sauce, keeping them as spaced out as possible.  The good news about tomato sauce is they won't wander into each other, but you don't want to crack them on top of each other either.  Cook for 5 minutes until whites are kind of white.  Then cover and remove from heat and allow to finish cooking for about 2-3 more minutes.

Serve over bread or potatoes or any other choice of carbs.  Make sure to include lots of the tomato sauce.  We put mozzarella cheese on top, any cheese would probably be fine, maybe even a pepper jack or something with a little spice.  You might also want to throw some beans in or near the tomato sauce to make it even more Tex-Mex.

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