Flamenco Eggs

I am very happy because this month's theme on Little Thumbs Up is Eggs! I have been very fond of eggs ever since I was a little girl. My auntie loves to tell people that I could eat 6 eggs a day when I was small. How true is that I really don't know because I can't remember :) (PH in denial)

Eggs, glorious eggs! Oh how I love thee!

I love eggs in any form - hard boiled, soft boiled, omelette, steamed, baked, salted duck eggs, century eggs, you name it! And mooncake season is upon us again and I love those mooncakes that have salted egg yolks in them especially double yolks hee..hee...

And now for my first LTU egg post, I am doing a very colourful dish called Flamenco Eggs. But before I begin, I want to fulfil some friends' request regarding garlic press. I mentioned this instrument in a previous post and there was a request or two for me to post a photo of this garlic press.

This is how it looks like :

For anyone who is interested, I bought the garlic press from IKEA. I think it should also be available at most departmental stores at the kitchenware section.

Now on to my Flamenco Eggs. It is a Spanish style egg and vegetable dish. Does it look familiar? Oh yes, it looks very much like Shashuka. This I am guessing is Moorish influence in Spanish cuisine. I read somewhere that The Moors occupied Spain for some 800 years and during that period would have left an indelible mark on Spanish culture.

Flamenco Eggs "kah liew" (with extra ingredients)

This recipe come from the book Healthy One Dish Cooking. The ingredients are very basic - potatoes, onion, garlic, capsicum, zuchinni, tomatoes and eggs. For seasoning it's just salt and oregano.

I obviously left out the potatoes as I am avoiding carbohydrates. I also left out zuchinni as I don't like this vegetable. I find it rather bland. Since the recipe suggests that you can add bacon or chorizo for a non-vegetarian version, I went for regular sausages in place of potatoes and also for extra flavor :)

These days my ingredients get to strike a pose before I cook them.

I used only 1 green capsicum and a few small red sweet peppers. Reason being I don't want to end up with leftover capsicum. And for the tomatoes I chose to use yellow and red cherry tomatoes.

When you have tomato pulp like this, don't wash it away. Take and rub on your face for natural exfoliant. No need to spend tons of money on those expensive branded Alpha Hydroxy Acid concoctions. Leave on your face for 15 minutes and wash it off.

I find this dish easy to put together as all you need to do is slice the vegetable and then saute until tender. Then push aside the vegetables to create space for the eggs. Once the eggs are in, cover to cook until the egg whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

This is a very delicious dish which makes for a very filling breakfast or lunch. And it's nice to look at too, don't you agree?

I am reproducing the recipe below in it's original form. Feel free to use any suitable vegetables that you have on hand.

Flamenco Eggs
Recipe source : Healthy One-Dish Cooking (page 124)
My notes and adaptations in red

Ingredients :
- 350g potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice (I replaced with 3 regular sausages, diced)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (I definitely used more)
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced (I used 1 big onion)
- 1 garlic clove, crushed (1 clove mana cukup? I used 4 big cloves. Love my garlic)
- 1 red capsicum, de-seeded and thinly sliced (I used 2 red sweet peppers)
- 1 green capsicum, de-seeded and thinly sliced (I used half, the other half is still sitting in my fridge))
- 1 yellow capsicum, de-seeded and thinly sliced (I used 2 orange peppers and 1 yellow one)
- 2 zuchinni, sliced (I omitted)
- 6 tomatoes (about 400g in total) cut into chunks (I used 2 handfuls of red and yellow cherry tomatoes)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 4 large eggs

Method :
1. Parboil potatoes in a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan and fry the onion and garlic over medium heat for 2-3 minutes to soften.
3. Add capsicums and zuchinni and fry, stirring occasionally, for a further 10 minutes.
4. Add potatoes and tomatoes and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.
5. Stir in oregano and season to taste.
6. Make four hollows in the vegetable mixture and break and egg into each hollow.
7. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 8-10 minutes until the egg whites are set.
8. Serve immediately while piping hot.

Note : 
1. I fried the sausages together with the onions in step 2.
2. I broke the egg into a bowl first and then poured into the pan because I am clumsy.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out

This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #3 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.