African Eggs

It was a Friday in mid-November. I had the day off and the sun had glistened on the high hills above my home during the morning dog walk. Prior to cooking my lunch, which is the subject of today's recipe, I had bumped into a mate in the local greengrocer. I'd shared some epic nights out on the town with her and others from our crowd over the years. Things had changed for us both since those times as she is now a mother of two while I have a house to run. Later on in the day, as the sun set, I wandered around a nearby County Town with a bag of fresh laundry. As I approached a towering Mock Tudor Building I saw my old boss, still wearing the same waistcoat and trousers combo as he did when I worked with him, framed in the bay window of his office. It was heartening to see him still working away. These two experiences made it a day of memories.

A further memory rose to the surface of my present in the choice of dish for my lunch. I remembered it was a little over three years since I had taken a trip to Fuerteventura. I went there in circumstances that will not happen again. One of the breakfast dishes at the hotel I stayed at was Poached Egg with Tomato and Herb Sauce. I decided to make a similar dish in the shape of Fried Egg and Tomato Sauce. I decided to use Moroccan Herbs and Spices in the Sauce in light of Fuerteventura's fairly close proximity to this North African Country.

Perhaps I was trying to mark time with my choice of dish, the experiences I had that day and even the choice of music while I cooked. I chose Rod Stewart's 1975 effort the excellent "Atlantic Crossing". The album saw Stewart leaving his homeland, for reasons of finance and romance, to settle in the USA. In a more low key way three years earlier, almost to the day, I had left the County Town I'd spent a lot of my early adult life working in and went to work in the City for similar reasons.

The Sauce recipe comprised of:

Four diced Shallots
Two Sliced Tomatoes
One Birds Eye Chili
One teaspoon of Basil
One teaspoon of Ras El Hanoi Seasoning
One teaspoon of Black Pepper
One tablespoon of Tomato Purée with Chili

I stewed all these ingredients in three tablespoons of Olive Oil in my Le Cresceut on a medium heat, while stirring them constantly, for a period of 25 minutes. 

Towards the end of the cooking time for the sauce I fried two Eggs in two ounces of melted and Unsalted Butter and two tablespoons of Olive Oil in a frying pan for five minutes. In frying the Eggs for just five minutes I ensured they were not under cooked but I also ensured the yolks were not dry and were runny. That way when consuming them with the Sauce I could mix the yolks with the Sauce. 

When the Eggs and Sauce were ready I first served the Sauce by spreading it evenly on the plate and then placed the two Eggs on top. Tomato and Basil are always an irresistible combination. They were enhanced in this meal not just by the runny yolks of the Eggs, but also the sharp and exotic flavour the Ras El Hanoi Seasoning. This spice served to rekindle memories of breakfasts underneath Palm Trees and cloudless blue skies at the start of the Autumn Equinox of 2014. 

Two Egg On: the Runny Eggs sit atop a Spicy Sauce.