Showing posts with label Salsa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salsa. Show all posts

Sunday

Earl Cooks Lit'l Smokies & Refried Beans with Eggs

I don't think I need to say how much I love breakfast...again, but here goes—I LOVE BREAKFAST! Any time of day, or night, and anything but cold cereal can be made into a good breakfast, but I always go back to something with eggs. Fried, scrambled, omelet, hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, and coddled (well, I have never had coddled, but I am willing to try them). In a frittata, on a salad or in a nog. And any meat goes well...fish, seafood, pork, beef. Smoked, roasted or fried. I will say here that I don't consider continental breakfast, breakfast. 

Today I wanted a nice breakfast and I had eggs, refried beans and lit'l  smokies in the fridge and I knew breakfast would be tasty. All I had to do was heat a pan, add the refried beans into the pan, add a few of the smoked sausages and heat everything through, and then add a couple of eggs to the pan and breakfast was served! All I needed to do was top the beans with a bit of my favorite salsa and sour cream and finish with fresh ground pepper. It totally made me want more!

Saturday

Earl Cooks Salsa Verde Poached Eggs in a Tortilla Bowl

You may be thinking at this point, if you have been reading my posts, that I only post about breakfast and/or eggs, but I eat eggs for dinner too! All kidding aside (yeah, that won't happen), I find breakfast the easiest way to experiment and perfect. It is my laboratory. I am usually cooking for just one, me. So when I saw Lidia Bastianich on PBS poaching eggs in tomato sauce, I thought "I can do that, only better!" I have a confession. When I see a recipe, I say to myself, I can do it BETTER (which usually means cheaper or with ingredients I have on hand). Well, I had everything I needed to do it her way, but why, when I can do it my way? So, I knew I had some Salsa Verde (Green) Salsa on hand, and I love Mexican food after living there for 2 years in the 70s, so rather than Tomato Sauce, Tomatillo Salsa! I would poach my eggs in the salsa. But I couldn't just poach them. I decided to make a tortilla bowl from some uncooked tortillas I had just purchased. Here we go!
—I began with the bowl. I placed a 10" flour tortilla in an 8" non-stick skillet and cooked it on medium-high for a few minutes to develop the shape. I then placed it in a preheated 350℉ oven to crisp and brown it, but not too much. It will come out with air pockets, which is good! Transfer it to a plate to cool. Now for the good part.
—In the same skillet you used for the tortilla, add Salsa Verde, I used Great Value from Wal-Mart, but pick your favorite. On a medium heat let the salsa heat to bubbling around the edges.
—Gently add the eggs, I lowered mine in from a ramekin into which I cracked the eggs. A note here. Everyone on TV says to use the FRESHEST eggs possible, so I went to my coop (chain grocery store) and got my Free Range Brown eggs. As the picture shows, they started cooking immediately and after a few minutes, they were done to what I consider the perfect doneness - yolks RUNNY and whites SET. The picture looks like I have a 3rd egg, but it was just a white bubbling up. Trapped gas? Well it was Mexican food!
—I transferred the eggs to my tortilla bowl with a slotted spoon, and with another spoon poured the Salsa Verde over the eggs. The picture shows how nice and runny the yolk was.
Conclusion:
This was great! My first real success at poaching eggs the way a TV chef did. I only changed all the ingredients and cuisine. It was delicious. I only wish I had taken the time to make refried beans to coat the tortilla bowl with. I will do this again! I even grabbed some corn chips to finish off the remaining Salsa!