Here is a very easy dinner to make at home or on the boat. It uses very common ingredients, often found in the fridge any day of the week: tomatoes, ham, leeks (or onions), eggs…This is my take on Huevos Rancheros or Shakshuka: eggs cooked in a tomato based sauce. It only takes a few minutes to prepare (mostly chopping), cook (let the tomatoes stew for a while), and most importantly, satisfies any appetite. Just add more eggs for hungrier guests!! My son likes to scramble the eggs and sprinkle grated cheese in the mixture, for a super rich lunch. I prefer breaking whole eggs in and cook undisturbed for a poached effect, but the choice is yours. Omitting the ham makes the dish a vegetarian one, and vegans might want to leave the eggs out altogether. By then though, you’re talking about another dish…
Serve with warm tortillas, on toast, boiled rice or even pasta. I happened to have loads of pumpkins and potatoes at home, so roasted a trayful of them and served the eggs on top. Bliss…..!
Eggs in tomato sauce
Serves 3-4 as a light meal
Ingredients
1 leek (or onion), washed and trimmed, thinly sliced
1 kg ripe tomatoes, cut into big chuncks
3 cups ham, chopped roughly
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic salt
6 eggs
A handful of parsley, to garnish
1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frypan. Add sliced leek and sautee until leek is soft (careful not to burn!). Add ham, dried herbs and stir. Cook for another 10 minutes.
2. Pour in the chunks of tomatoes and stir to combine. Simmer on high to medium heat for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens, stirring often. Season to taste.
3. Break the eggs individually onto the sauce. Cook undisturbed until the whites are set to your liking ( I put the lid on to speed up the process and keep the yolks soft and runny).
4. Sprinkle with parsley leaves, and drizzle of extra olive oil and serve immediately with roasted potatoes and pumpkin.
5. Enjoy!
How is your year so far?
For us, the last few days of January have been most hectic with 2 major events: school starting again and (probably more significant for Terry and I) the sale of our beloved boat. The decision was a few months in the making and it took even longer to complete the final move. I will spare you the details of days spent packing personal items, scrubbing and cleaning, carrying out repairs (as luck would have it, some of the equipment decided to fail us 1 week before handover!) and generally having it ready for the new owners to enjoy. It was a massive job, which combined with back to school preparations with the kids, made for a very busy time. Read More
Summer holidays are coming to an end. School starts again tomorrow and I am slowly getting my head around resuming the “back to school” routine: alarm clock set for 6.30am-check, new school stationery-check, uniforms washed and ready-check, school shoes polished- not quite I am leaving it to the kids, lunches organised-working on it…
To be honest, we are still in a holiday mood and are stretching the feeling to the very end: sleep-ins, lazy afternoon by the pool, weekend escapes on the boat, house and boat pottering,… the weeks have flown. All this indulgence was reflected in the cooking, where I am embarrassed to report that the excesses of Christmas somewhat spilled over into the New Year. I called them culinary experiments, you know, the recipes you’ve always wanted to try but never had the time to or the audience for. Read More
I realise that we are well into January, and it seems like a blur since the end of the year festivities. I hope you all had a fabulous time for Christmas and New Year with loved ones, near and far, young and old, on land or at sea…and since 2016 will last for another 11 ½ months, I don’t think it is too late for me to wish you all a very Happy New Year!!
In Australia, summer starts on Dec 1 and we were lucky enough to spend our first summer weekend on the boat, cruising around the Sydney Harbour. I say lucky because the opportunity doesn’t present itself that often, as we live a few hours away by boat. But this time, the boat had been in the city all week for maintenance, and being launched back in the water on a Friday, we thought we’d make the most of our time in the harbour before heading back south. We were kids free (they both had a busy social schedule, apparently more fun than hanging out with us on board!), the weather forecast was for a balmy 30C and sunny days and for once, we didn’t have anything on!
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