My entire household was down with a horrid flu for almost two weeks. The bug struck, and like dominoes, we obediently fell … sick. Raging fevers, aches and chills, multiple trips to the doctor’s office … not fun at all.
And all these during the busiest, final bit of home reno. The timing could not have been worse. But everyone has mostly recovered, and the apartment finally has some semblance of a liveable space, and I am quite the happy camper once again. 😀
Now, after being missing from the kitchen, this was the first “nice” dish I cooked after reporting for duty. It’s called Huevos Habañeros (Eggs Havana Style) and I absolutely love the sexy ring to it.
Huevos Habañeros.
Don’t you ♥ the cigar box in my photos? It’s so appropriate for a Cuban-themed dish (although it’s a Jamaican brand of cigars! Haha!). And no, you can’t get it at Daiso, so don’t bother looking. I salvaged it from a relative who used to work in a tobacco factory in Malaysia yonks ago.
I thought it was great to place flowers …
… or cutlery for serving …
… to jazz up a simple dish.
Recipe
(adapted from here, from Mary Urrutia’s “Memories of a Cuban Kitchen”)
Serves 4
For the Sauce
– 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
– 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
– 1 small green bell pepper*, finely chopped
* Although I omitted this, I felt I needed to keep it in the recipe because green bell peppers seem to feature prominently in Cuban cooking.
– 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 1 cup tomatoes, canned or homemade (I used Hunt’s Whole Tomatoes)
– Salt to taste
– Fresh ground black pepper to taste
– A dash of sugar, if too tart
For the Eggs
– 8 large eggs
– 4 tablespoons butter
– Salt to taste
– Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
– 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
– Pinch of chilli flakes
1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius. In a medium-size skillet over low heat, heat the oil until it is fragrant, then cook the onion, bell pepper (if using), and garlic, stirring, until tender (8 to 10 minutes). Add the tomatoes and cook until thickened (about 15 minutes), and season with salt, pepper and chilli flakes.
2. Lightly oil 4 ramekins or au gratin dishes and divide the sauce among them. For each dish, break two eggs into a saucer, slide them on top of the tomato mixture, and drizzle with 1 tablespoon melted butter.
3. Bake until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft (10 to 12 minutes). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley, and serve immediately from the baking dishes. Place each on a serving plate, to protect the table.
I hope you enjoy this comforting dish as much as I did. In the meantime, I’m slowly getting my momentum back in the kitchen … and behind the camera! We have been subsisting on takeaways for almost all our meals that I kinda “forgot” how to cook and take pictures already! Ooops.
