Baked Eggs with Chorizo and Potatoes

I am pausing the Indochina travel posts for a quick summary of the past 3 months since we came back from our travels to Indochina and want to close out the year with some fun pictures and a great breakfast recipe.

The biggest events in the past 3 months had to be Halloween considering the effort we put into getting dressed up and then partied it up with Michelle and Jeremy at the EMP,

followed by Mike’s birthday which we traditionally spent in Fish Lake with Sam&Sam, my visit to Irina scoping out Santa Cruz and Capitola, (a really neat Surfer town) and spending Thanksgiving with the Sudore’s.

The last 4 weeks have been extremely stressful, mainly job related but I did get to squeeze in some time to bake cookies with Astrid, set up the Christmas tree, decorated the house, bought Christmas gifts which then all led to yesterday’s Christmas celebration with Mike (The Irish) and Beatrice.

Happy for my friend Beatrice but selfishly unhappy will my friends move to Kentucky – out of all the places in the US she has to move to Kentucky – oh well – an opportunity to finally visit nearby Nashville.

Beatrice cooked a superb Filet Mignon roast for our Christmas dinner and we entertained ourselves with playing “Who am I”? A game where you write the name of a real or fictional personality on a sticky note, trade sticky notes with the players and then stick the one you received unseen by you to your forehead and start asking yes/no questions and figure out who you could be. Bonus point went to Beatrice for figuring out accidentally that she is “Jesus” jut by swearing “Jesus Christ” and Mike for figuring out that he was Angela Merkel (German Chancellor).

Since we don’t seem to be able to not consume at least 8 – 10 gallons of alcohol in each other’s company (that would be The Irish and Bea) some serious “greasy soak up the rest of the alcohol in my stomach breakfast” was needed for Christmas morning. I made this very easy and delicious potato, Chorizo, egg casserole. I usually cook the potato’s the night before and I also try to buy in advance (and freeze) some really good Chorizo from the real Mexican store. Don’t bother making this dish with the regular commercial chorizo you get in the supermarket, that stuff just dissolves into one big grease puddle. If you can’t get authentic Mexican Chorizo just make this dish with some high quality breakfast sausage and season it a little bit more spicy and add Mexican spices such as cumin and oregano.

Baked Eggs with Chorizo and Potatoes

Ingredients

2 pounds medium yellow/gold potatoes (don’t take Russets), peeled and cut into halfs
1 1/2 pounds fresh chorizo, casings removed
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 large eggs
A small chunk of queso fresco (fresh “white” Mexican cheese)
Warm tortillas and hot sauce, for serving

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook over moderate heat until tender, about 25 minutes; drain and let cool. Once they are cool cut them into thicker slices.
Meanwhile, heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Add the chorizo, break it into chunks with a wooden spoon and cook over moderate heat, turning, until cooked through and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape the chorizo mixture into a bowl and wipe out the skillet.
Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until golden and crispy, about 6 minutes. Stir in the chorizo mixture. Remove the skillet from the heat.
Using a ladle, make 8 indentations in the potato-chorizo mixture about 1 inch apart; crack an egg into each one. Bake the skillet in the middle of the oven for about 12 minutes (still very runny), or until the egg whites and egg yolks are set approx. 15 minutes.
Serve immediately with warm tortillas and hot sauce and crumble the queso fresco on top of the casserole.

I hope all of you are closing out the year with some great reflections and memories of the year 2016! I am looking forward to a new “fresh year” and especially my parents visit in March which I have to start planning here soon.