Baked eggs in spiced tomatoes
Give your body a fantastic start to the day with my nutritious baked eggs in spiced tomatoes.
I have done this a couple of times before at Breakfast Club. I thought it would be a perfect breakfast for the Highlands, to fuel our bodies for long hikes in the harsh Scottish winter weather. Especially when carrying a backpack filled with 10kg of dog, I felt like I was doing SAS training. Ralph has torn both of his hind cruciate ligaments, which means he has to be carried everywhere, like he isn’t spoilt enough already.
It’s been a week since we came back from the highlands and the holiday blues haven’t quite worn off. My head keeps daydreaming of the quaint cottage with stunning views of the Brewlands estate out of every little sash window. I miss the fresh air whilst rambling through the rugged landscape, stumbling on pretty loch’s, the magnificent Forter Castle, and being rewarded at the end of each climb with a breathtaking view of Mount Blair and the glen.
Most of all I miss the walks to the Glenisla Hotel, stopping to enjoy a couple of drinks by the log burner. It was actually the walk back, not the drinks, that I miss. A place with zero light pollution does insane things to the sky, it comes alive with millions of the brightest starts. One night we were even lucky enough to spot the light green haze of the northern lights.
We went with the hopes of snowboarding at Scotland’s largest ski resort, Glenshee. We had plenty of snow and temperatures as low as -8 oC, but there still wasn’t enough snow to open the lifts. We took a trip up to Glenshee Ski Centre and the resort was a lot better than I expected. It had good facilities, a large mountain range, and enough lifts to service the slopes. We will definitely go back.
Although we didn’t get to snowboard we were blessed with sunny days to enjoy other activities, drinking mainly! A walk round Blair Athol whiskey distillery was fascinating. Seeing the production of the UK’s best selling whiskey, Bells, was a delight to the nostrils. By the end of the tour, the warm, fruity, malt aroma had me excited to sample a wee dram (local lingo). The whiskey was popular with other guests on the tour, but unfortunately I wasn’t converted.
Sticking to something I knew we would all like, gin, I booked us on to a gin flight tour at Persie Distillery. By far the best £15 I have ever spent. The wonderful Liz gave us an understanding of how gin is produced and the history of Persie Gin, whilst keeping the gin and tonics flowing. Persie have three core gins, citrus, aromatic, and sweet. Aroma is equally as important as flavour to Persie. The time and effort into developing the aroma certainly makes their gin stand out. As well as their core gins they also offer a couple of gins with unique flavours and interesting names, Labrador (as in a breed of dog) being one of them. It was interesting to see that everyone had such different tastes. My favourite was the aromatic gin with Merchants Heart hibiscus tonic. Other popular combinations were, citrus gin with rose tonic, Labrador gin with ginger ale, and the aromatic gin with tomato juice. If you aren’t in the Highlands in the near future I strongly recommend purchasing a bottle or two online.
Contents
Baked eggs in spiced tomatoes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 14 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
2 spring onions, topped, tailed, and finely chopped
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
440g tin chopped tomatoes
1/4 tsp smoked paprika, plus a little extra to serve
Good pinch of cayenne pepper
40g baby spinach leaves
4 large free range eggs
Salt and pepper to season
Method
- Heat the oven to 200 C / 180 fan / 5 Gas. Pop the spring onions in a pan with the olive oil and sweat over a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
- Toast the smoked paprika and cayenne pepper for about a minute until fragrant. Pour in the tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce, season, then turn up the heat.
- When the tomatoes are hot, stir in the spinach to wilt.
- Tip into a metal ovenproof dish, create four little wells, and crack an egg into each.
- Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the eggs are cooked. Sprinkle with smoked paprika and pepper to serve.
Tips
Cooking time will be longer if using a ceramic dish.
Delicious with a toasted wedge of sourdough, breakfast muffin, or slice of seeded toast.
Only use the white to light green part of the spring onion.
Try adding peppers and serve for lunch.
You will not get a runny yolk when baking eggs in the oven.
Breakfast Club is the best way to keep in touch with friends and family. Read my Breakfast Club post for more information. Get in touch, I’d love to hear about yours.
Lee
