It's hard to say why, out of all the abundance of foods, humanity chose an egg for breakfast. Whether it's in its ideal form, or in nutritional properties, or in a variety of cooking methods
The cuisine of most European countries, North and South America contains original recipes for morning dishes with eggs. The only exception I know of is Spain, where the famous huevos estrellados, “broken eggs”, are not eaten for breakfast, but for dinner. In Cava Baja, Madrid's “glutton street”, there is a restaurant where people go specially to taste these eggs.
Mexican scrambled eggs
Huevos rancheros
Mexican scrambled eggs, or “village-style eggs” (namely, as huevos rancheros is translated), outwardly looks completely harmless. But it's worth trying the first bite, and a fire breaks out in the mouth from a fair amount of chili pepper, which is soaked in corn tortilla.
If you're making Mexican scrambled eggs at home, there's no reason to overdo the pepper. It is still difficult to get Mexican corn tortillas, but wheat ones are sold in supermarkets. By the way, it's a misconception that Mexicans themselves only eat corn tortillas. There is even such a culinary definition of Mexico: from the south to Mexico City – corn tortillas, to the north of Mexico City – wheat.
Mexican beans are served for breakfast with huevos rancheros. It's easy to prepare ahead of time. By the way, Mexicans do not soak beans before cooking, but this requires Mexican beans (more precisely, one of dozens of its varieties).
Recipe
Ingredients for 4–6 servings :
Eggs — 4 pcs
Bean puree – 250 g
Hot red pepper – 1 pc
Vegetable oil
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Cooking steps:
Make regular fried eggs: Crack the eggs into a preheated pan with vegetable oil, being careful to keep the yolks whole, and fry for 3-4 minutes until the whites set. The yolks should remain soft.
Spread some bean puree on the tortilla, then the hot peppers, cut into rings, and the fried eggs on top.
Ingredients for the bean puree for 4-6 servings:
Red beans, boiled (or canned) — 2 cups (225g)
Onion — 1 head
Garlic — 3 cloves
Tomato — 3-4 pcs (or tomato paste — 2 tsp)
Vegetable oil —1 tbsp. l.
Sugar — 1 tsp.
Salt
Cilant — 1 twig
Cooking steps:
Fry finely chopped onions in a pan in vegetable oil, add chopped garlic and finely chopped tomatoes (or tomato paste). Fry for about 10-15 more minutes. To make the final dish thick enough, add ½ cup of beans with a little liquid and mash with a fork.
Pour part of the liquid in which the beans were cooked into a cup, and pour sofrito from the pan into the pot with the remaining beans (so Latin Americans call fried onions, garlic and tomatoes).
Add sugar, salt and, if necessary, liquid from the beans. Boil the mixture for another 15-20 minutes. At the end of cooking, add cilantro.
In the process of frying, red Bulgarian or any hot pepper can be added to the onion and garlic. You can cook sofrito on bacon or fatty brisket, then the dish will turn out with a slightly smoky taste.
Italian frittata
Each of us has done a frittata at some time, perhaps without even realizing it. I love this tasty name, and I also love the very principle of Italian peasant cuisine: nothing should be wasted.
Recipe
Ingredients for 2 servings:
Eggs —4 pcs
Milk—1 tbsp. l.
Salt
Ground black pepper
Frozen green peas — 4–5 tbsp. l.
Herbs (chives and parsley) chopped — 2–3 tbsp. l.
Grated parmesan cheese — 1 tbsp. l.
Refined Olive Oil — 2 tsp
Steps cooking:
Mix the eggs and milk, beat the mixture with salt and pepper. Add chives, parsley, thawed peas and Parmesan.
Heat a frying pan (20 cm in diameter) with olive oil, drop a little egg mixture on it – if it starts to foam and grabs immediately, then the pan is hot enough.
Pour the mixture into the pan and spread it evenly. From time to time lift the edge of the frittata with a silicone spatula so that the liquid part of the mixture is poured under the formed pancake until the whole mixture sets.
Reduce the heat to a minimum and fry the frittata under the lid for 6-7 minutes. Frittata should rise by leaps and bounds, it will settle on the plate.
Whatever's left of dinner -with a few exceptions -is the perfect filling for a morning frittata. An omelet with all sorts of things is, in essence, a frittata, as the Italians call it.
Shakshuka
A classic Israeli breakfast, although the recipe came from Israel from Libya.
Recipe
Ingredients for 4 servings:
Garlic — 2 cloves< /strong>
Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp. l.
Tomatoes — 5 pcs. large fresh or 1½ cups canned
Harissa, or a mixture of minced garlic, hot peppers and paprika— 1 tsp.
Salt< /p>
Grounded black pepper
Ground cumin — ½ tsp (optional)
Cumin seeds — 1 pinch (optional)
Tomato paste —2 tbsp. l.
Eggs —8 pcs.
Cooking steps:
Fry chopped garlic in a pan in vegetable oil. Add chopped tomatoes, spices and fry over low heat for 15-20 minutes, cover the pan with a lid so that the sauce does not splash in all directions.
Add tomato paste and simmer for a few more minutes. Salt and pepper – the sauce should be spicy.
Pour in the eggs one at a time. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes until the egg white is completely white. If you want the yolk to turn white, cover the pan with a lid.
You can cook several options for shakshuka
Shakshuka with onions and sweet peppers:
First fry the onions and bell peppers, and then cook according to the recipe.
Shakshuka with sausages:
Lightly fry the small sausages
Israeli Army Shakshuka:
Put canned beans and corn into the pan (a soldier will always have a jar of both in a backpack ), after draining the water, then – according to the recipe.
From the book: Olga Baklanova. Open kitchen. Culinary ideas from around the world. Moscow: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2015
Photo: Shutterstock (x5)
Material first published in November 2016 , partially updated March 2022