I don’t know what you spent your Christmas break eating, but I ate egg stew. Bowls and bowls of egg stew. Honestly, I blame Mr. Gebert (a.k.a Chef). Not only did he give in to my repetitive egg stew requests, but he did so so delectably, with each egg more succulent than the last – he was practically begging me to want more. Then he’d go on to serve it with fried (baked on healthy days) plantain – you see what I mean? Beg-ging-me.
Today’s post is in honour of Mr. G’s tireless efforts to reel me in. Simply for the fun of it I’ve oven baked plantain in the shape of mini boats. I then filled them with a spicy egg stew and chorizo. Egg stew is typically made by sautéing onions, tomatoes and peppers together before stirring in the eggs. For this recipe I’ve made a batch of tomato stew (to help build the boats) and mixed that in with the eggs…you’ll get it in a minute:
Ingredients
Yeilds 4 Servings
Tomato Stew
150g plum tomato (fresh or canned)
½ a large onion
1 bell pepper
1-2 habanero/scotch bonnet peppers
100g stock
2 Maggi cubes (or 1 Knorr cube)
1 tsp thyme
Vegetable oil, as needed
½ a large onion, chopped
50g tomato paste (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Eggs
½ a large onion, thinly sliced
½ a bell pepper, thinly sliced
Olive oil, as needed
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp curry powder
1tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ a chorizo sausage, diced
Plantain
4 ripe sweet plantains, tips cut and peeled
Oil, as needed
4 pinches of salt
Finish
10g cilantro, picked
Directions
1. Blend onion, bell and habanero/scotch bonnet peppers with about 50g stock to smoothen. Pour mix into saucepan and boil for about 15 minutes to dry out – stir from time to time. Having lost almost all its liquid, the puree should be fairly thick and have a deeper red color. Add maggi cubes and thyme at this point.
2. Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and lightly brown onions. Lower heat and add about 50g of tomato paste if using. Allow to cook out but be careful not to burn.
3. Add cooked puree and stir. Simmer for about 10 minutes then add remaining stock. Stir and cook an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4.Heat oven to 170°C (350°F)
5.Cut plantain in half and cut a V along the middle of the inside curve of each piece to remove the center. On the outside of the curve, slice off the very bottom to create a flat base for the plantain boat to be able to stand. Save the plantain scraps. Drizzle enough oil to lightly coat plantain and evenly season each plantain with about a pinch on salt. Wrap in foil then place on an oven tray and into the oven for 30 minutes.
6.Cut plantain scraps into small cubes and set aside.
7.While plantain cooks, coat a frying pan with oil and place over medium heat. Add sliced onions and reduce to medium-low heat. After 5 minutes, add sliced bell peppers. Cook until softened then stir in curry powder.
8.Mix thyme into beaten eggs. Pour into pan with onions and peppers. Stir from time to time to scramble egg.
9.Once egg is just cooked, add enough stew to coat the eggs (should be about half the portion of stew). Cook for a few minutes to fuse flavors. Check and adjust seasoning to taste (careful not to over salt as chorizo is already salty).
10. Coat a pan with oil and place over high heat. Sauté chorizo until browned and stir into egg stew. Season plantain scraps with a sprinkle of salt. Reduce oil to medium-high and fry plantain scraps in chorizo oil until golden brown. Drain in paper towel and set aside. Pour remaining chorizo oil into remaining tomato stew. Reheat tomato stew and mix well.
11. After 30 minutes in the oven, remove plantain and let rest until foil is just cool enough to unwrap.
12.Place plantain boats on a plate and using a small spoon, carefully pour a thin layer of tomato stew inside the boat. Next, add a tall layer of egg stew, but be careful not to mess up plate. Garnish with fried plantain and cilantro and serve.
