Ranch Eggs My Way

Ranch Eggs 4

Our beautiful Carnarvon tomatoes are starting to ripen fast now. I made Saffron Tomato Relish yesterday; today I made Ranch Eggs for our brunch. I got the idea from a cafe in Daylesford-they practically gave me the recipe via the menu description of their dish. I added the spices and flavourings I thought were in it (or should be). We love it so much, I’m making the full recipe of sauce and will pop it in the fridge for another day soon. At the moment we have a lot of premium leg ham vacuum sealed and in the fridge, so I’m using it instead of chorizo (I’ve also added 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika to make up for the lack of chorizo). Ham is not quite as good, but I believe in using what’s at hand!

Ranch Eggs

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 chorizo sausage, skinned, quartered length ways then sliced thinly (or bacon, prosciutto or ham-whatever you have!)
• 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
• 1 green capsicum, diced (about 1/2 inch dice)
• 1 kg tomato, peeled and diced
• 1 red chilli, minced
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• 2 medium potatoes, diced and boiled until just tender
• juice of half a lime
• handful of chopped fresh coriander (or parsley if you wish)
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or more if you fancy it)
• Fresh crusty bread or toast to serve

Method

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1.  Preheat oven to 190c.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion and chorizo until the onion is well softened. Add the garlic and green pepper, cook a couple of minutes stirring, then add the tomatoes, chilli, brown sugar and cumin. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Cook for around 20 minutes, until the tomatoes have broken up and cooked down a little, then add the cooked diced potato and lime juice and cook a couple of minutes more, stir through the chopped coriander.
4. Spoon into 4, two cup ramekins or gratin dishes, break 2 eggs into each and top each with about 1/4 cup of cheese.
5. Bake until the eggs are done to your liking starting to check after about 10 minutes.
6. Serve with the bread or toast (yummy dipped in the dish).