June 2, 2016
This week it was my best friend and roommates birthday. Now I am never one to miss out on a chance to celebrate a birthday with all the bells and whistles, and this one was no exception. Because we haven’t lived in the same state for three years, I’ve been missing her birthdays which has been a real shame. So I decided that this year was the perfect opportunity to make up for the lack of celebrating by pulling out all the stops on her birthday and trying to make it really special.
I feel like every good birthday has to start with an amazing breakfast. It’s always been a tradition with my family that we start a birthday with ‘special breakfast’. We always had English muffins, ham warmed in the microwave, poached eggs and special birthday sauce over the top. When I was a kid I thought this was my mum and dad’s recipe that no one else knew about and could ever replicate. However I learnt in Grade 5 that it was in fact eggs benedict, and that you can order this in just about any restaurant. Not like mum and dad made though, partially because they used powdered sauce out of a packet, which I’ve always had more a soft spot for than fancy hollandaise as a result. It wasn’t so much what we ate, but that it signified a special occasion, and just made birthday’s that much more special.
When I was thinking of a special breakfast for my friend, I thought about what she liked. She’s a vegetarian and absolutely loves vegetables, so it was a given that it had to be packed full of these. I also wanted to make her something she wouldn’t normally eat, and decided that it had to involve a lot of cheese because this is just about her favourite thing!
I settled on baked eggs for a few reasons. They are something she wouldn’t normally make for herself and so they were a bit special, and you can throw in whatever flavours or vegetables you want, so they are really versatile! Because I needed to cook them before work as well I decided on something that I could leave to cook while I got ready, and baked eggs is the perfect dish for the morning multi tasker. I think the main reason I picked this though was because it has just started getting really cold in the morning in Melbourne, and nothing warms you up like a steaming dish of rich, eggy goodness in the morning!
This recipe was super easy to make but was so delicious and ended up looking quite fancy. It was the perfect quick meal that was impressive, which is what you want when you’re cooking breakfast before work. And the main thing was that my friend absolutely loved it, and the fact that I was able to make her day more special by giving her a delicious meal to start her day made it such a rewarding dish to make.
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 small brown onion diced
- 1 large clove of garlic minced or diced finely
- ½ teaspoon of sea salt
- A pinch of ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
- ½ teaspoon of paprika
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- ½ cup of water
- 6 medium sized mushrooms roughly chopped
- A handful of baby spinach leaves
- Enough eggs for desired number of eggs per person I did two per person so needed 6 for 3 people
- Optional: Cheddar cheese to grate over the top fresh parsley and crusty bread
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Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit). Lightly grease 3 small oven safe baking dishes (I used mini Le Creuset pots) and place on a baking tray. Set aside.
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Heat olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, and add the onions and salt. Cook until the onions are translucent, ensuring that they don’t go too brown. If browning occurs, turn the heat down.
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Once the onion is cooked, add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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Add the dried chilli flakes and paprika to the pan and stir. Then mix in the canned tomatoes, water, mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10-12 minutes, reducing the heat if it bubbles too much.
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Once you are happy with the consistency, add the baby spinach leaves in and stir. Remove from heat once combined to ensure it doesn’t wilt too much in the mixture.
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Divide the sauce evenly between the baking dishes, ensuring there is enough room to add eggs on top. Crack eggs over the top of the mixture in each baking dish, and top with some grated cheese if you want.
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Place the baking dishes in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the top of each baking dish is golden and the egg looks cooked to your liking. The whites should be cooked through with the yolk still soft.
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Serve with a bit of fresh parsley on the top and some crusty toast to dip in to the baking dish.
And that’s really all there is to it! I served mine with some haloumi on the side because my friend absolutely loves haloumi, but you can really add whatever you want to the dish. That’s the beauty of something like this, you can really add in whatever you feel like or have in your fridge. If you don’t like mushrooms, feel free to add whatever vegetable you like, or even add some ham, chorizo or another meat if your audience isn’t vegetarian. You can also make this dairy free by removing the cheese, or gluten free just by serving it with gluten free bread!
This recipe is really quick and simple to make, but was full of flavour! It was a little bit spicy which was perfect on a winter morning, and really warmed you up before stepping out into the cold winter air.
The breakfast was a massive hit with the birthday girl, but even more so with her boyfriend. I swear I’ve never had someone have such a positive reaction to something I’ve cooked, he was in absolutely food heaven. And then in a food coma resulting from the food heaven. It definitely makes you feel good knowing that people enjoy your food that much!
I was so glad that I could use this dish to make my friends birthday special from the start. She had a great day but I like to think that I’m bringing my parents tradition to others, which is really nice. Birthdays are meant to be celebrated and if you can make someone’s day a little bit more special by cooking them something delicious, it is all worthwhile! I look forward to continuing the celebrations with her on the weekend. I’m introducing her to wine tastings at the Good Food and Wine show which should be equal parts enjoyable and amusing.
Until next time, Happy Eating!
Ella xx
