Eggs and Peas - Portuguese Style

Eggs Eggs Eggs

We got 'em coming out of our ears.  Four eggs a day, but only two people.  Even if you love eggs, that's to many eggs.  And the usual tends to get old after a while.  So, what to do?

Encouraged by my daughters various challenges, I decided to cook what we had.  Well, we have eggs.  And lately I have been enjoying peas...so, time to google peas and eggs.


Up popped this recipe for Portuguese Eggs and Peas.  Why not.

I of course made a few changes....

Ingredients

4 eggs
1/2 medium union, fine diced
1 carrot, diced fat
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounce of mushrooms, diced
1 14 oz can diced tomato

1 cup chicken stock
12 oz frozen peas

Saute onion, carrot, mushrooms and garlic till onions are translucent
Add stock and can of tomatoes (with juice)
When boiling, add peas
When boiling, lower heat to low-medium
Add eggs, cover
When cooked, eat!

Now this is often made with a little spicyness - sounds like a great place for some Chip Magnet Salsa!  If you used Ghoulicious, you would not need to add garlic to the recipe.

I served with hashbrowns.  I am sure it would be great with fresh peas and tomatoes, but it is January in Wisconsin after all...

Next time we make it I will likely fry the eggs in a separate pan.  They really don't pick up anything from the dish flavor wise, and it is hard to cook them to the consistency you want.

Cooking with Chip Magnet Salsa – Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Creole is a spicy dish, traditionally.  Spicy both with heat (cayenne and black pepper) and with flavor (garlic).    That makes Ghoulicious is a great salsa for this dish, although you could also use the Garlicious if you just wanted to avoid the heat (but what fun is that?)  From the website http://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/salsas.html#ghoul:

Ghoulicious was originally planned to just be around for the Halloween season, but it was so popular, we just had to keep it all year. Our Garlicious salsa has been haunted by the world famous ghost chili! Beware, this one's spookily hot!

Ingredients

1 lb Shrimp

spray oil

1 medium Onion, diced

2 stalks Celery, diced

1 small Green or Red Pepper, diced

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1-1/2 Cups fresh tomatoes, Diced or 1 28 oz diced tomatoes, with juice.

1/2 Cup dry White Wine

1Cup chicken or veggie stock

1 Bay leaf

1 tsp thyme

1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 cup goulicious or garlicious salsa

2 green onions, chopped

1/8 Cup Flat Leaf Parsley, minced

Rice

Recipe

Heat your pan to medium and spray with oil. 

Cook onions, celery and peppers until onion are soft.

Add the tomato paste, cook, stirring constantly, until the paste begins to brown, then add the tomatoes. 

When hot again, add the wine, and turn the heat to high until the alcohol burns off. Add the stock, bay leaf and Thyme. Bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. 

When you start that 30 minutes of cooking, this is the time to start your rice

After you have simmered 30 minutes, add the salsa and Worcestershire.

Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce the heat to low and add the shrimp. Don’t overcook!  This will take about 3 minutes.

Garnish with green onions and parsley.

Serve with the rice

Cajun (or Creole) Stuffed Bread, aka Kolache, aka Calzone aka Pasty

I first had this on our trip to Lafayette Louisiana to help build a church - and had these in, as I recall, a Circle K Convenience Store.  Funny thing about the south, a lot of the gas stations also make real food.  And I don't mean subway or reheated burgers or crappy little pizzas.  I mean real food, 3 meat on a plate type of thing.

First Try - Creole Stuffed Bread

At this gas station, they make these stuffed, baked rolls.  Emeril calls them Creole stuffed bread, as does a blog called the Meat Meister.  Down in Texas they are called Kolache as they are in many other places.  Some purists, according to the almighty wiki, claim the stuffed breads are really Kolbasnek.  Whatever.  Basically it proves my theory that every culture basically cooks the same thing, just with different names and innards.  Call it a Kolache, Kolbasnek, Calzone, Pasty, Meat Bun - it's all the same.  And it's good.

What these are is spiced meat wrapped in bread dough, then baked.  In Lafayette, they were really spiced (but not hot spicy) and crazy good at 6am before starting construction.  Stuffed with beef, pork, spicy sausage, tasso and seasonings.  wow.

So I tried to make them

Of course, since we eat on a diet, mine are mo' bettah for you, if not mo' tasty.

I used Rhodes Whole Wheat frozen bread dough.  I am not a baker and I did not want to mess with the effort.   I also substituted other things in.

1 loaf frozen bread
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 onion tiny dice
1 stalk celery, same
1 tbs Penzey's Cajun Seasoning
2 Chicken Andouille Sausage, diced small
2 handfuls spinach, chopped up

Thaw bread according to instructions
Cut each loaf into three pieces

Turn oven on to 350, put in baking stone (pizza stone)

Toss all other ingredients into a frying pan, cook till done
Put in freezer for 15 minutes to cool

Using flour or cooking spray, roll out each piece of dough into an eight inch round or so
put in 1/3 mix of food
Roll into a ball (to tell you the truth, not sure the best way of doing that - I even looked on youtube and did not find good instructions...so i did the best I could - you can tell from the pictures it was somewhat variable and the bottom is far breadier than I remember at the Circle K.  Here are instructions on how to make a calzone - I think I will try a variation of this next time, but still try to make a ball.
Let rest 15 minutes

Put on baking stone, cook for about 40 minutes.

Let cool on baking rack for 10 minutes

Eat

Mmmmmmmm.  I will have to make some vegetarian ones also - Broccoli, wild rice and cheddar anyone?

Emeril's edition is here