‘I’m sick, make me something to eat,’ says the girlfriend. Ordinarily, I’d make an elaborate sandwich or toss up a simple pasta, but this time I decide to try something exotic though I’m not sure why. Fortunately, there’s almost always a few eggs, sliced bread, a variety of cold cuts and Goa sausages at home, all of which are highly pleasing to the patient and also quick and easy to put together.
The girlfriend was thrilled with the end result and I did detect a distinct improvement in her mood.
And that’s not at all surprising. Eggs and Goa sausage are simple, comfort foods whose addition immediately uplifts any dish or any meal. Put them together and you’ve got an unbeatable combination: the creamy, gooey egg yolk melding with the spicy masala, pieces of sausage meat drenched in yolk or enveloped in the soft egg white – these are what happy memories are made of.
INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
2 slices bread
20 gm Goa sausages or chorizo
1 tsp Parmesan cheese or processed, grated (optional)
1-2 rasher bacon, fried
1-2 button mushrooms, halved or quartered and fried
4 tbsp tossed salad (optional)
butter to grease ramekins
METHOD
Pre-heat oven to 175⁰ C.
Cook the sausages in about 50 ml of water for about 5 minutes on a medium-flame. Remove the sausages. Do not discard the water.
Cool. Cut open the skin and pull out the meat. Discard the skin.
Grease two ramekins, or muffin tins, well with butter.
With a rolling-pin roll out the bread lightly.
Place the sliced bread in the ramekins. Press down lightly so that it touches the inside of the ramekin.
Divide the sausage equally. Arrange on the bread. Top with grated cheese.
Break one egg into each ramekin.
Place in the centre of the oven. Adjust the setting of the oven so that the heat is only from the bottom. (This is for OTG’s)
While the egg is cooking, on a slow flame reduce the sausage water till there is more oil than water.
Bake the eggs for about 15 minutes or till the whites are almost set (the eggs will continue cooking even after removing from the oven, so take them out before they are completely cooked). Keep aside to cool for about 5 minutes. Run a knife firmly around the inside edge of the ramekin to loosen the bread (Caution: the ramekin will be very hot so do this with gloves or a kitchen towel).
Carefully unmould the bread on to a plate. Top the egg with sausage oil, freshly crushed pepper and salt.
Arrange on a plate with bacon, mushrooms and tossed salad.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 1
Note: The temperatures and time are for a runny yolk. If you want a full cooked yolk, increase the temperature to 200⁰ C and bake for 10 minutes.
Antoine Lewis aka The Curly-Haired Cook 