If you watched Nigellisima on BBC2 the other night, then you might recognise this recipe.  She calls her version eggs in purgatory.  I like to make something similar but I’ve adapted it and made it into a sort of huevos rancheros.  Beefed it up, added some chilli and some spices and a tin of chick peas and called it a damn fine supper.

If you want to make this (and I think you should give it a go) then here is what you need to do.  The quantities I’ve used happily served our family of four.

So, first things first: assemble your ingredients.  You need:

• 1 tin of tomatoes 1 egg for each person
• an onion, quite finely sliced
• some garlic.  I used 2 cloves, roughly chopped.
• a pepper, any colour.  We used yellow. Sliced.
• a tin of chick peas
• a little bit of chilli.  Diced up small if you’re using fresh chilli, alternatively dried chilli would be an acceptable substitute.
• a spice mix of ground coriander, cumin, paprika, black pepper, a tiny pinch of sugar, nutmeg and a tiny pinch of cinnamon.  Sugar and cinnamon aside, about a teaspoon of each.
• A big frying pan with a lid.  The lid is very important.

Drizzle some oil in the pan, and add in the chopped onions, chilli, sliced pepper and garlic.  Fry them off, but don’t let them burn.

Mix the spices together, and stir them into the soft onions and pepper.  Then, drain the chickpeas and pour them in, too. Stir it all around.  When everything is coated with the spices, slosh in the tomatoes, and then fill up the can with water and add that, too.  Give everything a final stir and clamp on the lid.  Leave for fifteen minutes to allow the flavours to marry and the vegetables to cook through.

Now you’re going to poach the eggs in the tomatoey, oniony, spicy sauce.  Crack them in gently and put the lid back on.  It’s important to keep a beady eye on the pan at this point because the very last thing you want are the eggs to undercook so the whites are still sloppy, or overcook, so the yolks are hard and the whites rubbery. I haven’t yet got the timings perfected, and it would depend on how large the eggs are, but somewhere between 4 – 5 minutes should do it.  To check if they are done, give the pan a gentle shake, the whites should be firm.

You’re done! Congratulate yourself for preparing such a feast, and dish up.  We love to eat ours over a warm tortilla wrap with loads of cheese grated over. ¡Arriba!

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