Baked Eggs With Ham and Tomato

 

"Shelley had fallen in love with Max’s baked eggs and cheese almost as soon as she had fallen in love with Max himself.  They were in Paris when he first made the dish for her and the tour group she had hastily joined.  Since then each forkful tasted like that morning—warm, buttery, and bursting with full-fat promise." -- Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto

~ (A paragraph from Samantha Sotto's celebrated book, Before Ever After.  Taken from My Mom-Friday's post which inspired me to re-create the dish.)  

I am a sucker for beautiful words strung together by talented writers, and there are numerous times that I catch myself re-reading beautiful paragraphs over and over again - simply enjoying the moment as the words perform their magic in my mind.  Yes!  I am kinda weird that way...  And so that's how it was when I read the paragraph about how wonderfully Baked Eggs can make someone fall in love with you.  

Having said that, let me share with you that C is the personification of the idiom "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach."  Letting you in on that, allow me to go further and admit that I took it to heart that this dish can indeed make someone fall (more) in love with you.  Yeah!  I am gullible that way... 

Baked Eggs with Ham and Cheese Recipe
(loosely adapted from Samantha Sotto via My Mom-Friday)

Ingredients

1 medium sized onion, chopped 

2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped
ham, chopped coarsely
4 eggs

Parmesan cheese, grated
Mozzarella cheese, grated ( I didn't have any on hand, so I substituted with quick-melt)
Cheddar cheese
 , grated
salt and pepper

olive oil

fresh basil leaves, hand torn
Method

1. Preheat oven to 230C (450F).
2. Sauté onions and ham in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft.  Add in a tiny sprinkle of salt and pepper. 
3.  Remove from heat. Layer the ham-tomato mixture at the bottom of a baking dish. Leave a few for garnish.
4. Toss in some basil.  Sprinkle paremesan cheese. 
5.  One at a time, break eggs into small bowl, carefully sliding egg from bowl over ham into each dish.
6. Add in salt and spices.  I used my stash of Celery Salt, see DIY recipe here.
   
7. Layer the cheddar and mozzarella (in my case, cheddar and quickmelt cheese)on top
8. Place dish on middle rack of oven and bake, uncovered, in 10-12 minutes or until yolks are just set.
9. Top with remaining ham-tomato mixture and freshly picked basil leaves.  Serve with toasts.

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Kitchen Project: DIY Celery Salt

I am trying to lessen my family’s salt intake, and yet I wouldn’t want to sacrifice the flavor of the dish that I am cooking.  I have read from culinary magazines that the only way to intensify the taste is to add lots of herbs to the dish.   Hence, I possess an extensive assortment of dried herbs in my pantry.  In addition, I also have a few potted ones in my herb garden.  

Just a few days ago, my mother-in-law thoughtfully sent over a fine-looking bunch of celery  – thick, green stalks with substantial leaves.  I usually just throw away the leaves, but they possess so much flavor so I thought of finding good use for them.  I used the leaves to make Celery Salt.  

Celery leaves have a strong aroma, and is a wonderful addition when making soups.  I thought that making some Celery Salt would be a nice way to always have celery on hand.  Here’s how you can make one for your own kitchen pantry:

1.  Pick the leaves from each celery stalk and rinse with cold water.  Shake off excess water, pat with kitchen towels and lay out the leaves to dry thoroughly. 

2.  Once completely dry, heat up a skillet big enough to hold all the leaves in a single layer.  Toast the leaves over medium heat, careful not to brown the leaves.

3.  Remove from heat and let cool.  When cool, crumble the leaves to form small pieces and dispense with leaves that did not crisp up.

4.  Combine equal parts celery and salt.  I used fine-grain Himalayan pink salt as I have them in my kitchen.  I also added a few teaspoons of garlic powder and a big pinch of freshly ground black, green, white and pink peppercorns.  Mix to distribute the celery leaves evenly.  Store in a sealed container.

I immediately put the home-made celery salt to good use by making my kids favorite, Minestrone.

I got a profusion of thanks, coupled with "Mom, you're the best!"  Of course, I got a little help... The celery salt, the freshly picked basil leaves, and a generous sprinkle of Pecorino Romano! 

I hope this post encourages you to make your own Celery Salt! 

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