Eggs Flamenco

Usually, women are more conscious about weight. We would like to keep our figure nice and slim. If not slim, at least fit and not overweight. But in this household, it's the other way around. Mark is more conscious about his weight than I do. Well, Ok, I'm just one of those lucky people who doesn't gain weight easily no matter what I eat. But of course, as we age, metabolism slows down so I'm kinda open to the idea that I'll be on a diet one day, if I want to stay within my ideal weight.

Anyways, Mark is not fat nor thin, he just doesn't want to gain for running purposes. Being a competitive runner, he thinks that the lighter he gets, the faster he'll be able to run. Apart from running reasons, he wants to stay away from meat for health and moral reasons. Red meat is banned in this household. Although he's not a strict vegetarian, he prefers veggies when we eat at home as much as possible. Chicken and fish are usually reserved when we eat out specially when we do not have a vegetarian option. He eats rice but not fond of it. So to comply with his food preference, I always browse for flavorful vegetarian recipes online and in cook books.

Here's a great idea for a light but healthy dinner. I found this from Marshall Cavendish mini cookbooks called Eggs Flamenco.

Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 medium size onion, peeled and finely sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 220g veggie bacon (optional), sliced
- 2 small green (or red) capsicum, cored, seeded and chopped
- 6 medium sized tomatoes, blanched, peeled and finely sliced
- 115 g of mushroom buttons, finely sliced.
- salt
- ground black pepper
- cayenne pepper
- parmesan cheese, grated.
- dried parsley
- 230 g canned corn kernels, drained
- 4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Heat oil in a pan over moderate heat and cook onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add the veggie bacon(optional) and capsicums and stir fry until capsicums are soft.
3. Stir in tomatoes and mushrooms (i also used some shitake mushrooms to add more flavor). Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, according to your liking. Sprinkle some dried parsley and add a dash of cayenne pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to pulp.
4. Stir in the corn kernels.
5. Pour the mixture in an oven proof baking dish.

6. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the mixture. Using the back of a spoon, make 4 small depressions in mixture. Break the egg and put it on top of each depression.

7. Bake it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the eggs are set. Serve hot.

Tips:
Be careful with cayenne pepper, it can make your eggs flamenco really spicy. It's also important that you make depression areas in the mixture using the back of a spoon to place your eggs. Otherwise, the eggs will be all over the place like what I have in the picture (i forgot that step).Also, do not overcook the eggs. As soon as it is set, bring it out. It gets chewy when overcooked, not very pleasing texture. You can make about 4-5 servings out of this recipe.

Smakelijk eeten!