Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes -- a recipe from the The Egg Basket of the World

In 1879 Lyman Byce and Isaac Dias invented the first reliably working incubator for hatching eggs in Petaluma, California.  This sparked the creation of egg ranches in the area and, by 1917, Petaluma was considered the "undisputed" world leader of the chicken and egg industry.

The town embraced this and unabashedly promoted itself and its industry as "The Egg Basket of the World", offering a National Egg Day which included a parade with an Egg Queen and her court of attendant chicks, and decorating the town with giant plaster egg baskets and roosters.  In 1918, Petaluma reported producing 16 million dozen eggs.

In 1927, the Petaluma High School Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) published The Egg Basket Cook Book to help finance the PTA activities as well as promote the industry and share their egg-cooking knowledge.

The book is basically what I call a "ladies' group" cookbook because most (if not all) the recipes were submitted by Petaluma locals.  I value these recipes because no one is going to submit a recipe that they think is subpar, knowing their neighbors might try them.  The recipes are tried and true.

I chose the "Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes" recipe in the "From the Egg Basket" section on page 27.  This section also addresses the food value of eggs and methods of cooking them.  What is amusing about the entire book is that no recipe has "eggs" in them -- the word is always written as "EGGS".

Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes  -- M.P.

3 tomatoes

3 EGGS

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons buttered crumbs

3 slices of bacon

Breakfast!

Scoop out centers of large ripe tomatoes.  Break an EGG into each, season and cover with crumbs and lay a slice of bacon on each.  Bake in a moderate oven.  Turn bacon once while cooking.  Place under broiler to brown bacon.

My Notes

I noticed the pattern of one egg and one slice of bacon per tomato.  I only needed two servings, so I reduced everything down to enough for two.

The oven was set to 350 degrees F.  

I sliced the top of the tomatoes off with a knife then used a spoon to scoop out the centers.

Each tomato was set in a glass baking dish before I put the egg inside.

I didn't bother with buttered crumbs as I figured the bacon would drop grease onto them.  I cut the bacon slice in half and put the pieces as an "X" over the top.

I baked the tomatoes for 25 minutes.  See comments below.

Halfway through.  Time to turn the bacon.

Done. (Almost)

The Verdict

I served it with toast and juice.

A tidy breakfast.

Twenty-five mintues was not enough time.  The tomato was somewhat cooked, but the egg was raw.  

So I tried again, turning the temperature down to 325 degrees and cooking for 45 minutes.  The tomatoes were cooked through (skin split and the rest was soft) and the eggs were cooked.  But the yolks were solid, and I really wanted runny yolks.

I kept trying through several attempts.  I kept getting either raw eggs (325 degrees and 35 minutes) or solid yolks.

My observation is that the timing depends on the thickness of the tomato.  If the walls are thin, everything cooks quickly.  Thick walls take more time for the heat to get to the egg.  Don't be fooled by the top of the egg looking cooked!

Success, but it took a while.  The last time I tried it was with thick-walled tomatoes.  They cooked for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.  This gave basically soft-cooked eggs.  The whites were cooked but not hard and the yolks were soft but not runny.  The tomato was cooked through and soft.

I served it in bowls because the tomato released a lot of juice when it was cut.  Tasty!

It is not necessary to turn the bacon.  Just broil it for a minute or two at the end of the cooking cycle and it is done.  (I like chewy bacon.)

A large tomato can be scooped out so much that two eggs will fit inside it.  This takes longer to cook.

Make sure the tomato is shaped to stand upright when the stem end is removed.  Roma tomatoes are not very good for this.

If you want to read more about the history of Petaluma, see this book:

Heig, Adair.  History of Petaluma:  A California River Town.  Scottwall Associates.  Petaluma. 1982,

which you can access online by clicking here:  Heig.

Salsa á la española -- Spanish Sauce, a Pinedo recipe

Today I opened Pinedo's book to a random page and picked a recipe from that page.  I was happy to find a main dish, and my guest taster was happy it involved beef.

On page 241, I chose Spanish Sauce for pieces or slices of beef.  

Pinedo's recipe

My Translation

Spanish sauce.

(For pieces or slices of beef.)

         After the meat slices are fried in the pan, they are removed and in that fat, which must be very little, two chopped onions will be fried, leaving them to brown. To these, three tomatoes and as many finely chopped green chiles, garlic, a tablespoon of butter, oregano, pepper and salt are added. The sauce is allowed to cook over a low heat to make it juicy.

         Place the meat slices in the serving dish, covering them with the sauce and surrounding it with fried potatoes.

My Redaction

1.6 pounds thinly sliced beef steak

2 onions, medium sized

3 tomatoes

3 jalapeño chiles

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Heat a fry pan to medium heat and fry the steaks for 2 minutes or less on one side, 1 minute or less on the other.  Adjust timing to suit the thickness of the steak.  Add a little olive oil to the pan as needed if the steaks are very lean.

Set the cooked steaks aside into the serving dish.  Arrange them nicely on the dish but don't overlap them too much.  

Peel, core, and chop the onions while the beef is cooking.  Once the steaks are done, brown the onions in the remaining fat.  Add a little olive oil if necessary.  Medium heat is fine and stir them occasionally.

While the onions are cooking, remove the stem ends of the tomatoes then chop them.  Remove the stem, seeds, and veins of the jalapeños, then finely chop them.  Strip the oregano leaves from the stems and chop them finely.

Once the onions are browned, add the tomatoes, chiles, oregano, garlic, butter, salt, and pepper.  Mix them well and turn the heat to low (2 or 3 out of 10).  Let the sauce simmer.  Cook until all the vegetables are soft and the flavors are melded; for me that was 15 to 20 minutes.

Spoon the hot sauce over the top of the meat, until the surfaces are completely covered.  If desired, place fried potatoes around the meat.  Serve immediately.

My Notes

Some of my steaks were very thin and cooked quickly.  I cooked one at a time.

I was being careful not to make the dish too spicy chile hot, so I made sure the seeds and veins were removed.  

I added the rest of the ingredients when the onions were somewhat cooked and a little brown.  Perhaps I should have taken them to carmelized.

My choice of fried potatoes was not available to Señorita Pinedo:  I baked frozen french fries in my oven.  

I arranged them better after this picture.  

I called this browned.

To give you a feel for their relative sizes.

All ingredients in the pan.

Well-mixed and starting to cook.

Done!

The Verdict

The sauce wasn't particularly "juicy" but it was very moist, which I liked.  The sauce was not runny.

I spooned most of it over the top of the steaks, which were cool but the sauce was hot enough to warm them back up again.  The steaks were completely hidden from view.

Then I placed the fried potatoes on the sides of the platter, where they would fit.  I noticed they started soaking up the released juices from the steaks.

A delightful presentation!

It was easy to pick up a piece of steak with sauce piled on it using a wide serving fork.  I successfully transfered each piece to a plate.  Then I used the fork to put potatoes on the plate.  That was dinner, along with some cabernet wine.

And wine!

The combination of sauce with beef was good!  Each bite was meaty with the tender vegetables' flavors included.  It was not a robust sauce -- not strongly flavored.  But I enjoyed the onions, tomatoes, and the unique flavor the chiles added.  In a way, I am glad the sauce did not dominate the meat as I wanted to taste both.  Overall, a very pleasant main dish.

I kept getting a "ratatouille" vibe from the sauce, but with chiles instead of squash.  I liked it and so did my guest taster.  We both felt the pepper quantity was just right.  I liked the salt level but he added more salt to his food.  (We both salted the potatoes.)

I think I would add more oregano next time, to make the sauce just a little more interesting.  But not much. 

The sauce was also good spooned over the potatoes.  

Success!

I look forward to trying the leftovers.  Hopefully the flavors developed even more.