DAVID SWANSON’S SPICY EGGS
Note from Bill St John: This recipe was submitted during a Recipe Contest (for “your best-ever recipe”) held in May 2024. The first version is written in a breezy, collegial style that I have retained for this post. Amounts for the ingredients, as for Swanson, are up to you. (A second version is my adaptation and inserts measurements.)
David Swanson’s Spicy Eggs, photo by Bill St. John
RECIPE 1: David Swanson’s Spicy Eggs
This recipe was born out of a mid-summer garden crop and leftover taco seasoning. It is meant to be made with whatever pepper/alliums/tomatoes you can get out of your garden. Chorizo, bacon, or another fatty breakfast meat is a welcome addition to this dish. If using, cook it first and use as much as the fat as you see fit. I recommend adding butter, too. Using a pre-made Mexican seasoning blend will save time. There should be about equal parts of the onion, pepper, and tomato.
Ingredients (in order of appearance):
• Butter
• Onion, chopped
• Tomato, roughly chopped, no need to discard juices
• Pepper (poblano, jalapeño, hatch, whatever), oiled, broiled, skins removed and chopped.
• Mexican seasoning blend (cumin, paprika, pepper, chile powder, coriander, granulated garlic, granulated onion, something along those lines)
• Corn tortillas (or flour; I don’t care, it’s a free country), cut in half and then into strips
• Eggs, however many you want, however you want ‘em
• Cilantro
• Hot sauce (Tabasco is my preferred breakfast hot sauce)
Directions:
If cooking this as breakfast, as recommended, have a coffee or other morning beverage made to sip on while you work.
Melt butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, cook until soft, 3-5 minutes. Add tomatoes to pan with juices. Cook a couple minutes until black spots appear. Add roasted peppers and Mexican seasoning blend, stir to combine. Add in tortilla strips, stir until tortillas absorb liquids.
Add more butter; when it melts, add eggs and cook however you please. I usually just beat them and cook them scrambled with everything in the pan. You could make space and fry them also. Top with cilantro and hot sauce to serve.
RECIPE 2: David Swanson’s Spicy Eggs, adapted and measured by Bill St. John
Makes 1 serving, easily multiplied.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 onion, peeled and chopped
1 chile pepper (medium-sized if jalapeño or poblano; small if serrano or habanero)
1 small tomato, chopped
Several strips of jarred or canned roasted red pepper
1/2 teaspoon Mexican seasoning blend (cumin, paprika, pepper, chile powder, coriander, granulated garlic, granulated onion, something along those lines)
2 corn or flour tortillas, cut in half and then into strips
1 serving cooked breakfast meat (crumbled chorizo, breakfast sausage, chopped ham, or the like), if desired and kept warm
3 large eggs
Chopped cilantro, leaves and tender stems, to taste
Hot sauce, if desired
Directions:
Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, cook until soft, 5-6 minutes. While cooking onions, place chile pepper at edge of pan to sear and char, using tongs to rotate it for next several minutes.
Move onions aside and add tomato and its juices to skillet. Cook a couple of minutes. Add red pepper strips. Add Mexican seasoning blend, stir to combine. Set tomatoes and red pepper strips aside in skillet with onions. Lower heat slightly and continue to heat through.
Remove chile pepper; skin, if possible; chop flesh roughly. Add to pan; add tortilla strips, stir everything together until tortillas absorb liquids. Add in breakfast meat and stir to blend.
Make a well in the center of the pan mixture. Add second tablespoon of butter. When it melts, add eggs and cook however you please (fried hard; over easy; rough-scrambled; fine-scrambled; ask Dad what he wants).
Serve, topped with the chopped cilantro and hot sauce, the latter if desired.
Wine Pairings and Whys: The convention when pairing wine with either eggs or spicy, fatty meat is “Don’t.” On the one hand, ham, chorizo, and breakfast sausage are too salty; on the other hand, eggs are too gooey (they gum up the palate and block any wine’s flavors). But there are saltier foods than ham that beg for wine (oysters, for instance, and Muscadet; or, for another example, salted nuts and fish and fino Sherry). And there are wines that can cut through a moderately-cooked egg yolk. Many wines can successfully pair up with this dish, despite all that’s going on in it. That’s what zesty acidity, lean structure, moderate alcohol and low tannin in wines are meant for. For example, top-notch Northern Italian Pinot Grigio or Traminer are like liquid squee-gees for the palate; Austrian Riesling, the same. Since these eggs might well be served for Sunday brunch or breakfast, what the hey?, go for a lean, crisp Spanish sparkling wine or bubblies from Northern Italy, France’s Loire Valley or a sparkler from our West Coast.