Eggs! Flamenco! Yes, it’s a stupid name! But don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!
After spending Monday night searching for the perfect egg coddler and re-visiting some heroin-laced shirred eggs, I had eggs on the brain. Somewhere in the recesses of my skull I also recalled seeing an episode of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef featuring some tapas-inspired baked eggs with chorizo.
Pork? Eggs? Cheese? Sign me up!
(Eggs Flamenco = manchego-topped eggs baked over a thick, chorizo-laden tomato sauce.)
It’s unfortunate that Anne Burrell is so singularly irritating as a television personality, because from what I’ve seen of her she makes some damn good food that she’s clearly passionate about. If she could just replace 50% of the “wonderfuls” and “deliciouses” with actual descriptive words that give me some idea of what the food tastes like, I think we’d be most of the way there.*
Alack, it is not to be and she will therefore remain irritating to me. I pondered this while I sweated out some onion and garlic, tossed in some chorizo, and finished it off with crushed tomatoes, pimenton and cayenne.
*We’d be all the way there if she would stop referring to food products as “beautiful babies.”
There’s not really all that much to ponder on this topic, so it’s a good thing the sauce pulls together quickly.
It was time to build the dish, seen here in the only photogenic oven-safe bowl I have. First, a thick layer of chunky sauce. Since I made a full recipe (serves 4) but we were only 2, there was copious leftover sauce, which Brian reports is good eating as-is with some crusty bread.
Next, eggs. For once, I decided to crack each egg into a smaller bowl before plopping it atop the sauce to guard against stray shells, even though I heretofore have had no difficulty cracking eggs cleanly. Wouldn’t you know that I’d totally fuck up one of my eggs doing it that way? I blame the method for causing me to second-guess my egg-cracking ability, and will crack future eggs confidently and directly into their intended vessels.
Finally, cheese. Note the overlapping pattern, critical to success. The finished dishes went into a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
Next time I decide to make this when it’s 91 degrees out, I’ll fry up some damn eggs on the stovetop and dump the sauce on top. My air conditioner curses me.
Luckily, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT to do it in the oven; the texture of the eggs – just-set whites, perfectly runny yolks – is killer. (A poached egg would be the next best thing.) The smoky, spicy chorizo was a perfect complement, and a layer of gentle, melty manchego was the coup de grace. On the wonderfulness and deliciousness scale it was off the charts, just as Anne had promised.
Eggs Flamenco: A silly name for a fantastic bowl of food.
(Also: Shameless self-promotion – vote for me for “Tastiest”!)
Eggs Flamenco recipe @ Food Network
I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, although I added some cayenne for extra heat.
Thursday Night Smackdown 
Mmmmm, tomato based, cheesy egg dishes, you are my new favorite addiction. This reminds me of shakshuka, if shakshuka threw on a sombrero. Which is nothing short of awesome.
I just discovered your site (dunno how, can’t remember). But… I have to say, you crack me up. Your description of Anne Burrell totally matches how I feel. You write as if you are talking, and I love that!
Now I’m gonna have to make those lovely Eggs Flamenco (but without the chorizo). You’re making me crave baked eggs! Spicy baked eggs! Yum!
wow that looks good!
I can’t stand Anne Burell either, for the reasons you listed: her lack of description and for calling all her food “my beautiful babies.” But you left out two other things: 1) Her gutteral sound at the beginning of every other word; and 2) Her creepy resemblance to Food Network Star Guy (I don’t know how to spell his last name without looking it up). He has too many shows already, and it’s almost like he has a third. And neither of them are as cool as they think they are.
You totally nailed how I feel about Ann Burrell. I *really* want to like her show, but she says “babies” and I change the channel.
emily, also awesome: the word “shakshuka.”
sue, welcome; glad you like it here!
cynic, tasted as good as it looked.
sara, yes, the guttural sound! what the frick is that? in her defense, however, she is far more tolerable that guy fieri.
coltrane, right? it’s pretty unbearable.
I feel like she dumps more salt on her food than any other chef I watch on TV. Do you feel like she might be over-salterer or is her salt “situation” entirely appropriate?
Made this for breakfast the other day and it was a big hit. I had some sauce left over, so I used remaining sauce in my version of Chicken Florentine and it was really good! (Grilled chicken breast, layered with fresh spinach, covered with sauce, layer of remaining manchego cheese, then broiled til cheese was golden and bubbly!)