Baked Eggs in Potatoes

 Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. I often will daydream about my next breakfast when eating dinner or trying to fall asleep. I love big, hearty breakfasts so when I came across the idea of baking eggs it intrigued me. Most baked egg recipes I've seen include spinach and add cream to the egg to make them very soft and creamy and don't seem very substantial. However, a recipe at the Food Network looked right up my alley so I adapted it to my personal preferences. I am not a fan of runny eggs in any situation so cooked mine til they were almost hard boiled, thus this dish came out more like a 'skillet' meal, which are favorites in American breakfast restaurants. 

It was delicious, and the cherry tomatoes added some sharpness to the potatoes and egg. When I make this again (which I definitely will!) I'm thinking of adding some chopped peppers (green and/or red) to the potato mixture and some mushrooms along with the tomatoes. Other than that it was perfect. And, if you're cooking this for a meat eating loved one, you can easily add some cooked bacon around the edge of the dish or some chopped up cooked sausage in with the potatoes.

Baked eggs in potatoes
Serves 2 as a starter, 1 as a main course

1 medium potato - cubed
1 teaspoon neutral oil (sunflower, groundnut, vegetable etc.)
1 small onion - chopped
1 clove garlic - finely chopped
2 birds eye chillies - finely chopped (if you like things spicy)
handful cherry tomatoes
2 eggs
small handful of cheese for sprinkling
fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Parboil the cubed potatoes until they are almost fully cooked through. Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat, add potatoes and fry for a couple minutes until they start to color. Add chopped onion and continue browning potatoes and softening onions. When the potato and onion are nearly done add the garlic and (if using) chillies and fry for another minute, season with pepper. Divide the potato mixture between the mini-casserole dishes making a small well in the center. Place the cherry tomatoes around the edge, then crack an egg into each, season with pepper. Bake in the oven 10-15 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking (10 minutes will produce soft egg whites and runny yolk, mine was probably cooked closer to 20), then top with cheese and put back in the oven until melted.