One heavenly breakfast

Close-up photo of an omelette and tomato salsa

Her Indoors has been avoiding spicy food in the run up to Gracie’s birth and in the days since. This means my diet has been devoid of chilli as well. Normally we eat lots of hot food – hotter the better in both our cases – so I was becoming desperate for my fix.

In a quiet moment, I made myself a second breakfast to ease the craving. For some reason I went for a something vaguely Mexican; perhaps because I knew it would be quick; perhaps because I needed eggs, cheese, tomatoes, chillies and smokey flavour.

I can’t tell you how deliriously delicious this was. It was sheer joy, the like of which I doubt I’ll ever feel again, at least not in the kitchen. I suspect this will not taste anywhere near as good second time around either, but it’s got to be worth trying again, so for my reference at least, this is what I did.

Recipe for hot cheese omelette with spicy tomato salsa

  • 2 free-range eggs, beaten lightly
  • 2 dessert spoons olive oil
  • 1 third of a clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 large tomato, roughly diced
  • 3 dried peperoncini forte, finely chopped
  • 1 dessert spoon HP BBQ sauce
  • 1 handful Mexicana cheese, crumbled
  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. Put half the oil in a small pan and gently fry the garlic for about 30 seconds
  2. Add the tomato and BBQ sauce, and season
  3. Turn up the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes until the tomato has broken down a bit and the sauce as started to thicken
  4. Then in another frying pan, heat the the remaining oil over a high heat
  5. Season the eggs and add them to the frying pan
  6. After about 15 seconds, when half the egg has cooked, tip in the cheese
  7. After another 10 seconds add in the salsa, fold over the omelette and serve with a strong coffee

And that was it. Obviously your mileage will vary. You could try any cheese of course, but the extra spice and unctuous texture of cheap melted cheddar was just what I needed from the Mexicana. I’m sure any BBQ sauce will do the job – it’s the sweetness and smokiness that was important. Peperoncino forte are very hot, tiny dried Italian chillies, but a dried birds eye chilli would work fine – it’s supposed to be hot!