Recipe Baghdad eggs with rice

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Looking for something else to do with eggs for lunch other than the usual soft boiled sliced on a wrap with mashed avocado and humus (given I am lacking the last 3 of those ingredients because my OH is not going to be home in time for lunch and it's a Saturday and we have nothing in...) I went hunting for some recipes.

The girls love rice, so I can cook extra rice, I always have the spices and lemon juice and mint is growing in the garden. I even have some coconut oil cheese which can be used instead of the Parmesan (me needing to be dairy free) and so I have my lunch.

It is inspired by this recipe from the Australian Eggs website (http://www.eggs.org.au/recipes/bagdad-eggs-with-quinoa/) and adapted to a dairy free vegetarian diet or more accurately as apparently it has become known a "veggan" diet (vegan + eggs - apparently a food trend of 2016)

Baghdad eggs with rice

Ingredients
1 serving of wholegrain rice, cooked
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
2 eggs
coconut oil cheese, finely grated (amount up to you)
Toasted flatbread/other bread

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350F, Gas mark 4).
2. Lightly grease a small baking dish with a little of the oil and add the cooked rice.
3. Crack both eggs over the top of the rice.
4. In a small pan, heat the oil, add the minced garlic cloves and cook until fragrant and starting to go light brown. Take off the heat, add the lemon juice, cumin and mint and season to taste.
5. Pour over the eggs, sprinkle with the grated coconut oil cheese and put into the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes until the whites are done and the yolks runny. Cook for longer if you prefer your yolks well cooked.
6. Serve straight away with suitable bread.

Photo to follow once I have made it! It's just before lunch here and the girls have given me another 3 eggs this morning, so that's 18 so far this week.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

right having made it, I made it with normal basmati rice cooked with turmeric and cumin seeds, rather than wholegrain (I didn't have anytime). I have established something no-one tells you about food photography, under cook the food so that it is not overcooked by the time you want to eat it and 2) have plenty of whatever fresh herb you are using as garnish around because it is going to burn and look bad as you do your photos... Can't quite decide which is the best, probably my very first picture of it...

And, well actually it is really nice and I can see it featuring regularly. The lemon and mint cut through any cloyiness of the egg yolk and deliver a really clean fresh taste. I can see it working well as in a wrap or something like using sticky glutinous black rice (the stuff you soak overnight to make black rice rolls) and the eggs and some veg with the dressing being inside the rice rolls... I may have to work on that one. I also sprinkled it with a touch of a really nice curry powder. And the other tip: don't take a phone call from anyone - even your OH, when the buzzer is about to go off and you are ready to take those photos.

One yolk was almost hard, the other just about runny still, but only just.

 

[Cinisajoy]

Looks great anyway.

 

[Morning Glory]

So what is this coconut cheese like? Not sure we can get it here. looks as if it doesn't melt like regular cheese.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So what is this coconut cheese like? Not sure we can get it here. looks as if it doesn't melt like regular cheese.

It's basically a vegan cheese alternative and I am sure you can get it in the UK. Health food shops and possibly H&B... It does melt like regular cheese when you grate it coarsely. I just forgot and we don't' get it often. Our oven is not the best (getting a new one, I mentioned that the thermostat didn't work when the oven was checked for cleanliness in the quarterly inspection after she queried why I had an old oven thermometer hanging in the middle of the top shelf blocking everything, and also mentioned that the ignition switch had given up the ghost, so she made note of it. I didn't make a big deal of it, just said we were using the BBW lighter to the side and that I had checked for fuses and couldn't find any, had had the oven out and couldn't find a panel... well it got reported to the owner and we are now getting a new cooker.), any how, our oven is not the best and tends dry things out. Had I kept the Pyrex bowl covered and/or coarsely grated the cheese, it would have melted correctly. When we have it in the vegan restaurant in Canberra, it goes everywhere... But I think they use much more of it than I do as well. It is cheesy but not like tangy cheddar cheese, not like the mature stuff. It is oily (when the oven isn't killing it) and has a slight yeasty taste. It does not taste of coconut which is nice. It does melt nicely into things like jacket potatoes and mashed potatoes and cheese sauces though which is really good.