We had leftover sauce! My aptly named Red Chicken was delish, and left us with some sauce that was taunting us from the fridge the other morning. I was reminded of the simple egg bake I posted about a few years ago. It is also reminiscent of Indian shakshuka or Mexican huevos rancheros, which have a bit more than smooth sauce and eggs, but the concept sounded really good, easy and filling.
We were in the middle of a significant effort to reduce our worldly belongings and using up stuff from our food stores before moving. Such a process is pretty emotionally draining. More so than I ever expected. Not the use of food stores, but the reduction of belongings. I would think that getting rid of sweaters not worn in years would be easy, but remembering wearing them when spending time with family and friends brought a bunch of memories to the forefront, good and bad. After the sweaters were done I shifted over to sorting other stuff. The same type of memories rise, everywhere from who gifted them to me to remembering all the places I wore them. If I was doing the process over the span of months is one thing, but we were doing this type of sorting day after day for a week. Although most of the time was spent sitting or standing and sorting, we were all exhausted at the end of the day. We were all doing it (me, Big D and Little B) and all felt the energy drain.
The cooking during this week of great purging helped us relax and talk about our goal – keep the things that serve us and we cherish, not being tempted by keeping stuff just because we always did before. We successfully got through the grand project and winnowed down our stuff to the amount we agreed to (two pick up trucks worth of bins, etc). We make no promises of avoiding the rut of collecting things again, but I think the experience will make us think twice before nonchalantly filling the cart at the big box stores. Keeping things simple provides clarity and encourages creativity – things we can never have too much of. On another note, we are so very proud of Little B. It would have been easy to send her off to a friend’s house and quietly sort through her stuff in absentia, but since we consider her a little person, we thought it important to take her through the process with us. It was not easy, but we took the time to work with her about what she used, what she had outgrown, what she had not touched in a year, and what she cherished. Of course, she is looking forward to more stuff as her interests change in the future, so she leapt in with both feet and made very thoughtful decisions, way beyond her five years on this earth. We surrounded ourselves with comforting food as we moved forward with the purge, including these eggs. Fortunately I did not step away from the pan at the wrong minute, so the poachiness of the eggs was pretty darned perfect. They helped us move on and gave us a new go to dish.
Red Eggs
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 white onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
15 ounces tomato sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1tsp ground black pepper
8 ounces full fat coconut milk
4 – 6 eggs
In medium saute pan over medium high heat melt butter. Add the onion and garlic, cooking until browning begins. Add remaining ingredients except for coconut milk. Stir until all ingredients are combined, turning down heat to low. Stir in coconut milk and simmer until steam is rising from sauce. With the back of a spoon make a divet along the edge of the sauce in the pan. Drop a raw egg into the divet. Repeat with remaining eggs, evenly distributing them in the sauce. Cover pan and let simmer until eggs are cooked to desired doneness – about five minutes for soft. Serve immediately by scooping egg(s) onto a place and drizzle sauce on top.
