basque eggs and nectarine salsa

Basque eggs and nectarine salsa are becoming more and more frequent dinner table staples, especially now that the weather is quite hot most days in Sydney.

Last night we had the opportunity to host a lovely couple at our place and I decided to keep the menu as Spanish as possible. Here’s what we had:

Basque eggs with grilled red pepper as seen below:

Nectarine salsa
Guacamole (I’ve noticed that I don’t have a guac recipe here but I think this one from Taste is a really good one)
Fresh figs stuffed with a mixture of blue cheese and goat’s cheese as seen below:

Champagne
Spanish tortilla (you can find the recipe here)
Feta cheese and parsley parcels (OK, they are certainly not Spanish)

Dry white wine (organic and vegan, by the way) from Greece which I must admit was quite pleasant. Because we all loved it, it was polished off fast. So, we moved on to a bottle of Vouvray.
Tomato medley salad with fresh basil

And, our guests were kind enough to bring some dessert which we had with a lovely dessert wine from Tasmania.

The recipe for Basque eggs came from a book called Tapas: Little Bites from Spain but I made changes to the recipe and created my own. The recipe below is not my version but I will tell you how I make it after the recipe. Here’s the original recipe:

Basque Eggs with Bell Peppers
Serves 6

Ingredients:
• 2 red bell peppers, halved and seeded
• 6 hard-boiled eggs, cooled, shelled and sliced
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh dill, chopped
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:
1. Bring a pan of water to a boil. Add the bell peppers and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain, then refresh under cold running water and drain well again. Pat dry with paper towels and cut into thin strips.
2. Arrange the slices of egg on plates and sprinkle over bell pepper strips. Alternatively, make a lattice pattern with the bell pepper strips.
3. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, shallot and sugar together in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the dressing over the eggs and serve immediately.

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I use either grilled red peppers in a jar or grilled red capsicum if I have time. If you want to grill or roast your own capsicum, make sure you peel the skin as the skin of capsicums in Australia is quite tough.

Instead of shallots, I use spring onions because I can never tell if the recipe calls for spring onions or French shallots when they say shallots.

Here’s the recipe for nectarine salsa:

Nectarine Salsa

Ingredients:
2 nectarines
3 tbsp diced red onion
3 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper or crushed chilli, to taste

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine nectarines, red onion, coriander (cilantro) and lime juice.
2. Season to taste with salt and pepper (or chilli, if you’re using).
3. Cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.
4. Serve with tortilla chips.

In this recipe, I sometimes use finely chopped hot chilli but at the moment the chilli I grow is eaten by… who knows?

Now I need to decide what I’m cooking for Xmas!