Hamrock Eggs
Here’s kind of a fun way to start St. Patrick’s Day. Find a well-formed green bell pepper, preheat an oven, slice the pepper into rings, put the rings into a greased hot pan, crack an egg into the pepper, season, top with grated cheese and throw the whole thing into the oven to cook to desired doneness. Remove, grin and enjoy! This is actually just a fun twist on a common way to cook. There are already loads of different molds to cook eggs in. Check the mail recipe on DJ's site to see some examples.
Ultimately, this is all like the ol’ Egg in the Basket or Egg in the Hole, where a hole is cut in a piece of bread, then the bread is put in a hot greased pan, then an egg is cracked into it. The hole cut can be anything you’ve got a cookie cutter for, be it hearts, circles, shamrocks, Mickey Mouse, etc. Without being able to eat standard bread, another form needs exist to hold everything together. In this case … I’m using well formed green bell pepper rings! The great thing about this is, you can put anything inside that ring, as well. In this case, we’re going simple and just adding some ham, but you could put anything in there … sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, a bit of kale or cabbage, chopped onions or garlic, fresh herbs, asparagus rings, capers, and on and on. You can also use things like red pepper rings, onion rings, tomato rings (a bit messy, but possible), etc. You can cook to your own favorite doneness. You can break the yolk or keep it whole. It’s all up to you. Fun flavors, colors and shapes. What a lovely way to start the day!
Ultimately, this is all like the ol’ Egg in the Basket or Egg in the Hole, where a hole is cut in a piece of bread, then the bread is put in a hot greased pan, then an egg is cracked into it. The hole cut can be anything you’ve got a cookie cutter for, be it hearts, circles, shamrocks, Mickey Mouse, etc. Without being able to eat standard bread, another form needs exist to hold everything together. In this case … I’m using well formed green bell pepper rings! The great thing about this is, you can put anything inside that ring, as well. In this case, we’re going simple and just adding some ham, but you could put anything in there … sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, a bit of kale or cabbage, chopped onions or garlic, fresh herbs, asparagus rings, capers, and on and on. You can also use things like red pepper rings, onion rings, tomato rings (a bit messy, but possible), etc. You can cook to your own favorite doneness. You can break the yolk or keep it whole. It’s all up to you. Fun flavors, colors and shapes. What a lovely way to start the day!
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time35 mins
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 2 large well-formed green bell peppers
- 8 oz. ham
- 8 oz. Irish cheddar cheese
- 2 tbsp butter
- 8 eggs
- salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wear something green.
- Preheat oven to 350 °F (177 °C).
- Preheat two large oven-proof sauté pans on the stove over low-heat.
- Cut each pepper into 4 perfect rings, roughly ½-inch thick. (about 1cm). Remove and discard the seeds. The remaining top and bottom portion of the pepper can be saved for another recipe, or they can be chopped and added to the center of the rings, as they cook (it’s up to you).
- Cut the ham into small cubes and set aside.
- Grated the cheese and set aside.
- Turn the heat on the pans up to medium-high heat.
- Add 1 tbsp (15 mL) butter to each pan. Slide around to evenly coat their bottoms.
- Evenly place 4 rings (or as many as will fit without overlapping or riding up the side of the pan) in the bottom of each pan. Season the rings with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Quickly divide and sprinkle the ham between the bottoms of each pepper ring, as well as the optional chopped green peppers. If you added the pepper, season them with a small amount of salt and pepper. Allow to cook for about 1 minute.
- Before adding the eggs, make sure the bottom of each pepper ring is flat and snug along the bottom of the pan. If any of the rings are pushed up the side of the pan, there will be a crack available for the egg to leak beneath. In a perfect world, there’s a nice consistent connection with the bottom of the pan, containing everything.
- Crack an egg into each pepper ring. Break the yolk, if you’d like. Season with a small amount of salt and pepper.
- Evenly distribute the grated cheese over the top of each egg.
- Place both pans into the oven and cook until desired doneness.
- Enjoy!