Recipe: Vivek Pande's Baked Eggs

My brother Vivek, who loves to cook, served me up his yummy signature skillet for brunch recently.

A typical American country skillet breakfast is a hearty and complete breakfast for the family made in just one large skillet or frying pan.

Its format allows for endless variations and the use of leftovers. Skillet can have versions that match your diet choices and offers fusion possibilities.

Vivek Pande's Baked Eggs Skillet

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 6 medium potatoes, boiled, chopped into 1 cm pieces skin on
• 1 small tomato, chopped fine
• ¼ to ½ small onion, chopped fine
• ¼ green capsicum, chopped fine
• ½ green chilly, chopped fine
• ¼ cup chopped spinach
• 4 pods garlic, chopped fine
• ½ tsp Italian seasoning (mixture of dried Italian herbs like basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano and marjoram)
• 1 tsp pepper
• Salt to taste
• 4 eggs
• 5 tbsp grated cheese
• Handful chopped green dhania or coriander or cilantro, for garnish
• 2 tbsp butter

Method

• Saute the garlic in butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes till lightly browned.
• Add the potatoes and fry 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat till they brown somewhat and get a little crispy, lightly stirring often.
  Then the add the rest of the vegetables, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and fry for 10 minutes more.
  Lower the heat and let it cool a little.
• Then crack the eggs carefully, separately, on top of the sauteed vegetables and evenly sprinkle the grated cheese and cover.
  Cook till the eggs are done, about 5-7 minutes.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve with buttered toast.

Note: Other vegetable options could be kale instead of spinach, mushrooms, red or yellow capsicum in addition to green capsicum, garnish of chopped parsley, chives, and green garlic.

A meaty take could include fried bacon bits and/or chopped fried sausages.

A vegan version could make use of pre-scrambled crumbled tofu.

For an interesting Indian fusion skillet, spice up the potatoes with a few curry leaves, coriander powder, a little ghee, a pinch of garam masala or sambar powder.

For a Jain version, use baked beans instead of potatoes and skip the onion and garlic and add scrambled tofu in place of eggs.

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