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Eggs a la Caracas
2 ozs. Smoked dried beef 1 cup tomatoes 1/4 cup grated cheese Few drops onion juice Few grains cinnamon Few grains cayenne 2 tablespoons butter 3 eggs Pick over beef and chop finely, add tomatoes, cheese, onion juice, cinnamon, and cayenne. Melt butter, add mixture, and when heated, add eggs well beaten. Cook until eggs are of creamy consistency, stirring and scraping from bottom of pan.
A soft-scrambled egg dish enriched with chipped beef, tomato and cheese. It comes together in a few minutes, and the only real risk is overcooking.
- The hinge: low heatEggs bound with tomato and cheese curdle fast. Keep the pan over low heat, stir constantly and pull it off while the mixture still looks slightly underdone, since it carries on setting off the heat.
- Smoked dried beefThis is the salted, air-dried, thinly shaved beef sold in jars or packets as chipped or dried beef. Two ounces chopped comes to roughly half a cup, though it packs very unevenly. It is very salty, so add no salt until you have tasted the finished eggs.
- "Pick over"Means separating the sheets, trimming any tough or gristly edges and discarding stray bits of fat before chopping. Rinsing and patting dry cuts the salt if your beef is aggressive.
- One cup tomatoesMost likely canned tomatoes, or peeled fresh ones in season. If they are very wet, drain and chop them; excess liquid will keep the eggs from setting to a creamy curd.
- Onion juiceGrate a piece of onion on a fine grater and use the liquid that collects; the recipe asks only for a few drops, well under a quarter teaspoon. A small pinch of onion powder is a rough substitute.
- The cinnamonA few grains is genuinely a pinch, not a measured quarter teaspoon. It sits under the tomato as warmth rather than as a recognisable spice, and more will unbalance the dish.
- YieldThree eggs makes two modest servings, on the scale of a luncheon or supper entree.