Huevos a la Flamenca, A Traditional Dish From Andalucía

* * * * *

Huevos a la flamenca was one of the most ubiquitous dishes in southern Spain during my early years there in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  I had it a number of times, but seldom found that it was more than ordinary, partly because the dish was usually overcooked.  This week on Facebook I ran across a recipe for huevos a la flamenca, a dish I had never made, so I decided to try it.  The recipe, except for the fact that the left garlic out of the ingredients list, but including it the instructions on how to make the dish, was pretty good.   However, I found that the eggs on top got overcooked, so the next time I will poach them in olive oil and put them on top the dish after it come out of the oven.

Huevos a la flamenca, before going into the oven.  Made with an onion, tomato and garlic sofrito, Spanish olive oil blanched diced potatoes, strips of red pepper and peas, sprinkled with sea salt and topped with jamón serrano, chorizo and a fresh farm egg per person.

For two people:  First I made a sofrito with two medium slices of a large Vidalia onion diced, half a tomato diced, and a minced clove of garlic sauteed in Spanish extra virgen olive oil (Trader Joe's bargain brand).

I sliced half a red bell pepper into thin strips and sauteed them for five minutes in olive oil.

I had some boiled red bliss potatoes and diced one of them into small cubes, then briefly fried the potato in very hot olive oil. 

I had the oven heated to 350 degrees, but it should have been at 450 degrees or even 500 degrees (to enable this dish to finish in 10 minutes).

I added all these ingredients to a Spanish crockery casserole that had been heating in the oven and mixed them together.  

I added a cup of frozen peas and mixed them with the other ingredients, topped the dish with strips of jamón serrano (you can use prosciutto) and placed rounds of one sliced chorizo sausage in a circle on top of the other ingredients.  

I broke two fresh farm house eggs on top of the other ingredients and put the dish in the oven.  After ten minutes, the eggs were still not cooked, so I upped the temperature and checked periodically until the eggs were set. 

The dish come out quite good, except that the egg yolks were hard cooked.  That is the way the dish had always been served to me in restaurants, but I would much prefer the yolks to still be liquid, which would make an excellent sauce for this dish.  

I also plan to add mushrooms the next time I do this dish. 

Huevos a la flamenca, finished dish. 

_________________________________________________________________________  

About Gerry Dawes 

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

 Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts.

  

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series on 
wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com