Sure, but it might vary, I don't really use measurements and timers. I'll always use a bag of 700 or 800grams of the best peas I can find, which is usually Iglo primavera peas, the smallest ones are the tastiest. This will be too much for just two, but this is something that's great for the next day or left frozen for another time, just unfreeze and warm up when you get home late one time and it's great. Obviously a quality black pig chorizo and local free range eggs are a big difference to supermarket grade stuff.
Ingredients:
- 700/800 grams of peas, frozen
- about half or a little more of a chorizo, usually with paprika, good quality that smells like proper smoked is what you want. The one in the picture has a little more than half, obviously in slices. Slices not too thick.
- 1 big tomato or two smaller ones chopped in cubes, I leave the skins. If you don't have good tomatoes, you can use good canned pasata, but it´ll completely transform the dish into something with a lot more sauce.
- tomato concentrate
- 1 onion, shopped
- 4 or 5 proper big cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped roughly, or just properly smashed
- paprika /ground cumin /black pepper, roughly ground / rock salt
- great quality extra virgin olive oil
- glass of white wine
- 1 egg per person
You start by warming the pan with the chorizo slices in it, in medium heat. Keep going until you start to cook the chorizo and some of the fat is coming out, add the chopped onion and mix it a bit with the chorizo fat, few seconds later and before the onion starts to dry add the olive oil. I don't know how much olive oil, probably about as much as it would take to have a little cover over the bottom of the pan if you were to start with it, more than a brit would add, like a mediterranean! Add the garlic. Season with salt (plenty, but account for the chorizo you've used as if it's poor quality and too salty that will add on) to help the onion release water. Get a sizzle, I use the smallest beak in my stove at full gas, which is less than a medium heat, but I like to cook with little heat. Keep mixing from time to time to help drain the onions and keep them from burning.
When the onions are properly translucent but before they're golden, add the paprika (about a table spoon) the pepper ( be generous) and the ground cumin (have no idea on quantity, a few pinches, just to give it something extra but not turn it into a Moroccan dish). When you add the spices, the paprika will make it all go dry, keep mixing as you want it to cook a little more as it condenses. Add a squirt of the tomato concentrate and let it cook a few seconds, mix it so it properly mixes and you've more or less got an uniform result. Then add the shopped tomatoes and stir it all together, when it starts to cook put heat of minimum and close the lid. Now you're letting the tomato cook for a few minutes while it falls apart in it's own moisture. Stir from time to time to prevent sticking and check that it doesn't get dry, it shouldn't. You're going to maybe do this for 5/10 minutes, and when the whole thing is now mushy and the tomato has cooked, you put on medium to high heat and add the frozen peas. You'll mix the peas into the sauce properly and keep going until the peas thaw and there are no clumps of ice, close the lid for a little to help get heat into them. Once they're starting to sizzle add the glass of white wine and let it start to sizzle, after a few seconds the alcohol is mostly gone and you give it a mix, turn the heat to medium low and close the lid to properly cook the peas. Depending on the tomatos you used and the peas, you might have too little liquid, if needed add a little water, but not much more than maybe a whisky serving amount of water, this is just to help cook the peas. You don't want the sauce to be runny and liquid, so if you've got too much liquid or regret adding water, leave the top off for a while to help evaporate.
Give them a mix from time to time to properly cook everything more or less the same, I think I cook the peas in low heat for maybe 20 minutes. When the peas are done, this means you can squash them easily but still firm enough that you chew them and have texture, give them a final mix, dig a little hole for each egg and put them in gently. If you're not good with opening eggs without breaking put each one into a little bowl and use the bowl to put them into the pan, this is also a safety measure as you'll easily spot a rotten egg before adding one to the pan and ruining the whole thing. Rotten eggs aren't that common but if you use local sourced non industrial ones they're not that uncommon either. Close the lid to help start cooking the eggs and let the heat on minimum. Cook the eggs until your preferred state, I like them properly runny, let it rest for a couple of minutes with the lid closed while you put on the table and announce what a lucky girl she is, and serve with a couple of toasts using rustic bread.
If you´ve got fresh herbs, you can add some shopped coriander at the same time you add the spices, and some at the end before serving, or use a branch of rosemary to cook amongst the peas after you've added the whine and mixed them properly, all's good.
I think it takes me an hour from start to shop the onions until it's done, maybe a little more if there's conversation and drinking wine in the mix (there usually is)
Sorry, I turned this into a proper marathon, in reality it's not that complicated.
