Potato and Egg Gratin
I wanted to try a new dish today, but I haven’t been to town for supplies in a while so I was limited to things I could pick up in the local tienda. I had tried this dish once before, but I had used large muffin cups to bake it, and they overflowed. This time I baked it as one casserole, and it turned out great!! It is made from a combination of sausage, sauteed with chopped onion and red pepper, then diced cooked potatoes, chopped tomato and chopped cilantro are added. I always use about twice as much chopped cilantro … I love the flavor! Also, we can get two types of sausage here … a red sausage called chorizo, that is based on achiote, and a light sausage called longaniza, which is flavored with cilantro. For this dish, I prefer the chorizo. The whole sausage potato mixture is spread into a buttered baking dish and topped with eggs. Just before it is fully cooked, you add grated cheddar to the top. Unfortunately, the only cheddar I can get here is similar to orange rubber in both taste and texture, so even though I added it, it is more of a visually appealing feature than a taste addition. I served it with whole wheat toast, but I think it would be better with hot biscuits. And its very filling … if I serve it as part of a Gringo breakfast, one egg section would probably be sufficient after the fruit, yogurt, granola, muffins etc.