Arroz con Huevos y Tomate

Ingredients

• Tomato Sauce (or sofrito, see recipe link below)
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• 3-4 cups water
• 4 eggs
• Spanish virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Preparation

1. Pour approximately 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a medium size sauce pan. Place on a burner on medium high heat. Pour the rice into the pan and coat the rice with the oil. Pour the water into the pan and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste. Then, reduce the heat, loosely cover and allow to simmer until rice is cooked – about 20 minutes. (the golden rule is 2 parts water to 1 part rice for cooking rice on the stove and cover and let simmer. When the water’s mostly boiled off, turn off the heat and let the rice sit, still covered, to allow the rice to steam – this makes fluffing the rice much easier.
2. Heat the tomato sauce. Sauté it with a bit of olive oil if you would like to.
3. Pour olive oil into a small frying pan until it is about 1/4" deep. Heat the oil on medium. Fry the eggs one at a time in the olive oil, sprinkling with a dash of salt. Keep the yolks runny. You can also fry the eggs in butter.
4. As you take each egg from the frying pan, place a scoop of rice on a plate and make a depression in the center. Ladle some of the tomato sauce or sofrito into the depression. Carefully top with a fried egg. (You may also choose to arrange the rice in the center of each plate and pour the sauce over top of the rice with an egg.) Add salt & pepper to taste.

Sofrito is a tomato sauce that is made all over Spain and used in other recipes. Fresh or crushed canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers sautéed in olive oil. First, make the sofrito and set aside until needed.

Here are some alternatives:

• Sausages seem to be a popular accompaniment and depending on the region, just grilled sausages or you could use any cooking method you like.
• Sometimes there’s a fried banana or fried plantain. Peel a banana and slice it in half lengthwise. Fry gently in oil until cooked through.
• Instead of the usual white rice, some people use garlic rice: In a pot, fry some chopped garlic gently in oil and just when it starts to colour, tip in some washed white rice like basmati. Add salt and a couple of bay leaves and stir to have the garlic and oil mixed thoroughly with the rice, then cook the rice as described above.

Serves: 4