Today, please allow me to present the egg-in-a-spud-shell.
I do not know:
(a) why I never thought of doing this before (and I’m clearly not the first person to have had this idea)
(b) why it should have occurred to me today
No matter, really. Better to come late to the egg-and-potato party than not at all.
Egg baked potato, simplicity itself
The idea is just a simple variation on twice-baked potatoes – bake your spud, scoop it out and use as an edible container for baking an egg. That’s it, really, though there are some more detailed instructions below if you need ’em.
And if the egg and potatoes thing isn’t doing it for you today, you could do worse that head on over to Sippity Sup’s place. Greg has just finished doing a full week of meat ‘n’ potatoes, including some braised short ribs with neeps-and-tattie cakes which may just have been inspired by the recent mention of neeps and tatties in this here jurisdiction. Sure I can practically claim it as my own.
Egg Baked Potatoes
So the slightly more detailed instructions for this go as follows:
Bake your spud, split it in two, mix the innards with some fried onions (and/or whatever else you’d like to see in a stuffed potato), then use a spoon or two of stuffing to line one half shell before cracking an egg into it. Pile the rest of the stuffing into the other half shell. Bake the lot, then eat.
There’s not too much else to say, except to use large potatoes if possible, as your egg may overrun the confines of a smaller spud and you may need to hold back some of the egg white in that case.
For flavouring, I used fresh tarragon – not something I usually have to hand but it made for a nice change from what would have been my more usual choice of thyme. You can go with whatever herbs you prefer.
The spuds:
- 2 large potatoes (around 250g each), preferably a floury variety
- olive oil
- coarse salt
The rest:
- olive oil for frying
- 1 small onion (around 75g), finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
- coarse salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1-2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tblsp grated parmesan
The Steps:
- Preheat your oven to 200C
- Scrub the potatoes and dry them. Prick the skin all over using a fork or small knife and brush with olive oil.
- Sprinkle a baking tray with some coarse salt, place the potatoes on the tray and bake until tender, which should take somewhere between an hour and an hour and a quarter, depending on size.
- While the potatoes are baking, place a small frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add some olive oil, enough to coat the pan.
- Add the onions to the pan. Stir and fry for around 10 minutes or until they are starting to brown around the edges.
- Add the garlic and chopped tarragon to the pan, along with a couple of twists of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Stir and fry for another 2 minutes or so and remove from the heat.
- When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven (but leave the oven turned on). Allow the potatoes to cool for a few minutes, then cut each one in half and scoop out the cooked flesh, being careful not to pierce the skins.
- Mash the cooked potato lightly with a fork and mix in the fried onion. Add coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, along with a tsp or two of some extra virgin olive oil, again to taste.
- Use a few tblsp of the potato mixture to line two of the potato halves with a mashed potato layer.
- Now, take one of the eggs and crack it into a small bowl or jug. Then pour the egg into one of the lined potato shells. If your potato is not big enough for the entire egg, you may need to keep back some of the egg white. Repeat with the second egg.
- Divide the remaining potato mixture between the two other potato halves, piling them high.
- Sprinkle the lot with the parmesan and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the whites of the eggs are set. Then eat.
The Variations:
- Of course you could use thyme instead of tarragon when frying the onions and you could add bits of bacon if you like and/or mix some sour cream into the potato instead of the olive oil.
The Results:
- Egg baked potatoes for two
Great idea! The husband and 2 year old will both love it!
Love this idea. Only wish I had thought of it. Sounds perfectly delicious and satisfying!
I love eggs. I love potatoes. Why not put them together?! Great idea and oh so yummy. If it weren’t so late, I would go make some now!
What a great idea!
This is unique. I’ve never thought of adding an egg to a baked potato! It surely looks delicious.
Magda
This is Genius :) Am off to source perfectly fresh free range eggs … thanks !
Spud, you are a genius! What a brilliant, brilliant idea! Your pictures have me drooling. Am totally stealing this one from you … and I might mix a little crisp bacon in with the potato stuffing too … why not? Love it!
that looks so good – I love a baked egg and i love bakes potatoes – so this looks great
Awesome idea! You need to come up with a name for this clever and delicious invention (eggtato? spudegg?) and patent it :)
I was so tempted to do this yesterday, but I had already mashed up the tators, added cheese and hot sauce, but I guess an egg would have been a nice touch too!
Your pizza photos are killin me on facebook!
Sarah: oh I hope they do love it :)
OysterCulture: it makes for quite a well rounded little meal, really!
GrilledShane: there’s always tomorrow :)
Fearless Kitchen: it is a great idea and I’m just amazed I never thought of it before!
my little expat kitchen: Hi Magda and welcome! Now that you’ve seen it, you’ll have to try it :)
KD: the faces of Genius are many :D
Diva: oh in with the bacon, for sure – why not indeed!
lucy: it’s like getting 2 for the price of 1 :)
Phyllis: ooh, what to call it indeed – how’s about sunnyside spuds?
Chef E: there’ll always be a next time for the egg, don’t you worry (provided you survive the onslaught of pizza photos, that is, lol)
jaysus wept they look amazing….
Oh my too good–eggs and spuds-Love it!!
sweetlife
manuel: betcha you’ve never seen any of those on a menu!
sweetlife: they were meant to be together :)
How timely! I’m going thru a phase of putting an egg in the middle of my pizza. Now I can get to the next phase of my egg topping journey – Thanks!
Genius! This is some serious spud and I can’t wait to recreate this. Amazing!
Oh. My. GAHHHHHH. They look so amazing I think I’m going to faint from eggpot envy. *swoooon!*
Hey either way, it’s protein and potato, right? And that’s a big “yes please.” GREG
What a great idea!!!! Oh how I have missed you and your spuderific ideas. :)
Brilliant idea! Who doesn’t love potatoes with eggs? Already printed out the recipe. I must try this one!
What a great idea! First, I thought you were going to mold some mashed taters around a boiled egg for an Irish spin on the Scotch Egg. But I like the twice-baked idea, too. Open to worlds of interpretation.
You are a wealth of Spudly Creativity.
Gillian: oh I do like the whole egg-on-a-pizza thing myself, must remember to do that next time I’m making something pizza-like
kickpleat: sometimes it’s just the simplest of things that can make you sit up and say ‘I want’ :)
aoife mc: eggpot – actually makes it sound a bit like an asian dictator :D
sippity sup: yup – protein plus potatoes all the way!
Joie de Vivre: thanks and great to hear from you, very nice to see you back in these parts :)
Susan: You’re right – who doesn’t love ’em – and it’s such a simple idea that you can just take it and run with it whatever way you like. Enjoy!
Jenni: why thank you – and I may have to revisit your Scotch Egg idea sometime (to be cleverly renamed the Irish Egg, of course)
Wow fantastic idea! Even the idea itself is enough to make me crazy. I’m a big fan of egg and always look forward to Sunday mornings to have a big breakfast including a kind of egg dish. They look irresistible! I definitely try these eggs in potato cradles this Sunday. But there is a problem. How can I wait that long?
Thanks for sharing this! It’s the best way to do breakfast because you get a bit of everything in each bite.
I just made a hamburger with a fried egg on it last weekend and now I’m obessed. Love this idea!
zerrin: I do know how you love your breakfasts, so I am not at all surprised that you would be tempted by this!
Duo Dishes: absolutely, and I love food where the ‘container’ is edible too – to borrow a phrase from sippity sup, it’s serious fun food :)
arugulove: Welcome and thank you! It does seem to be a pretty popular idea all ’round…
“Better to come late to the egg-and-potato party than not at all” – so glad that you’re forgiving because I am definitely late to this party! Just wow – this looks beyond delicious. I want to throw a brunch party, just so I can dazzle everyone with this. As it is, I will bedazzle the husband first!
(almost feel like no point adding yet another comment in this avalanche of replies!:)
absolutely luuuvely, and I’d add lots and lots of cheese, something slightly tart, and sumac, or yes, that aleppo pepper of yours;)
This is a FANTASTIC idea, not sure why I never thought of it either. I’m making it for sure soon! I think a few sun dried tomatoes would give it a delicious kick.
Tangled Noodle: hope hubs was suitably bedazzled :)
Katrina: oh yes to the sumac or indeed the aleppo pepper – and I never, ever say no to lots of cheese!
Chiot’s Run: Welcome & thanks for dropping in. Some sun dried tomatoes in there sound good to me :)
I’ve been making these by the ton, just perfect w/scrambled eggies too. Thank you!
Hey, Zom, that’s great to hear – must try them with scrambled eggies myself! Thanks so much for stopping by to let me know.
Okay, I tried these with someone else’s recipe. Made the spuds, scooped and mixed, cracked the egg. Back in the oven. Did all that. Took over 20 minutes at 400F. Had to broil even the last 5 minutes. Didn’t want to set the egg up and by the time it did, the yolk was kinda crusty on the top. Can you tell me what went wrong?
Hi Megan and thanks for the enquiry. While it’s hard to give a definitive answer, as potatoes, eggs and ovens do differ, I’m wondering if the problem would have had something to do with the size of potato and size of egg used. I’m thinking that, in a larger potato, the white will probably spread out more, such that the average thickness of white is less and so it cooks more quickly. I also found that cooking the eggs this way, the yolks did develop a little bit of a crust (more so than if, say, you had just fried the eggs). Hope that helps!
I love this idea -eggs are one of the best things on earth! I do a couple things like this, one is an egg baked into a pot of beans and the other is I love to put a poached egg on top of my soup! You can find the recipes on my blog. Thanks – and will check back. Rebecca
This is a delicious and nutritious meal. My mum made this often for us in the 1960s.