Big Basque Breakfast

Author Notes

Breakfast in a Basque hotel (California, circa 1910); Potatoes, Baked Eggs and Chorizo
Basques as many of you know already (if you’ve been keeping up), have been part of the fabric of the history of the far west---California, Nevada, Idaho---since before the turn of the 20th Century. Spanish Basques began arriving in numbers in the Americas during the Carlist Wars in Spain. Most were shepherds but in San Francisco at least, some of the first arrivals were part of a seafaring lot. Migratory Basques minding their flocks established outposts that connected Bakersfield with Stockton, Reno and Carson City, and put down a big footprint in the Boise Valley of Idaho.
The typical Basque hotels of the period featured communal tables and multiple plates of food. My own first experiences of California Basque restaurant cooking began in Bakersfield during the early years of roaming far and wide for my job (no sheep involved). Picture me dressed for the Baketown heat in khakis and a madras shirt. I receive my menu and before I can even order, somewhere between five and seven plates of food suddenly appear in front of me; beans, tongue, a salsa of tomatoes, bread and so on… Once I realized that this was the norm I came to the conclusion that you need to bring a posse to visit one of these places so as not to embarrass yourself.
This recipe is a bit of a miniaturized version of but one breakfast course. Picture yourself surrounded by hungry shepherds and adapt portions accordingly. But the recipe is also modernized a bit. The potatoes are riced rather than fried in slices. If you are an anarchist, you can substitute mashed. Also if you pretend you are in the Basque homeland you can substitute blood sausage (morcilla) for the chorizo. - pierino
—pierino

Test Kitchen Notes

I knew I wanted to test this recipe based on its name alone, and once I saw the actual ingredients, I was really excited. Chorizo, garlic, potatoes, and piment d'esplette can't go wrong, and sure enough, they make for a very hearty, flavorful breakfast that definitely does not disappoint. I did find a couple of things to be helpful in making this dish: First, by dicing the chorizo into very small pieces, you're more likely to get some of it in every bite. Second, being sure that the yolks stay runny is essential to keeping the dish from being too dry. (I found that, in my oven, bumping the temperature up to 400ºF got the eggs cooked in 15 minutes.) Also, using the olive oil generously contributes a lot to flavor and texture. For my palate, just a little more than one teaspoon of piment d'esplette provided plenty of kick, and as much as I love Tabasco sauce, I found that it overwhelmed the piment d'esplette when I added it at the table, so I went without it. I love baked eggs, and this is a great version that I'll be making over and over. – vvvanessa —The Editors