Peri-Peri Scrambled Eggs

Sooooo.....oops, still. I owe y'all like, 20 gazillion recipe posts. But probably the most offensive is that I STILL owe you one gloriously long, well-documented, beautiful post from our time taking a cooking tour in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa with our W&M colleagues. Like, whoa. It's bad that hasn't hit the internet yet. It's been two months since our adventure concluded and unless you're my Facebook friend (and even if you are), you have not been inundated with the entire story and experience. And an experience it was. We had the privilege of not only taking a tour of the historic neighborhood and learning more about a specific population within South African culture, but more importantly we were able to visit a family's home to learn to cook a few traditional Cape Malay dishes. As a group, this was an awesome experience......and I'll leave it there, so there's some anticipation to read more when I get around to posting it!

This recipe isn't necessarily inspired by anything we learned on our cooking tour, but it does highlight a South African ingredient: Peri-Peri sauce. If you've heard of it at all, it's likely that you've been to Nando's - a specialty South African peri-peri chicken chain restaurant. That's the closest it gets to popularized peri-peri sauce in the US. But even if you haven't heard of Nando's, that doesn't mean you need to miss out on the joy that is peri-peri sauce. Spicy, bright and a little bit in-your-face, peri-peri sauce is the equivalent of tabasco sauce or sriracha, as far as similar popular sauces. It's meant to be put on things and adds a real kick of flavor to whatever it meets. So when we were making scrambled eggs the other day, we thought to ourselves: "what could make this better??" We looked in our refrigerator and glanced at the usual suspects - sriracha or nothing. We have a super spicy Chinese chili paste and peri-peri sauce, making the decision to add peri-peri sauce to our eggs a no-brainer. Well let me tell you - I will no longer eat scrambled eggs any other way, if given a choice to have peri-peri sauce. It knocked these eggs out of this world. You have not LIVED until you've had peri-peri scrambled eggs. So find yourself some (Nando's can be found on Amazon or on Nando's site) or search it out at a local international market (we have a brand we bought in South Africa....and can't seem to track down online). It's 100% worth it and your life will never be the same again, promised!


Peri-Peri Scrambled Eggs (inspired by The Kitchn; serves 2)
3 eggs
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp whole milk
1/4 tsp salt
Fresh cracked pepper
2 tsp Peri-Peri sauce*
English muffin (optional)

Place a large frying pan over low heat on the stove top. Add your butter and let it begin to melt while you prep your eggs. Crack all the eggs into a bowl, then whisk them vigorously until the whites and yolks are completely mixed and they are a bit frothy. Whisk in the salt and a few cracks of pepper in. Then add the milk and peri-peri sauce, whisking to combine. Once the butter is melted, pour the eggs into the pan in a thin layer.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally with a spatula. At first, the eggs will be extremely liquidy; then they will start to section, like curds. Frequent stirring will give you smaller curds, but stirring less will give you large, irregular curds (your preference)! Continue cooking until the eggs are as soft or firm as you like. If you'd like to serve your eggs on an English muffin half (recommended!!), begin  to toast the muffin now. Remove the eggs from the heat slightly before they are done; they will continue cooking for 1-2 minutes off heat. Butter your English muffin, slide the eggs onto your plate, place some on top of your muffin and enjoy!

*If you can't find peri-peri sauce, we recommend sriracha or another hot sauce of your liking!

Recipe inspiration: The Kitchn: How to Make Soft, Creamy Scrambled Eggs