Avocado and Chile-Spiced Fried Eggs on Shrimp Toast: 2000s Recipes + Menus : gourmet.com

2000s Recipes + Menus

Serves 4

Active time:30 min
Start to finish:30 min

May 2009

This recipe is a culinary Labradoodle—a combo of favorites bred together. In this enterprise, avocado is spliced with the food editor Maggie Ruggiero most loves to eat it with: toast, shrimp, pepper, and crisp fried eggs, all hybridized into one helluva snack. (Editor’s note: This recipe is solely the creation of Maggie Ruggiero and has not been formally tested by the Test Kitchen.)

Watch the Test Kitchen Challenge video that features this recipe.

For thai-dressed avocado

2 teaspoons finely chopped shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 fresh Thai chile, thinly sliced, including seeds
1 firm-ripe 6- to 8-oz avocado

For shrimp toast

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3 scallions, thinly sliced
4 slices firm white bread, crusts removed

For chile-spiced eggs

1 scallion, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon Asian garlic chile sauce (preferably Lan Chi or Sriracha)
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 eggs
A handful of cilantro sprigs

Dress avocado:

Stir together shallot, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and chile. Thinly slice avocado and spread out in a shallow bowl, then drizzle with dressing. Let stand while making shrimp toast and eggs.

Make shrimp toast:

Preheat broiler.
Cook garlic in oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring, until pale golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer garlic with oil to a food processor (reserve skillet for eggs) and pulse with shrimp, water, sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper until coarsely chopped. Add scallions and pulse once or twice just to combine.
Toast bread, then divide shrimp mixture among slices (about 1/3 cup each), spreading it in a thick, even layer. Cut in half diagonally and arrange on a baking sheet. Broil shrimp toast 4 to 5 inches from heat until topping is cooked through, 8 to 9 minutes.

Make eggs while shrimp toast broils:

Cook scallion with chile sauce in oil in skillet over medium heat, stirring, until scallion begins to sizzle, about 1 minute. Crack eggs into skillet and fry as desired.

To serve: Put 2 shrimp toasts on each of 4 plates and top with avocado. Top with fried eggs and scatter cilantro over eggs.

Recipe by Maggie Ruggiero

Photograph by Stephanie Foley