Traditionally migas (literally: bread crumbs) was a peasant’s or shepherd’s dish, a tasty way to use up stale bread using little more than some garlic, olive oil, and whatever bits of meat or charcuterie happened to be about. At casa az, migas has turned out to be a great way to use up the bread scooped out of crusty loaves when making pan cristal (more on that later) and then fed to skinny flatmate who always needs to “carb up”. Obviously there are loads of variations on what can go into migas, as well as various ways of preparing it. What I’ve done, as usual, is look up a few different recipes and then make something that looks good to me, though on this occasion I *almost* burnt the garlic and onions… so try not to do that.

Ingredients and instructions below…

• 2 cups stale bread, crumbled up in chunks
• 1/2 cup water (more or less)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• chopped chorizo or ham or whatever
• 2 eggs
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• smoked pimentón

How much water you’ll need depends on how old and dry your bread is. The idea is to make it moist again, not soggy wet, so sprinkle water over your crumbly bread until it starts to plump up. Once it looks like it’s reviving a bit, put a cloth over it and let it rest while you get on with the other stuff. When the bread is looking good again, add salt, freshly ground black pepper and smoked pimentón (either sweet or spicy) and toss until evenly coated.

In a large saucepan sauté the diced onion and thinly sliced garlic in olive oil until lightly browned (NOT almost burnt like I did) and then add the chopped cooked ham. If you are using chorizo that needs to be cooked then add it at the same time as you start cooking the onion and garlic and sautée over low heat. When it’s all cooked through then remove to a bowl.

Add a bit more oil to the same pan and once it’s nice and hot toss in the paprika-covered bread bits. Let it brown a bit, then stir it around, slowly adding a bit more oil if the bread is looking dry. Once you like the look of the bread’s toastiness stir in the onion/garlic/ham and then push it to the side of the pan, making room for the eggs. Add a few drops of olive oil to the centre of the pan and crack both eggs into the pan. Let the eggs set a bit and then toss them with the bread mixture. And serve!

Crazy good gourmet migas can be seen here…. <a href="http://instagram.com/p/kWUITOEVsU/grilled chipirón with migas