RECIPE
'EASY' Baked Eggs on Garlicky Greens with Crusty Bread
from Oliver Jones of Los Angeles, CA
Adapted from the wonderful and highly recommended book The Urban Pantry by Amy Pennington
If I have been out working late and stop by a place that has some baguettes or other tasty fresh bread, this is the late night dinner/midnight snack I reward myself with. It also naturally adapts to breakfast or lunch, but is best at night, I think. It meets my Trifecta of being satisfying, cheap and easy to both make and clean up.
Serves 1 or 2
INGREDIENTS
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
2 or 3 eggs
A whole bunch of greens—I use spinach and arugula and mixed greens, and anything else that is relatively soft and fresh I might have in the fridge. 'Southern greens' like mustard and collard will probably work but you may need to cook a bit longer
Crusty bread
Olive oil
and some water
Here goes:
Preheat oven at 425.
In a biggish non-stick, oven-safe fry pan that has a cover, heat some olive oil over medium high flame and put in a couple, maybe three, cloves of crushed garlic.
Before the garlic gets too cooked, put in a whole bunch of soft greens (like a bag of pre-washed spinach and a few handfuls of whatever else you got). Put the greens in in batches, adding more as they soften until it is all in.
You can salt and pepper them if you feel like.
After you have stirred the greens around a bit so all of it has sautéed in the garlicky oil, put some water in the pan, cover, and let steam.
When the greens are good and soft (you really don’t have to worry about this part as the greens never seem to get too cooked), pour off the extra water if there is any. With a wooden spoon, make a ridged pocket or valley in the pile of greens. Put two or three cracked eggs in the pocket or pockets, trying to keep the yokes unbroken and the whites in the pocket of the greens and off the surface of the pan, if you can.
Cover and leave on the stove until the eggs set a little, like a minute or two. You may need to adjust heat. Uncover and stick the whole thing in the oven for a couple of minutes, and put some French bread in there as well. When the eggs look just right -- three minutes maybe (it took me a couple of tries to not overcook the eggs, because this really tastes best when the yokes are 'easy', that is firm but still runny) --take it out.
Top with salt and pepper, rub a raw piece of garlic on the insides of the bread, stuff the stuff inside the bread (if that is how you feel like eating it) and enjoy.