Must…eat…food! My partner and I joined a local start running group, and on this particular Sunday, we ran 8k. Around a month and a half ago, neither of us had run since, oh, freshman year of high school, which was certainly not yesterday. The entire time, our “teacher” was a kindly older gentleman on a bicycle who could no longer run, but was more than able to critique our running and bark out orders. “Relax your thumbs…then your hands will relax, then your shoulders will relax and then you won’t run the WRONG way.” My shoulders don’t relax when I’m shopping at the mall–how the hell can I do it while running? And relax your thumbs? How the hell do you do that? We could barely walk afterwards (we?re not really the ?exercising type?), and needed something immensely delicious and fatty to keep up from passing out on the floor in a puddle of overworked chunkiness. I happened to pick up the latest issue of Australian Gourmet Traveler, a food magazine with killer food porn and some decent recipes. That is where I found an egg dish that stopped me dead in my tracks, baked eggs with creamed spinach and leeks, served with gruyere toast. After wiping the drool off the magazine, I decided to try and conquer this bad boy. It was really simple, actually. I saut?ed thinly sliced leeks and garlic until soft, threw in some spinach until it wilted, drained it and then into the food processor with a little cream until it was all chopped up. Then I put it in a bowl, added an egg, and drizzled with a combination of heavy cream and tarragon oil.
Tarragon oil made by steeping tarragon into warm white wine vinegar and keeping in a jar for a month, but I didn’t figure that out until, oh, halfway through the recipe, so I just warmed up the vinegar, added the tarragon, and let it sit for 20 minutes before straining out the tarragon. I baked it until it was cooked, but still had a liquid center.
I actually slightly overcooked mine because I am not used to cooking eggs sunny side up, but it still tasted fine. Just not as gooey as it could be, and really, shouldn’t all egg strive for gooey perfection? Gooey nirvana? Okay, maybe I just really like the word gooey. Meanwhile, I made some sourdough toast, then topped it with a mixture of shredded gruyere, sour cream, and Dijon mustard, and baked until it bubbled.
And here it is, right next to the original product.
Wow. This dish tasted just as good as its picture looked. It was really rich with the cream, and the egg yolk managed to make it even more luxurious without overpowering it. The toast simply kicked ass, creamy in the some parts, crispy in other parts, and a nice platform for the eggs. After running a crap ton, this dish hit the spot. It filled us up enough to give us enough energy to walk over to the couch?and watch a few movies. ~LTG
