is this thing on...?

once upon a time there was a british girl who lived in seattle.  well, frankly, there are probably many of them.  but let’s just talk about this one for a sec.  she loves reading and strongly dislikes math.  she is woefully accident-prone.  she chooses peaches over nectarines every time.  she once ate jellyfish, and not for a dare.  she grew up in asia, has lived in 3 continents, and traveled across all but the really chilly ones.  she has 3 kids, 1 husband, and 154 cookbooks (really.  i just counted).  (counted the cookbooks.  i remember how many husbands & kids i have.  on most days.)  she loves cooking, drinking, and swearing.  often at the same time.  oh, and she hates people who talk about themselves in the third person, so let’s get rid of that sharpish. 

i’ve always said that lunch is a much-maligned meal.  actually, i’ve never said that.  but let’s, for the sake of sounding sage & wise, pretend that i have.  dinner is the big daddy meal of the day, dinner needs no extra props.  breakfast is THE most important meal of the day, so they say.  brunch is all kinds of special weekend fanciness.  but what about poor old lunch…??   i reached a point earlier this year, after my 29^th cheese and tomato sandwich in a row, that i said to myself, ENOUGH!  enough of spending the whole day folding laundry, and driving kids around places, and prepping dinner, and folding more laundry, and changing diapers, and, oh, i dunno, folding laundry.  mama needs a goddamn special treat in the middle of the day!  so i sat down with a few of the 154 and decided to revive the fancy lunch.  “plenty” by yotam ottolenghi (best.  name.  ever.) is a fantastic tome that i got my mitts on last christmas.  (maybe if george michael had given that chick with big hair “plenty” by yotam ottolenghi instead of his heart, then she wouldn’t have given it away the very next day.  then again, george michael probably isn’t losing too much sleep over that these days.)  it’s chock-full of mouth-watering vegetarian recipes, and though i am by no means a herbivore myself, i do have a long-standing love affair with the old veg.   

(this is my menuboard in my kitchen, by the way.  i offer it as an excellent answer to being asked 800 times a day "what's for dinner???"  read the damn board, people!!) 

 

baked eggs with yoghurt and chile was first up.  with a few tweaks, of course.  i was low on arugula (SO much less fun than its alter-ego “rocket”), so i added in some spinach and other baby greens.  i had no “kirmisi biber” (who the hell does??  whatthe?  sounds like some kind of arabic pop star), so i used some aleppo chile flakes.  i had no sage, so i left it out.  (sod off, sage.  go find a simon and garfunkle song to pout in.)  and in a wild attempt at being healthy, I omitted the melted butter yotam has in his original recipe.  (gotta pick your battles, right?)  and even with all the wonky tinkering, it was a feast of utter deliciousness.  hearty yet healthy, tangy with just the right kick of heat from the chile.  here follows the recipe, with my tweaks bolded (as i am terribly, terribly important).

baked eggs with yoghurt and chili (adapted from “plenty” by yotam ottolenghi (in case you missed that), 2010)

 

serves 2 (or one very hungry mama)

2 large eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
a bag of rocket/arugula (or whatever greens you have kicking around in your fridge)
a couple of good-sized dollops of greek yoghurt (please note the british spelling.  makes it taste a little snooty, with just a hint of pretention)
1 garlic clove, crushed

a few sage leaves, chopped (or none at all)
1/2 tsp kirmizi biber (or a decent sprinkling of chile flakes)
salt

preheat the oven to 300°F.

place the greens and olive oil in a large pan and sprinkle over a little salt.  sauté on medium heat for a few minutes, until the greens wilt and most of the liquid has evaporated.

transfer to a small baking dish (or leave in the pan, if ovenproof) and make two deep indentations in the cooked greens.  carefully break an egg into each hollow then place in the preheated oven to cook for 10-15 minutes, or until whites are set.

whilst the eggs are baking, stir the garlic into the yoghurt and season generously with salt.  set aside.

when your eggs are cooked to your liking, take them out of the oven.  spoon on a large glob of garlicky yoghurt and sprinkle over the sage (if you're using it) and the chile flakes (or justin bieber, should you have any on hand).  serve immediately.

And to the two people who are actually reading this, I urge you to try it.  it’s even easier than pie (as my number-one son would say), and it’s really rather good.