Jeanne here.
One of our family traditions is to have Egg Benedicts for family brunch on Easter and Mother’s Day.
There’s nothing quite as tasty as fresh homemade hollandaise sauce (we do a “blender” version of Julia Child’s famous recipe these days because … well … it comes out perfect every time).
And a deliciously runny poached egg.
Atop a homemade sourdough English muffin. (The Cowboy loves to make homemade sourdough English Muffins … one day I’ll get him to share his recipe).
Plus, we’ve got a few vegetarians in the clan, so they are easily adapted … prosciutto and poached eggs for the omnivores, asparagus and poached eggs for the veg-heads. So easy.
BUUUUUUT … you see the title of this post is NOT Eggs Benedict.
Because the problem with Eggs Benedict … when there are a lot of folks eating (we can have as many as 10 family members on a given Sunday) is that they have to be made individually. Only two muffins fit in the toaster at a time. Each set of eggs takes 3 and a half minutes in the boiling water. If the hollandaise sits out for more than five minutes it just doesn’t taste as good. It’s just not conducive to a family brunch where we can all sit around the table and enjoy each other’s company.
So I’ve been looking for an alternative.
And after a few test runs, we’ve decided that THIS is what we’re doing this year:
Oven-Baked Eggs with Prosciutto, Goat Cheese and Chives
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 medium Yellow Onion (finely chopped)
- 1 big handful fresh Spinach
- 4-8 pieces of thin-sliced Prosciutto (optional)
- 4-8 Eggs
- 4 teaspoons heavy cream (one teaspoon per ramekin)
- 4 teaspoons Goat Cheese Chèvre (one teaspoon per ramekin)
- handful of fresh-cut chives
DIRECTIONS:
First things first … melt the butter and let it coat a large sauté pan. Pour a little bit of butter into each of your four small ramekins and grease them. Set aside.
Then, add your prosciutto to the pan and crisp it up (we’ve also done this with bacon, leftover taco meat, chorizo). Remove the prosciutto from the pan and line the bottom of your ramekins with it. Use the same pan and sauté the yellow onion until translucent. Add the spinach and wilt it. Divide the spinach and onions and add to the ramekins.
Crack one or two eggs into each ramekin (the kids generally eat one … I put two in for me and the Cowboy).
Add the heavy cream to the eggs.
Top with Goat Cheese (or cheese of your choice … we’ve also done this with mozzarella and cheddar cheese)
Put the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. (Start looking at it at 20 minutes … you want the egg whites white, but the yolks still runny so the moment you see white egg whites, take them out of the oven.)
Top with chives (or cilantro). And serve to your Mother (or sister or friend or pal or whatever) in bed … with sourdough toast, juice and her favorite tea or coffee.
Everybody wins!
xo,
Jeanne
