Cooking Skillet-Baked Eggs with Spinach, yogurt, and chili oil

I love reading blogs and food magazines. Whenever you flip through magazines you see these colorful pictures of recipes executed by at the magazine. I love trying new recipes and decided to try one out of Bon Appetit in the January 2012 edition on pages 52 and 53. The recipe was Skillet Baked Eggs with spinach, yogurt, and chili oil.

(Inside Bon Appetit)

Recipe:

2/3 cup plain Greek- style yogurt

1 garlic cloved, halved

Kosher salt

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp chopped leek (white and pale green parts only)

2 Tbsp chopped scallion (white and pale green parts only

10 cups fresh spinach (not baby; 10 oz)

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

4 large eggs

¼ tsp. kirmizi biber ( Turkish chili powder), or  ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes and a pinch of paprika

1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano

Directions:

Mix yogurt, garlic, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter with oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add leek and scallion; reduce heat to low. Cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add spinach and lemon juice; season with salt. Increase heat to medium- high; cook, turning frequently, until wilted,  4 to 5 minutes.

Transfer spinach mixture to 10” skillet, leaving any excess liquid behind. If using 2 smaller skillets, divide spinach mixture equally between skillets. Make 4 deep indentations in center of spinach in larger skillet or 2 indentations in each small skillet. Carefully break 1 egg into each hollow., taking care to keep yolks intact. Bake until egg whites are set, 10 to 15 minutes.

Melt remaining 1 Tbsp butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add kirmizi biber and a pinch of salt and cook until butter starts to foam and browned bits form at bottom of pan, 1-2 minutes. Add oregano and cook for 30 seconds longer. Remove garlic halves from yogurt; discard. Spoon yogurt over spinach and eggs. Drizzle with spiced butter.

                                                               ( My Skillet Baked Eggs)

I wish the recipe included how to wash leeks. I think that is really important to know because they are full of dirt. But I guess if you read Bon Appetit magazine you know how to wash leeks.

(Leeks)

I love the recipe about how the eggs were cooked over the spinach, leek, and scallion mixture.  With recipes and plates in restaurants I am so over yogurt on top of stuff with flavor. The people I made the dish for they do not like spicy food so that was totally off the dish. I think when I made the dish it could have used a little bit more color. A cooked egg is the most beautiful thing to see with the contrast of colors. I think it could use something like a tomato coulis drizzled on top to replace the yogurt mixture. In the picture the yogurt mixture just blends into the egg whites so it’s hard to see that it’s there.

(Portion of Skillet Baked Eggs)