Jo's Cafe

I don’t cook.   Actually, I don’t *like* to cook.   But on occasion … I get a wild hair and I do cook.  After watching Food Network last Sunday afternoon, I found three recipes I wanted to try.   This is the first one I’ve made.  The other two will be done later this week.

Green, Eggs  & Ham

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray (Yes Sean …. I know, I know)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 large shallots, finely chopped
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted in microwave and liquids drained (My grocery store only had a 9 ounce box and it worked just fine)
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup heavy cream, eyeball it (Note: I used a 1/2 cup and ended up putting a bit more into the spinach after it cooked a bit)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste (Oops, I left this out even though I bought it.  Didn’t miss it)
• 8 slices deli ham or prosciutto di Parma (The grocery store didn’t have di Parma, but I used Boars Head Proscuitto and it was fine)
• 8 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, heat the extra-virgin olive oil and the butter and sweat the shallots a few minutes. Add the spinach and stir in the cream, season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little grated nutmeg. Cook the spinach, stirring occasionally, until the cream has thickened, 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning to your taste.

Fold each slice of ham or prosciutto in half and line the nonstick cups with 1 slice of meat each. (I bought an eight slot small loaf pan instead of a cup-cake pan.  I think it worked better because of the size of the Prosciutto)

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the cooked spinach into each of the cups, then crack an egg into each, making sure it stays whole. Season the tops of the eggs with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bake in the oven at 375 degrees until set, about 15 minutes.

Allow the baked eggs to cool in the muffin cups for a couple of minutes before removing them from the pan.

Serve immediately.

And here is how it looks after it comes out of the oven and on a plate.  The eggs are not hard cooked but not raw either.   I’d say Soft …

I ate one and put the rest in the frig for breakfast throughout the week.