a new way to egg

When you're finally getting 3 or 4 eggs everyday, you start to wonder if there are other ways to prepare them than boiled, fried, saladed, etc. For dinner tonight I flipped through How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and found a recipe for Shirred Eggs. When making shirred eggs, you bake the eggs either in a ramekin or on a bed (nest) of something like spinach, onions, mushrooms. This method makes for a luxuriously creamy texture something akin to having the entire egg over medium consistency. I prepared our shirred eggs on a bed of sautéed onion and spinach (a slight variation from the Bittman recipe, as I had spinach that needed to be eaten). These were a cinch to make, very hearty and can easily be made to feed 2 or 20.

Shirred Eggs with Onions and Cheese

Makes 4 to 8 servings

Time: about 1 hour

• 4 tablespoons of butter or olive oil (I used 2 tablespoons of an olive oil/butter mix)
  
• 4 cups sliced onions
  
• 1 cup plain bread crumbs (I used a little extra)
  
• 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
• 8 eggs (I used 9, because they fit nicely...I'll let you know how the leftovers are)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Place the butter or oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Two minutes later, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft and tender but not browned, about 15 minutes. (I added the spinach for the last 5 minutes of cooking.) Spread the onions over the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan, or other similar-sized baking dish.
3. Top with half of the bread crumbs and half of the cheese. Use the back of a spoon to make 8 little nests in the mixture and crack 1 egg into each. Top with salt, pepper, and the remaining bread crumbs and cheese.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the eggs are just set and the whites solidified. Serve with toast.

Here we are right out of the oven

A generous meal of 2 eggs and a mess of onions smothering a piece of sprouted grain toast.