Baked Eggs with Yogurt and Chile

This recipe was one that immediately drew me once I opened up Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi.  I can't express to you how much I love baked eggs.  It has gotten to the point where certain individuals (and I am not going to name names here, but you know who you are) make fun of my obsession with baked eggs.  I can't help it.  They are uber yummy.  Plus I am on a Middle Eastern kick of sorts right now so I am drawn towards anything with that flavor profile. 

I have to say that these eggs were very interesting, although not the most successful baked eggs we have ever made.  I liked the addition of the yogurt sauce and the addition of the chilis, but I'm not sure how I felt about the arugula.  I think in the future I would potentially use a different green (maybe spinach).  My biggest complaint was that it never quite felt like it came together at the level that I wanted it to.  It smelled great and looked delicious, but it was good (verging on, but not quite making it to, very good).  The bottom line is that it wasn't amazing and I wanted it to blow my mind.  I guess my expectations were set a little too high here...  We didn't use the sage or the amount of butter that the recipe called for, but we added some scallions and I think the butter level in our dish was more than sufficient.  If I had added more butter I worry that it would have felt heavy and/or greasy.  And sage sounded like an odd ingredient to me.  When I think sage I think Thanksgiving - stuffing, turkey, butternut squash.  I don't think arugula, eggs and Greek yogurt.  But maybe that's my bad.  It's entirely possible that if we had made the dish exactly as written that it would have been the mind blowing experience I was looking for.  Instead I had to settle for good. 

Recipe after the jump!

Baked Eggs with Yogurt and Chile

Adapted from Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi

By Yotam Ottolenghi

INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp evoo

1 small garlic clove minced (about 2 tsp), separated

6 oz baby arugua

salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 scallion, green and white parts, finely chopped

1 tbsp unsalted butter

pinch cayenne pepper

pinch smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Heat a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add evoo.  Saute half of the garlic (roughly 1 tsp), until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add arugula and saute until the arugula wilts and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes.  Add scallions, season with s&p and toss to combine.  Transfer arugula mixture to a small ovenproof dish.  Make 2 indentations into the arugula and carefully break an egg into each indentation, being careful not to break the yolk.  Sprinkle eggs and arugula mixture with cayenne and paprika.  Sprinkle eggs lightly with salt.

Place in the oven and bake until the egg whites are just set, but the yolks are still runny, about 15 minutes.  Once the eggs are cooked, remove them from the oven.  Spoon the yogurt over the center and serve.