BAKED EGGS WITH CREAMY KALE
Brunch is, generally, an indulgence. Brunch on a MONDAY, in the sun, is a luxury. How to make it more indulgent and luxurious? Cream. This was more or less my thought process this morning when the first pangs of hunger announced themselves. Earlier in the day while I was checking on the veggie garden, I noticed that our Tuscan kale (cavolo nero) had started to scale new heights, and we haven’t even had a chance to sample this season’s crop yet.
So I decided: today was the day to eat the kale. And the resourceful (lazy) side of me decided to use what was already on hand at the farm. I should mention, we have 6 chickens (plus one rooster), 4 of whom are juveniles that have recently started laying these adorable, half-sized mini eggs. But thanks to the 5-star luxury heated chicken coop The Roommate customized for them, they’ve been laying all throughout winter on a daily basis, and we are now drowning in eggs. The egg tray in the fridge is double-stacked. There are two bowls with more eggs below it. It’s too much. So brunch seemed like an opportune occasion to make a tiny, unnoticeable dent in our supply. That’s two farm ingredients now. 10 more minutes of scavenging yielded some cream, red onions, garlic (again, more than 2 cloves) and Grana Padano cheese. And chilli flakes.
Basically, prep consists of cutting everything up into little pieces. But be sure to separate the stems from the leaves first, as the stems take a little longer to cook down. Anyone else always forget to preheat the oven and end up having like 15 minutes to kill while waiting? Happens pretty regularly over here. Luckily, today I had the perfect time-filler/exciting new experiment to play with - please bear with this brief tangent because I am SO excited about this. Last week, a very thoughtful friend (and occasional cooking partner) left me a truly unique gift:
I didn’t even know this was possible! Did you?? The smaller of the two packages is from Little Acre Gourmet Mushrooms in Queensland, and they carry several different varieties of mushrooms in their grow kits. After 15 minutes spent putting them together (literally a 2-step process - 3 minutes of work, 12 minutes of grinning stupidly to myself in excitement), these babies are now tucked away in a dark corner of the house, hopefully to emerge in the next couple of weeks. Okay. Detour over.
Back in front of the now preheated oven, cook the onion, garlic (a reasonable 6 cloves) and kale stems on medium to medium-high heat with some olive oil in an oven-proof or cast iron skillet for a few minutes until the stems and onions have softened.
Here’s another great thing about kale, besides the abundant health properties it’s always advertised for: it cooks down really, really quickly. A giant bowl of chopped kale leaves (and I really do mean giant) can wilt down in a matter of minutes. Like 3 minutes, not 17 minutes. Now, balance the extreme healthiness of the kale by adding in a truckload of cream, and stir to combine until the cream comes to a gentle simmer. Stir in some chilli flakes (if you want), salt and pepper, then take it off the heat. Create 5 or 6 little wells in the kale mixture, depending on how many eggs you’re adding, and crack the eggs carefully into each well.
Look at the double yolks! I can’t tell if the double-yolk eggs are coming from one juvenile chicken or multiple, but there have been quite a few and it’s apparently a common occurrence among young chickens (thank you Google). My question is: if I were to incubate a double-yolk egg, would there be twin chickens?? Probably not. How could they both fit in one egg? Something new to Google later.
Finally, some freshly grated Grana Padano over top, then into the oven for about 5-6 minutes, or until the eggs are set (but the yolks should still be a little bit runny - I left mine in their about 2 minutes too long and they were a little more set then I wanted). Because The Roommate and I are both chilli fiends, I added a little more chilli flake over top, then served it with some toasted and buttered thick cut bread.
And, YUM. So good, in fact, that despite The Roommate’s repeated inquiries of “Bacon? Is there bacon in it? Can we put bacon in it?”, he had seconds and did not once even mention the word bacon during (or after) the meal. Believe me, this is a victory in itself.
(You can totally add bacon if you want.)
Ingredients:
5-6 eggs
1 large bunch Tuscan kale (cavolo nero), stems and leaves separated and chopped
1 medium red onion, finely diced
6 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cream
2/3 cup freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (I used a bit more )
1 tsp red chilli flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Heat olive oil in an ovenproof skillet or cast iron pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add in the onions and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and kale stems and cook a few minutes more until the stems have softened slightly.
2. Add in about half the kale leaves along with a tablespoon or two of water, and cook until the leaves have wilted. Add the remaining kale and a little more water if needed, and keep cooking until wilted.
3. Pour in the cream and stir to mix well. Let cook on medium heat until the cream is simmering gently, then add some salt and pepper to taste, along with some of the chilli flakes.
4. Take the skillet off the heat and make 5-6 wells in the kale mixture according to the number of eggs you have. Gently crack an egg into each well, then top with the grated Grana Padano. Bake for about 5-6 minutes or until the eggs are just set. Add remaining chilli flakes over top if desired.