Fancy Baked Eggs

Breakfast. Such a lovely, comforting word. A hearty and satisfying conclusion to the night’s hungry tired hours. The promise of energy, and the first sensory indulgence of the day.

People’s breakfast habits tend to say a lot about them. Skipping the meal altogether could, I suppose, simply express a lack of appetite, or the incapacitation of fatigue, or some sort of ill-advised determination to cut calories. The morning person is more invested, with their protein juice smoothies to-go, or egg white omelets (get a job!), or my favorite, the yogurt-berry-granola concoction that so very much pins one into the corner of athleticism and general health consciousness. I, however, am a pillager of all things leftover. I have little interest in sweets, having retired pancakes with whipped cream to the basement of my elapsed youth next to jelly sandals and Fraggle Rock.

Hailed as “the leftover goblin” by someone who has seen my morning antics first-hand, I hanker for the Thai food from last night, maybe spaghetti or chicken cacciatore or, dare I admit it, that spinach dip from last weekend. Protein and a bit of grease, already assembled and begging to be consumed instead of wasted. This is what I can muster after coffee-making strips me of the only energy available on a Tuesday morning. That is, until the weekend.

Saturday morning arrives and I make an about-face, putting forth the effort to get up at a reasonable hour and hit the cutting board with Nina Simone at my side. The result of these mornings is always in egg form. Poached, scrambled, fried, benedicted, omeletted, boiled, or my new favorite—baked—there is no finer food.

Unwhisked baked eggs are similar in consistency to fried eggs, and can be cooked to different degrees of runniness. Particularly practical if you are serving a group, they are all finished cooking at once and retain heat, as they are contained. Ramekins make easy work of baking eggs, but I was turned on to an edible cup and then created a baked egg all-in-one breakfast with potatoes and red pepper. Sliced ham served as the cup of choice but I’ve also seen suggestions of tortilla and pita bread.

To the recipe…

Figure two cups per serving

• 2 tbs. olive oil

• 1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped

• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped

• 3 or 4 new or red potatoes, finely chopped

• salt and pepper

• 2 tbs. sour cream

• fresh tarragon or chives

• 8 thin slices of ham

• 8 eggs

Preheat oven to 400F degrees

Heat oil in a pan and sauté shallots, pepper and potato until cooked through, 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper, sour cream, and 1 tbs fresh chopped herbs.

Lightly oil 8 cups of a full size muffin tin, and fit one slice of ham into the mold. Divide potato-pepper mixture into ham cups, then crack a single egg on top of each cup. Bake 12-15 minutes until egg whites have become opaque but yolk is still runny. Remove gently with two spoons, garnish with fresh herbs, season and enjoy!