Baked Eggs with Spinach and Cremini Mushrooms w/Clausen's Sourdough Rosemary Toast

This morning, I made my breakfast based on this recipe from January’s Bon Appétit.  Both in print and online, the magazine includes this grandiose quote from the chef: “American and British cooks don’t know how far you can take an egg dish.”  The magazine’s copy goes on to state, “Here, he deftly elevates it to a different realm by flavoring spinach with leeks and scallions, baking the eggs on top and finishing with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of butter spiced with a smoky Turkish chili powder known and kirmizi  biber…”  I guess I must eat a lot of egg dishes in that “realm” because while good, his recipe looks like nothing out of the ordinary for me.

My version included red onions, scallions, spinach and cremini mushrooms added after the onions but before the spinach, because, really, what isn’t better with mushrooms?  I could also see bacon in the vegetable mixture.   I chose to flavor olive oil instead butter with chili powder.  The original dish includes both olive oil and butter at different points.  I halved the recipe making this a two egg breakfast for myself.  I’m not sure D. would appreciate the dollop of yogurt.  I think he’d like the rest of the dish just fine.  I did use his trick of seasoning the yogurt with garlic (removed before serving) and kosher salt.

When I make this again, I’ll bake it in oven safe serving dishes or a small cast iron skillet.  I baked it in our smallest Calphalon skillet, but that has a non-stick coating and while it looked pretty in there, I realized I didn’t want to eat out of a non-stick skillet with a fork.  I did transfer it to a plate without breaking the yokes, but it wasn’t as elegant once transferred.  Many, many recipes I have seen for baked eggs involve ramekins, but the only ramekins I have are really tiny and intended for rich, fancy desserts.