Baked Eggs with Urfa Biber Butter

This recipe was donated to us by our friend and customer Tyler, who says it’s his go-to brunch dish for special occasions. He claims to have found it in Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty, but he’s adapted it heavily to make it his own. We present it below in Tyler’s words (with our own itty-bitty additions).

It’s a perfect way to show off our Urfa Biber chiles from Turkey – with no other dominant flavour, the smoky, earthy flavour of the Urfas really takes centre stage. The quantities in this recipe are all approximate. Use however much of each ingredient seems right.

Ingredients:

Large bunch of fresh spinach (most of a bag, depending on how many you’re serving)
Leeks, finely chopped (about 1 Tbsp per 2 eggs)
Eggs
Butter
Greek Yogurt
4-5 cloves garlic
Chives, minced
A Lemon
Urfa Biber
Kosher Salt

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
2. Sauté the leeks in a good-sized chunk of butter with a pinch of kosher salt. When soft, add the spinach and stir around until wilted.
3. Use a muffin tin. Make beds of spinach in as many holes as you’d like. Push down in the middle to make it sort of cup-like. Crack an egg into each spinach cup.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the eggs reach your desired baked egg consistency (though this dish is best if the yolk is nice and runny). You need to watch the eggs closely. They will look nowhere near done then be overdone in a hurry.
5. Meanwhile, chop the garlic into teeny tiny bits. How much depends on how garlicky you like your food.
6. Take some Greek Yoghurt (sour cream also works, though it’s not as good) and mix in the teeny tiny bits of garlic, along with some minced chives, a good squeeze of fresh lemon and a pinch of kosher salt.
7. Melt some butter (1-2 Tbsp per egg) in a small saucepan. Let it get a little frothy. Add about ½ tsp Urfa Biber per egg. Stir it vigourously into the melted, frothy butter over low heat. Eventually the butter will turn an orangey-brown and it’s ready. Don’t overcook this – it’ll get kind of black and gross.
8. Scoop out the spinach/eggs and put them on a plate.
9. Add a couple spoonfuls of the yoghurt/garlic stuff, not quite on top of the eggs, but not quite beside. Sort of on, but off the eggs. Easy to mix while eating.
10. Pour over the butter/Urfa sauce.
11. Serve and eat.