You can buy egg-poaching pans at kitchen stores, but poached eggs are easy to make in a pot of water, so today I’ll show you how. You can make quite a fancy dinner with poached eggs and you don’t have to get up early to try to pull it off for breakfast. This eggs Florentine recipe is based on one from that Vegetarian cookbook I told you is so beautiful; I promised a photo of the book last time so it’s at the bottom. Hey, I just thought of a great idea for a cookbook: scratch and sniff patches for each recipe. It could be dangerous though – it would be hard to focus on anything else if you had a scratch and sniff patch of your favorite food.
This dish is a bit of a logistical challenge because you have three steps: the vegetable base, the eggs, and the hollandaise sauce. I modified the directions to make it easier, but it’s great if you have help to take on one of the steps. I was a little frazzled by the time I put it in the oven but it was really worth the effort. If you only want to use four eggs in an 8” square dish, also use half the mushrooms, scallions, and milk. The spinach really cooks down so use all of it.
Eggs Florentine
2 C chopped mushrooms (8 oz pkg)
3 T butter, divided
1/4 C pine nuts
6 chopped scallions
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t sea salt
1 lb fresh, cleaned spinach
1/4 C flour
2 C milk
1 t Dijon mustard
1 C shredded cheddar cheese, divided
8 eggs
Preheat oven to 375. Put water in a large skillet and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, put one tablespoon butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, pine nuts, scallions, nutmeg, and salt; stir and cook 2 minutes. Add the spinach; cover and cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spread the mixture in a 9×13 baking dish.
Wipe the pan with a paper towel and melt the rest of the butter. Stir in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and gradually stir in the milk. Return to the heat and cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened. Stir in the mustard, then 1/2 cup of cheese. Continue stirring until the cheese has melted; remove from the heat.
Reduce the heat to the boiling water so it is a gentle simmer. Carefully break each egg into a cup and slip it into the water. Cook 4 minutes. Carefully remove each egg with a slotted spoon and arrange on top of the spinach mixture.
Finally pour the sauce over the eggs, completely covering them. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cook for 20 minutes until the top starts to brown. Serve immediately.
