baked Turkish eggs (vegetarian)

recipe by m-c

just the recipe

what I was looking for

an easier way to make an appealing but fussy recipe from Bill Granger's Bills Open Kitchen (Morrow, 2005, pages 24-25) for "Turkish eggs," eggs and greens on a base of garlicky yogurt dressed with paprika oil

[Before we go any further, let me explain that Bill himself wants no apostrophe in the "Bills" in the book title. He also wants the whole title lower-cased: "bills open kitchen." He also calls his restaurant lower-case no-apostrophe "bills." I like the cookbook anyway.]

what I made

a blending of Bill's recipe with one for baked eggs in Mark Bittman's "Minimalist" column in the New York Times 26 December 2007

grades for my version

healthy	A	Eggs, yogurt, plant oil, all good in moderation; veggies, spices, as much as you want.
fast	C	Eggs are inherently fast, but for an egg dish this takes a while.
easy	B	Gone from an F (no way I'm going to make that recipe) to a B. Easy.
cheap	A	Even if you buy the best eggs in the world, they're one of the most inexpensive ways to get high‑quality protein.
delicious	A	Choice.

yield

One egg per person.

equipment

   toaster oven

   microwave-proof, oven-proof cup (holding 6-8 fluid ounces)

   garlic press

   microwave

Bill's version of this dish uses four containers:

1. a bowl for mixing the yogurt and garlic
2. an ovenproof bowl for heating up the yogurt and garlic
3. a poaching pan
4. a bowl for mixing the paprika oil

Bill mixes the yogurt and garlic, then spoons them out into an ovenproof bowl and puts them in the oven to heat through, meanwhile poaching the egg on the stovetop. He then removes the ovenproof bowl from the oven, tops the hot yogurt mixture with chopped spinach and the poached egg, then mixes the olive oil and paprika in yet another small bowl, and drizzles the flavored oil over the egg.

Frankly, I glanced at the recipe and thought "Well, that sounds delicious, but I'm never making it, so too bad."

But then by good luck Mark Bittman ran a piece about baked eggs (registration required) in his New York Times column "The Minimalist," to which I am devoted. And I thought, "Baked eggs ... yes, baked eggs would do it."

Semi-miraculously, I had not forgotten where I encountered the Turkish egg recipe. (The memory was visual, all praise to Petrina Tinslay's alluring photographs. Also, I hate to say it, the weird punctuation in the title may have stirred my memory as well.)

My version uses only one cup per egg, I bake the eggs instead of poaching them, and I deconstruct the paprika oil. My version of Turkish eggs is easy enough to make whenever I like, no big effort necessary, and with toast and a salad on the side it makes lunch for one.

I specify a toaster oven for these eggs because although you could of course make them in a big oven, if you're feeding only one person, cooking only one egg, you might feel the big oven was too much of a muchness, and therefore not make the dish at all, which would be sad. No less an arbiter than Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse fame, says in her new book The Art of Simple Food (Clarkson Potter, 2007) that a toaster oven is her favorite appliance ‑‑ ahead of a stand mixer, ahead of an ice cream maker -- because, she said in an interview, it fosters small-scale cooking. Hurrah, somebody who doesn't think all recipes should serve 6.

the bottom layer

ingredients	Bill scaled	m-c	why?
yogurt	¼ cup	¼ cup	no change
garlic	¼ clove	½ clove	healthier [1]
salt	¼ pinch	to taste	---
greens	½ ounce baby spinach,	½ ounce baby arugula	faster + easier [2]
Notes
[1]	Garlic is good for you. But don't add so much that you make the dish taste acrid.
[2]	Faster + easier = more convenient, in this case because I had arugula in the refrigerator, so I didn't have to run to the store.

   Preheat your toaster oven to 325°.

   Spoon the yogurt directly into the cup.

   Crush the garlic in the garlic press, then use a sharp knife to scrape all the garlic bits into the yogurt.

I know a lot of recipe writers consider a garlic press plebian, but there's no better way of getting motes of crushed garlic. Use your chef's knife if you will.

Salt the yogurt.

Stir the mixture so that the garlic is evenly distributed in the yogurt.

Chop the greens into pieces. Each piece should be about the size of a quarter, or smaller.

Scatter the pieces on top of the flavored yogurt.

   Nuke the yogurt mixture until you get a whiff of the garlic perfume (2 minutes on high in my microwave). The greens should be slightly wilted.

the bonus and the egg

ingredients	Bill scaled	m-c	why?
the lubricant	---	something to grease the cup	necessary for this version [1]
the bonus	---	1 small roasted tomato	healthier + tastier [2]
the egg	1 large egg	1 large egg	no change
Notes
[1]	Bill doesn't need to grease his cups because he uses poached eggs. Baked eggs will attach themselves to the cup if you don't grease it.
[2]	Plus veggies is always healthier, and in this case the tomato gives the dish a flavor bump as well. I happened to have some roasted tomatoes lying around, but canned ones would be just as good here. I like Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes.

Grease the cup above the yogurt layer. (You may get a little yogurt on your finger. Lick it off, to build excitement in your heart about the coming dish.)

Lay the bonus tomato gently on the surface of the yogurt so that it makes a separate layer.

Break the eggshell over the cup and gently let the egg fall over the tomato, again making a separate layer.

(You might think it would be a good idea to break the egg into a separate cup, as you do when poaching eggs or frying them sunny-side up or separating them for meringue. But ask yourself whether you will in fact not use the egg if you break the yolk. I'm going to go ahead with whatever the cracking produces, so I crack the egg right into the baking cup.)

   Bake the egg till it's done to your liking.

I had to make the dish several times (hey, it's recipe-testing, right?) before I discovered that my perfect timing is 12 minutes at 325°.

But people have very different feelings about how long and at what temperature eggs should be cooked.

Mark Bittman likes his for 10-15 minutes at 325°.

Gayle Pirie and John Clark (Country Egg, City Egg, Artisan, 2000) bake an egg in a hollowed‑out tomato for 16 minutes in a 400° oven.

Michel Roux (Eggs, Wiley, 2005) bakes his in a water bath, so that the temperature of the bottom and sides of the cup stay near 212°, in a 325° oven for 10 minutes, but says if you like your eggs more cooked you can bake them for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Marie Simmons (The Good Egg, Houghton Mifflin, 2000) bakes hers in a 325° oven for 15-20 minutes.

Conduct your own experiments till you find your way.

the topping

ingredients	Bill scaled	m-c	why?
olive oil	½ + ¼ teaspoon	½ + ¼ teaspoon	no change
paprika	¼ teaspoon	¼ teaspoon	no change
salt	to taste	to taste	no change
black pepper	to taste	to taste	no change

Bill would have you mix the oil, paprika, salt, and black pepper in a separate bowl. I just dribbled the oil on the egg and then sprinkled the paprika, salt, and pepper on top. Mixing so small an amount in a separate bowl is a thankless task -- half the topping will stay in the bowl and have to be scraped out laboriously by hand.

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