Sunday, August 15, 2010

Everyday Yumminess: My Mom's Eggs Baked in Zucchini

I suppose this isn't technically my mom's recipe, since she got it from The Vegetarian Epicure many moons ago, but I will always associate it with my mom nonetheless, since she introduced it to me when I was at an age where I thought my mom just magically knew how to make good food.I found a copy of the recipe online here, which will save me from having to give pesky quantities below. Without fail, this is the first dish that comes to mind when I see a big beautiful pile of zucchini, and it also always brings warm fuzzy feelings of simple days growing up back in Portland with the parents... Sigh. Anyway... Food.
The recipe calls for coarsely grating the zucchini, but I'm getting a kick out of my newly-upgraded mandolin (the last one broke after 5 uses, and after the warranty expired) so I decided to do a julienne instead...
The zucchini is tossed with a little salt and allowed to stand for a few minutes, after which you can squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
In the meantime, you can slice some scallion and get it sautéing in some (Amish) butter.
The zucchini goes into the pan for about 10 minutes, then the mixture is distributed among ramekins. (I scaled the recipe to be about 4 servings instead of 6...)
An egg (which would ideally be at room temperature) goes into the little well in the middle of the zucchini mixture...
... and the ramekins go into the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the whites are set but the yolk is still soft.
This would be pretty good on its own, but the final touch is a dollop of Hollandaise sauce. You can do the long and arduous version (clarifying your (Amish) butter, working over a bain-marie...), but in the spirit of simple brunch food I decided to go with Julia Child's Blender Hollandaise (which you can google if you want the recipe). It takes about 60 seconds to make, and is awesome...
And... there you have it: one of my all-time favorite brunches (behind Eggs Benedict, of course...). It's super-simple but extremely satisfying and delicious. Thanks for the recipe, mom!

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