The other day (God I’m bored) I was craving some baked eggs, and despite the heat the apartment remains remarkably cool with minimal intervention from ConEd. Shakshuka seemed a little boring.

Simultaneously I was thinking about the Beatles. I researched to see if there was some connection and stumbled across this baked eggs recipe that the author tried to tie to Sir Paul McCartney, CH MBE, but there’s no real evidence that he has anything to do with this. It is actually an adapted Ottolenghi recipe, as further adapted by me. I also reduced the recipe because we are no longer serving 4—6. I am The Lion in Winter. I have also given up on formatting.

Serves 4-6 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup plain greek-style yogurt or sour cream
• 1 tablespoon sambal or other chili paste (or more to taste) [I’ve never heard of sambal]
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced [oh, you can use a little more]
• kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 leek (white and light green parts only), roughly chopped
• 2 chopped scallions (plus more for garnish)
• 16 ounces fresh spinach (2 cello bags worth) [This is a British or Commonwealth recipe. A “cello bag” is a pre-packaged plastic bag and has nothing to do with chamber music.]
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 8 large, organic eggs
• 10 frozen (and thawed) or canned artichoke hearts, quartered
• 12 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crumbled [sorry, no Mexican oregano in this household, and for 1 tsp I wasn’t about to go hunting around for it]
• a few drops of chili oil for garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Mix yogurt, sambal and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and set aside.
• Heat oven to 300℉.  Melt butter in oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add the leek and scallion and reduce heat to low.  Cook until soft, about 10 minutes.  Add the artichoke hearts, garlic, and oregano and cook another 3-4 minutes.  Add the spinach and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and turn up the heat to medium-high.  Cook, stirring frequently until the spinach if fully wilted, 4-5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and toss in the sun-dried tomatoes, mix to incorporate.
• Transfer spinach mix to 2 smaller oven-proof skillets (or gratin dishes) using a slotted spoon so as to leave any excess liquid behind.  Make 4 deep indentations in the spinach at the center of each skillet.  Carefully break the eggs into a bowl, then pour 4 into the center of each skillet taking care not to break the yolks.  Bake until the egg whites are just set, 13-15 minutes.
• To serve, spoon spiced yogurt over spinach and eggs.  Drizzle with chili oil (if using) and top with some freshly minced scallion.