It’s Cook the Book Friday again!  Have I said how much I’m enjoying this book?  Out of the recipes we’ve cooked from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen over the past 8 months, the proportion of winners has been astounding.  My favorite thing about the recipes is that they are an excellent jumping off point for other variations.  I went wild with the dukkah. I’ve made the oven-roasted tomatoes from the crostinis multiple times this summer to top quiches.

This week’s recipe, Baked Eggs with Greens and Salmon, is destined to be the blueprint for a dish that works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  The formula starts by layering individual baking dishes with a bed of sautéed greens.  The recipe called for kale, but I used the cooked beet greens I had in the fridge.  Next comes a layer of smoked salmon, then the eggs.  I made this with two eggs when I had it for lunch and again dinner, but it also works with just one for breakfast.  The eggs are topped with some crumbled cheese (I used feta), a dose of cream and the most delicious garlicky breadcrumbs.

This concoction is baked until the whites set.  For me, this took much longer than the called for 10-12 minutes, even 15 minutes wasn’t quite enough.  I am starting to believe that David’s 350 oven is more like my 375 (though I have calibrated recently, and my oven should be accurate).  Hopefully I remember next time we bake one of his recipes to hike the temperature.

My favorite part of this recipe was the breadcrumbs.  I don’t know how the butter and garlic transformed the breadcrumbs into something that tasted somewhat like bacon, a little bit smoky and a little bit meaty, but it did.  I can’t wait to make another batch and sprinkle them on EVERYTHING!

You should try this yourself.  It’s delicious for any meal.  Made in individual bakers, it works if you’re alone, or scales if you have people to share with.  You can find the recipe on page 151 of My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz.  To see what my friends’ thought of the eggs, you can follow their links here.