Sunday, April 26, 2015

Bird's Nests With Greens For Supper

I made the bird's nest recipe that I found in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver one time and we didn't like it.  It just had no flavor.  I must have left something out, but I wasn't interested in trying it again.

Recently, I have seen a couple of variations on that theme and I wanted to see if maybe there was a more flavorful way to make it.

This past week has been my April vacation and I managed to spend it in a most un-vacation like manner and have felt strapped for time all week.  I worked on an online graduate course that sucked up each evening, I taught a class 3 mornings with a friend of mine and I ran around playing catch up with things I hadn't been able to do before the vacation week.

I need a week of vacation now, please.

When I got up this morning, my first thought was that I have to make supper (I never want to go out on school nights, it's just a rule I can't break) and I had no idea what to make.  All of my quick standards are getting pretty tired and I needed something else.

I had this gorgeous bunch of radishes from my garden that I knew I wanted to use, but that was about it.
In order to get k-ster to eat radishes, I have to be creative and if I cook them and add them to something, he's fine with it.

When I'm feeling rushed for time, something about reading a recipe adds a whole extra layer of frustration and stress to my day.  I prefer a meal I can throw together on my own.

Which is ridiculous because whipping up something off the top of my head ends up taking much more concentration, time and creativity than reading a recipe would have!

As the day went on, I somehow concocted the following plan and what a fabulous dish it was.  My photographer is currently on assignment so you'll have to put up with my haphazard photography skills.*

Here's what I did.

Thinly slice the radishes and chop up the greens.

Saute the radishes in olive oil with some garlic for a while.  Maybe 10 minutes over medium heat.

Chop up some chard and put the thick part of the stalk in with the radishes and garlic.

When the radishes and chard are looking slightly translucent, add in the chard greenery and some spinach.  A lot of spinach, actually.  I used almost the entire 16 ounce container.  Spinach is tricky because it cooks down into just about nothing.

Stir the greens around and when they start to really wilt, crack in the eggs.  I used 5, 4 around the edge and one in the center.  In some recipes, you actually make a little well so it's like the egg is surrounded by a nest.  I was afraid the egg would stick to the bottom.

Plus, once I cracked them into the pan, I didn't have any control over where they went!

Put the cover on and turn the heat down so they can steam.  If you're worried about having enough water for steam, you could add an ice cube, but I found that there was plenty of moisture from the greens.

I was concerned that the eggs wouldn't be cooked, so I left them for longer than a person needs to.   Like probably 15-20 minutes when 10 would probably have sufficed.  They were like hard boiled eggs, which was fine with me.  K-ster said he likes them a little runnier but they were good.

While all of that was happening, I used some of these bagels that I made the other day to make garlic toast.
This picture is the only one I seem to have of the bagels, from the getting ready to boil them phase.  Trust me, they are cooked now and brown!

I used 3 of them and cut them in half and then small pieces.  I made a quick spread of melted butter, parsley and garlic and spread it on each piece and then cooked it for a while.  Maybe 15 minutes.

I prefer to cut my garlic bread into the sizes I want before I put the butter mixture and toast them. 

When all was ready, I added some Mrs. Dash hot seasoning to the nest of eggs and a little salt.  I also added the ham because every time I said we were having eggs and greens, k-ster said "green eggs and ham?"

I was worried that the flavor might be lacking, so I thought the ham might give it a little salt.  And it did!  We also added a little parmesan on top.

I will definitely make this again.

I'm toying with the idea of maybe using a couple of pieces of bacon instead of the ham.

Another good variation would be to add some balsamic to the greens.  I'm not sure what that would do to the eggs though.

I like using the radish greens and chard because I think it adds some substance to the spinach.

*I don't have a photographer.

How would you jazz up this recipe?  Leave your comments here or on my facebook page!

Linking here:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/04/clever-chicks-blog-hop-136-featuring.html
http://www.sewcando.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2015/04/show-and-tell-link-party-9/ 
http://www.thesitsgirls.com

1 comment:

  1. What a cute and different idea you have with the Bird Nests With Greens for supper. I'll have to try this. Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop! I hope you’ll join us again next week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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