Oranges and Avocados

Decadent weekday breakfast

This week, my CSA box of produce contained a bundle of sorrel leaves. Other than picking a few tender leaves off my brother’s plant for salads, I have not cooked with sorrel. It is often described as tasting sour, however, the young leaves I have eaten were delicate and mild, like a less peppery watercress. I was excited to try a recipe for sorrel and shirred eggs from Food & Wine magazine.

Shirred is a fancy word for eggs baked in a shallow dish. The idea of putting simple breakfast ingredients in the oven and coming back minutes later to a delicious meal requiring almost no work was appealing. I washed and chopped a handful of sorrel into thick strips, packed it into a small dish with a pat of butter, and put it in the oven at 375 for about three minutes. Then, I cracked an egg over the top of the sorrel and added a tablespoon of cream like the recipe instructed. It looked like it wanted another tablespoon of cream, and who’s counting?, so I poured a little more over the top, seasoned with salt and pepper and put the dish back in the oven until the egg looked done but the yolk was still soft, about 10 minutes.  The sorrel melted into the cream and butter, the egg nestled between the crevices of greens like custard. Served with toast and coffee, this was a decadent little breakfast.

Most recipes for shirred eggs call for two eggs to a dish, but I prefer to eat just one. Those inclined to count calories can replace the butter with a light dressing of olive oil and the cream with milk. Spinach or watercress would be good substitutes in this recipe, leeks would be divine.