Baked Eggs with Spinach & Leek - Sunday Brunch Inspiration

During the week I normally have a quick bowl of porridge or cereal for my breakfast before heading out to work. Not very exciting! So at the weekend I always fancy taking my time to make something a little more special and delicious. A few months ago I found a recipe for baked spinach eggs in Easy Living magazine, and I've sucessfully made this recipe several times since. It's a great idea for a weekend breakfast or brunch, and it only takes about 15-20 minutes to prepare and another 12-15 minutes to cook.

Recipe - Baked Eggs with Spinach and Leek
Makes4

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
20g butter
2 leek, trimmed & sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
300g baby spinach leaves
4 eggs
80ml single cream
Pinch of grated nutmeg
Salt & Pepper for seasoning
Bread, to serve

Method:

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

2) Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook for around 5 minutes until soft. Add the spinach and cook until wilted.

3) Blend the spinach and leek mixture in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of the cream. Season the mixture and add the nutmeg.

4) Divide the spinach and leek mixture between 4 ramekin dishes. Crack an egg into each one and then divide the rest of the cream into each dish and season with salt & pepper.

5) Place the ramekins into a baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve with some toasted ciabatta or sourdough bread.

So yummy!!

Lisa x

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Chicken and Leek Mashed Potato-Topped Pie

My good friend popped over for dinner the other day and I decided to make a pie. I didn't have any puff pastry in the house and I'm pretty useless at making homemade pastry, so I decided to top my pie with mashed potato instead. 

I found a recipe for a chicken and leek pie on allrecipes.co.uk (link: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/627/chicken-and-leek-pie.aspx) however as I started following it, a couple of the ingredients listed weren't actually included in the instructions. So I ended up doing a bit of improvisation, and despite being worried it may not work out it turned out to be tasty in the end - and my friend said he enjoyed it too (hopefully he just wasn't being polite!)

Recipe - Chicken and Leek Mashed Potato-Topped Pie
Serves 2

Ingredients:

Olive oil
2 skinless chicken breasts
4 leeks, chopped
Large knob of butter
1 tbsp plain flour
250ml chicken stock
250ml milk
Salt and pepper (seasoning)
3 large potatoes, peel and chopped
Dash of milk and knob of butter (for mash)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C.
• Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks. 
• Put a glug of olive oil into a frying pan and cook chicken chunks until browned. Set these aside.
• Add a little more olive oil into the same pan and add 3 of the leeks. Saute on a medium heat until softened. Set these aside with the chicken.
• In a big pan melt a large knob of butter and add a tablespoon of flour and mix to form a smooth paste. Gradually add the milk to create a thickened sauce.
• Add the chicken, leeks and stock to the pan with the sauce and stir all together.
• Cover and simmer for 10-15  minutes. The sauce should reduce slightly.
  
• Season the mixture with some salt and pepper and pour into a pie dish. Leave to cool whilst you cook the potatoes.
  
• Add the chopped potatoes to a pan with plenty of water to cover them. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft.
• Add a little milk and butter and mash the potatoes. I softened one more leek by cooking it in butter and added this to the mash.
  
• Top the pie mixture with the mashed potato and spread evenly over the top.
  
• Place in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes - till the pie is piping hot throughout. 

This is my idea of great comfort food!
  

Lisa x

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Spinach, Leek and Feta Puff Pastry Tart Recipe

Earlier this week I made some asparagus and parmesan tarts (find the recipe here: http://foodloverlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/british-asparagus-season-asparagus.html) and today I decided to use up the other half of my ready-rolled puff pastry to make another tart for my lunch - a spinach, leek and feta tart. Instead of following a recipe for this one, I used a bit of improvisation and (in my opinion!) the end result was actually very nice. I was a bit pressed for time, so instead of doing 2 separate tarts I made one big one with the remaining pastry and then cut it in half to share with my brother who is currently visiting. He's a bit of a fuss-pot with his veggies, so was surprised that he seemed so keen to try it, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did - shocker!

Recipe - Spinach, Leek and Feta Tarts
Serves 2

Ingredients:

Olive oil 

150g frozen spinach

1 leek, thinly chopped

1 egg

Half a pack of ready-rolled puff pastry (I used half a pack of Sainsbury's 375g puff pastry)

60g feta, cut into cubes

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Place the puff pastry onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Score a line into the pastry to make a thin border around the outside. 
• Defrost the spinach and drain away any excess water. 
• Pour a couple of glugs of olive oil into a non-stick frying pan. Add the leeks and spinach and cook on a medium heat until softened.
  
• Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the beaten egg.
• Pour the mixture onto the pastry and spread within the borders made previously.
• Sprinkle over the cubes of feta.
  
• Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry has puffed up and is golden brown.
• The finished result...
  

I then cut this in half and shared it with my brother, with a bit of extra salad on the side.

Lisa x

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