Baked Eggs with Spinach & Ham

📝 Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 125 g baby spinach
• 2 slices cooked ham (80 g)
• 4 tbsp light single cream (60 ml)
• 10 g unsalted butter
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 5 fresh chive stalks
• 4 slices wholemeal bread (140 g)
• Salt, pepper

🍴 Utensils

• 4 ramekins
• Ovenproof dish
• Frying pan
• Kettle
• Toaster

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and boil some water in the kettle. Butter the inside of the 4 ramekins with half the butter, then place them in the ovenproof dish.
2. Melt the rest of the butter in the frying pan over a medium heat, add the baby spinach and stir for 2 to 3 minutes until wilted. Season lightly with salt, add the nutmeg, then press the spinach with a spoon in the tilted pan and discard the liquid released.
3. Cut the ham into small cubes. Divide the spinach, then the ham, between the ramekins, making a small hollow in the centre of each: it will keep the egg right in the middle.
4. Crack an egg into each ramekin, on top of the spinach, without breaking the yolk; to be safe, crack it into a cup first and then slide it in. Pour 1 tbsp cream around the yolk, add a tiny pinch of salt and some pepper.
5. Pour the hot water into the dish until it comes halfway up the ramekins: this bain-marie cooks the eggs gently. Bake for 12 minutes, until the white is set and opaque but the yolk still wobbles when you move the dish.
6. While they bake, toast the bread slices until nicely golden, then cut them into 2 cm wide soldiers. Finely snip the chives with scissors.
7. Carefully lift the ramekins out of the bain-marie with a tea towel, as they are scalding hot. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately, 2 ramekins per person, with the soldiers: the yolk keeps cooking if you wait.