Baked Eggs with Kale and Smoked Salmon

Kale is one of my favorite ingredients. It is on my must-do list to use more kale, especially when they are in season. I got some purplish green, (I believe they are Russian red) amazingly tender and fresh ones from the farmers market. Putting together kale and eggs and smoked salmon are special. Everything in this dish sounds so nourishing and wholesome. The only question left is whether you eat it for breakfast or lunch. I ate it for lunch since it was a rather substantial plate of food.

This David Lebovitz’s recipe from My Paris Kitchen of baked eggs with kale and smoke salmon requires several steps:

• Make garlic bread crumbs in the skillet on the stovetop. One teaspoon of thyme leaves was called for. I was surprised that the thyme plant in my back yard was still full of tender green leaves. I used a generous amount, appreciating the gift from Mother Nature late in the season. Instead of bread crumbs, I used panko from the pantry.

• Saute the kale in a skillet with some melted butter and garlic until soft. Season with salt and pepper.

• Assemble the baked eggs. Kale goes in the bottom of the gratin dish. Lay bite-size smoked salmon above the kale. Next go two cracked eggs, crumbled cheese and a tablespoon of heavy cream. I used Comté instead of feta for no good reason, just on a whim to use something French. The bread crumbs go on top. I left the egg yolks peeping out, so that I can judge the degree of doneness. I put the gratin in the oven and baked for about 10 minutes.

The finished dish looked quite appealing. The egg yolks were still slightly runny, just the way I wanted. But I was not wowed by the taste of the assembled dish. Everything was perfectly cooked but the dish as a whole was not as amazing as its individual parts as I had expected.

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