So my friend who's here this week--you know, the one who loves Pots de Creme? She sent me a link to a video about this whole egg in a cloud idea. So of course I had to come up with my own version. Ummm.....
WHY did I never think of this before? It's so delicious! I love that this sort of serves the same purpose as a yummy fried egg with a rich, glisteny, runny yolk, but it's much easier to prepare lots of these to be warm and ready all at the same time than to try to fry a bunch of eggs all at once. And I super love the idea of mixing in all sorts of deliciousness into the whites before baking them. I used green onions and Parmesan this time, but I can think of at least 10 other combinations that I'm excited to try. YUM!
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound bacon
2 cups cooked red quinoa
olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 small jar (4 oz.) diced green chiles
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions:
1. Cut bacon into lardons and fry over medium-high heat until evenly crisped. Drain on paper towels.
2. Coat a nonstick or cast iron pan with olive oil and add diced onion. Cook until onions begin to caramelize. Add garlic and garlic paste, and stir until garlic paste is completely melted. Stir in green chiles and quinoa. Add chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder, and stir to mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
4. While bacon and quinoa are cooking, separate eggs, keeping all yolks individually set aside and adding whites to mixing bowl. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in green onions and Parmesan. Place 4 "piles" of the egg white mixture onto parchment-paper lined pan and create a deep well in the center of each. Bake for 3 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and add one egg yolk to each shell. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for an additional 3 minutes or until yolks are cooked but still runny.
6. To serve, plate a nice bed of quinoa and put the egg "basket" over the top. Sprinkle with bacon and serve warm.