About Arthur: The New York Times Magazine called Arthur Schwartz “a walking Google of food and restaurant knowledge.” As the restaurant critic and executive food editor of the New York Daily News, which he was for 18 years, he was called The Schwartz Who Ate New York. Nowadays, he is best known as The Food Maven, the name of his website. Whatever the sobriquet, he is acknowledged as one of the country’s foremost experts on food, cooking, culinary history, restaurants, and restaurant history.
The NYC Insiders Guide
for women who aren't kids
The Food Maven Archives
Arthur Schwartz
The Food Maven
15% off Extra virgin olive oil handcrafted from Villa Cappelli in Puglia, Italy. Experts say that the olive oil from Puglia is some of the most palatable in the world, characterized by its digestibility and high vitamin content.
1/2 Liter~16.9 ounces, regularly
$20.00, now $17 for tomatoes. Buy now.
Home / Archives / Experts / NYC Nightlife / NYC Shopping / NYC Restaurants/ Food&Recipes / Reviews / Events / Books&Movies / About Us
 | ||||
Just released. Arthur Schwartz's Newest Cookbook. Available at Amazon and major booksellers everywhere.
Baked Eggs with Sorrel or Spinach
Serves 4
This started out as Richard Olney's recipe -- from his book "Simple French Food," published in 1974. However, I like to think I've made it mine. I recently consulted the recipe and found that, although I am making Olney's recipe in the broad sense, I now make it using proportions that suit my taste, instead of his, and I now make it using spinach instead of sorrel when the latter -- a lemony tasting perennial herb that is sometimes called "sour grass" -- is not in season, which is most of the year. As a family meal, serve the eggs with bread -- nothing else to detract from the treat. Before them serve a light soup and get a salad in there somewhere, or have the eggs precede a thick vegetable soup, perhaps made with pasta or rice..
6 hard-cooked eggs
10 to 12 ounces sorrel or spinach
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Few gratings of nutmeg (only with spinach)
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Cook eggs until just firm throughout. Cool immediately under cold running water, then peel. Set aside.
While eggs are cooking, remove tough stems from sorrel or spinach, then chop greens very finely.
Grease a 9 or 10-inch round, shallow baking dish (or one of roughly equivalent size) with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Spread about a third of the chopped green evenly over bottom of dish.
Cut hard-cooked eggs in half the long way and remove yolks. Place yolks in a mixing bowl. Arrange whites, cut side up, in baking dish.
Break up egg yolks with a fork, then add the chopped green and blend well, adding grated cheese when the mixture is half blended, then the salt, pepper and, to bind the mixture, about 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season spinach with nutmeg, too, if desired. You should have a fairly homogenous mixture that clings together.
Using a teaspoon, fill egg white halves with yolk-green mixture, mounding mixture neatly over tops of whites. Replace whites in pan. (Can be prepared several hours or a day ahead to this point. Cover with plastic and refrigerate. Allow to return to room temperature -- or nearly -- before baking.)
When ready to serve, sprinkle with the tiniest bit of Parmigiano and drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil -- only if desired -- and bake in a preheated 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
