Peas, Spinach and Eggs

I had a truly difficult time when choosing a title to this project as literally there is no English equivalent for this dish. As far as I know, this method of preparing veggies is uniquely Hungarian. I ‘d love to hear from you if there is something similar anywhere else.

“Főzelék” is part of a main course meal but rather the protagonist than a side dish. The word itself means something like “something cooked”, and it is usually served with some sort of topping (like a little beef stew, roasted sausages or eggs). Various veggies can be used to make it, green peas is just one option. You normally start off by sautéing onions (and garlic occasionally), then you add diced or sliced veggies, add fluid (stock/milk/cream or a combination) and cook. Last step is to concentrate the liquid in which the veggies were cooked one way or the other. My mom always did this by adding flour fried slightly on oil (something like roux), but I prefer using a little corn starch and blending a part of the veggies and reheating them with the rest.

As we are heading towards spring I start craving for greens. This is why I thought I’d guide you through the steps to make green peas "whatever" topped with garlicy spinach and poached eggs prepared in the sous – vide. I served it with two eggs per persons, one of them fried. To be honest, frying the poached egg is rather tricky, it requires patience, but the rest of the dish is no big deal.

For the peas:

• 40 g butter
• 1 onion
• 1000 g green peas (fresh or frozen - no need to thaw)
• 250 g chicken stock
• 200 g milk
• 75 g sour cream
• 15 g corn starch
• 2 teaspoons salt
• pepper
• 4 tablespoons parsley (chopped)

For the spinach

• 200 g baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 big clove garlic
• a pinch of salt
• freshly round pepper

For the eggs:

• 2 eggs per person
• 100 g flour
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 100 g breadcrumbs or panko

(This amount of flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs is enough to coat 5 eggs.)

Appliances:

• saucepans
• blender
• spoons
• sous vide stick
• bowls

1. Put butter in saucepan, melt at low heat (pic.1.).
2. Remove the skin of the onion, finely chop it (pic 2., 3.).
3. Add onion to butter and at medium heat start to cook it until the color changes, and gets opaque. Add a teaspoon of salt at this stage it will help to stop the onion from burning (pic 4., 5.).

1. Add peas, stir for 2-3 minutes, add the stock (pic 1.).
2. Bring it to boil and cook for two minutes (pic 2.).
3. Put about 1/3 of the peas into the blender, add milk sour cream, corn starch and blend thoroughly (pic 3., 4.).
4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the peas, add parsley and cook it for 4-5 minutes until it gets dense (pic. 5., 6.).

1. Wash baby spinach. I prefer to remove stems of bigger leafs.
2. Put oil into a saucepan start heating it, chop garlic.
3. Add them both (garlic and wash, dried spinach) and cook it for a couple of minutes until the spinach wilts.

The fun part :-)

Ever since I had my sous vide stick I wanted to try it on eggs. This was my first attempt but more will definitely follow. I searched the internet for time and temperature data and decided to try 73 Celsius for 14 minutes.

Directions:

Put water in a container, heat it to 73 Celsius.

Clean the eggs thoroughly, put them into a Ziploc bag. (They are easier to manage this way.)

When the water temperature reaches 73 Celsius, submerge the eggs in the bag into the water.

Cover the container with aluminum foil for instance.

Prepare a bowl with ice cold water.

When time is up, remove the eggs and shock them in cold water (we don’t want them to go on cooking due to their own heat). Gently remove the shell, make a circular "window" and let the egg slip out.

Note: If you don't have a sous vide stick, you may just poach eggs the classic way or add soft-boiled eggs.

Now, at this point you may say that’s enough and serve a tasty, healthy no-meat meal. But, if you like challenges, you might want to try frying every other egg in breadcrumbs. It is done just like it would be with meat or cheese. What makes it difficult is the really soft ans silky consistency of the poached eggs.

Directions:

So,follow the flour-egg wash- breadcrumbs route:

1. very gently, cover one of the eggs in flour,
2. then transfer it into the egg wash,
3. coat it in breadcrumbs.
4. Fry it in not too hot vegetable oil (I set my induction at 6/9) about 30 seconds each sides.

To serve, put the peas on a plate, top with spinach and one fried and 1 naked poached egg. When you cut through the egg, the yolk will flow from it resulting in an amazing taste. Enjoy!