WARMTH

It's getting cold now.

I shouldn't be surprised, it is November after all, but somehow I am.

At the end of October I was saying that I remember Autumn being colder. I remember being wrapped up in a bundle of layers to go out.

I know what the difference is now. Those memories. They must have been November memories.

I'm in my merino tights now, my sweater dresses, constantly wearing a scarf. I even wore my wrist warmers at work this morning. So when I was catching up on my reading and saw a dish of mashed potato with eggs baked on top and spinach to the side on Rachel's blog I knew it was the cold weather comfort dish we needed. I would have happily followed Rachel's recipe to the letter but when I showed it to Chris he said that when he was small his granny would make something similar but with the spinach mixed into the mash. So, for the curly headed boy who has always loved spinach, we ate this for dinner tonight. It warmed us so thoroughly that the scarf has been abandoned, the slippers discarded, and the heating turned off. Success indeed.



EGGS BAKED IN MASH WITH SPINACH

baking potatoes
spinach
eggs
butter
salt and pepper

I make mash by baking potatoes and then just scooping out the flesh and forking through butter and seasoning. Its easy and you get potato skins to eat with sea salt as a cook's treat. I know that mash is a personal thing, just go with your method of choice, this is mine.

Bake the potatoes in a hot oven until they are completely cooked through (about one large potato per person for about 90 minutes). Take the potatoes out of the oven (but leave the oven on and put a baking dish in to heat) and leave to cool a little while you cook the spinach.

Rinse a large bag of spinach (I used 300g for two of us but increase it for more people, or decrease if you don't want such a strong iron punch) and put it into a large pan with just the water that is still clinging to the leaves. Cover the pan and leave over a moderate flame for a few minutes. When the spinach starts to wilt turn the leaves over in the pan with a wooden spoon and when all of the leaves are wilted drain the spinach and set it aside.

Turn back to the potatoes and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Mix in butter, salt and pepper to taste. Add the spinach to the mash and then put everything into the preheated oven dish. Make small wells in the mash and crack an egg into each one (as many as you want to eat, we had two each). Dot the dish with a little butter and place into a hot oven for 5-10 minutes until the white is cooked but the yolk is still soft. Serve immediately.