Spring Moss
A few weeks ago our neighbor helped our youngest daughter
made a rock garden with chunks of moss, granite and twigs. It has been sitting as a centerpiece on our
table for Lent and also lent (no pun intended) some inspiration to this dish.
What is more vernal than green eggs on the first day of
spring? The first time I made green eggs
it was a recipe from the Good Housekeeping cookbook for a spinach roulade. It is delicious but has a mushroom filling
that only works for mushroom lovers. The
thing I gleaned from that recipe is that you can puree your eggs, milk and
spinach so that there is no picking out of the green stuff because it is all green stuff and it is
delicious! One night I made steamed
asparagus and only some of the kids ate it.
The next night I sautéed spinach and garlic and again only a few of the
kids ate it. Later that week I made a
quiche with the leftover asparagus and spinach but they were completely
pulverized! Everyone ate it and asked
for seconds. I will be eternally thankful
that my neighbor in Philadelphia gave me her Kitchen Aid immersion blender. Once I realized the joy of pulverizing I
borrowed it so many times that she finally said I could keep it. (Thanks, Roxanna. It has served us well and is still going
strong about 4 years later.)
My recipe for green eggs is also inspired by coucou, a Persian
dish that is a lot like a frittata that my friend Nacim taught me to make in
college. Persians celebrate Naw Ruz, the
new year on the first day of spring. I
have fond memories of her family welcoming me into those celebrations and I
still want to celebrate when spring arrives.
The way her family makes coucou you need a lot of fresh parsley and zero
dairy. You also cook it on the stove
over very low heat and have to watch it carefully—not what this busy, milk
loving mom is going for.
So, with gratitude to God for giving us friends and
neighbors old and new and to the bright green moss and bursting forth of spring
here is my recipe for
Spring Moss
This recipe takes about 30-40 minutes total
Preheat oven to 400
Defrost one box of frozen chopped spinach ( It will defrost
pretty quickly if you put it in a plastic bag and soak it in a bowl of hot
water)
Crack seven eggs in a big bowl with the spinach (if you
don’t have an immersion blender than do all of this in a blender or food
processor)
Add a cup of milk
Put in a nice hearty pinch of dry dill (maybe a tablespoon?)
Add 2 heaping tablespoons of sour cream (maybe a ¼-1/3 cup?)
About a Tablespoon of finely chopped garlic
½ teaspoon of salt
Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth
Put a nice glug of olive oil on the bottom of a cast iron
skillet enough to coat the bottom and sides nicely. Heat the pan and pour the blended mixture in
immediately after blending.
Then pop it in the oven until it gets puffy on top
( I made sweet potato and white potato fries as a side
dish. Chop those up and toss with oil
and salt and rosemary and put in the oven before you make the egg dish)
When it gets puffy take it out of the oven and loosen the
sides all around. Now, here comes the
trickery: (You can skip all of this and
just bake it in the pan until it is done.)
Or you can put a plate over it, flip it put it back in the pan upside
down, return it to the oven for a few minutes to finish baking and then flip it
back on to the plate to have that mossy look on the plate. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come out in one
perfect piece. Have you ever looked at a
clump of earth lately? It is pretty
lopsided. But, if that feels like too
much fuss you can just serve it from the pan.
Enjoy! (And pass the
ketchup for your picky eaters, it worked for us!)