wilted greens with balsamic fried eggs

who doesn't like breakfast for dinner? not i. eggs are great any time of day. i'm a big fan of gooey, cheesy scrambles in the morning, a fried egg on top of a fatburger at lunch, and over-easy wok-fried eggs with soy sauce over rice (thanks mom!).

this recipe comes from chow.com, and was a featured recipe for the week. it promises an "easy weeknite dinner" and the use of "seasonal ingredients" and just sounded really tasty. so here we go.

i first washed a half bunch of dandelion greens (you can typically find these in the section holding the chard, collards and mustard greens and they are at their best in the winter months), and pulled out 3 eggs, a clove of garlic and balsamic vinegar.

after heating some olive oil in a large non-stick skillet (don't use a regular skillet, your eggs will stick), i threw in the chopped garlic clove and the greens. salt and black pepper are thrown on top.

a few turns of the tongs, a few shakes of the pan and a hot minute later the greens are done and transferred to a plate to hold. i typically use my microwave to hold food, just to keep the heat from escaping to rapidly. a warm over works great, if your oven was on. a warming drawer even better. if only i had a warming drawer... one day in my custom kitchen. i digress.

back to the dish. a bit more olive oil and in went three cracked eggs. i also seasoned the eggs lightly with sea salt.

once the eggs were set, i carefully poured in a 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. vinegar is water based and therefore causes a nice spat with the hot olive oil already in the pan. have a splatter screen handy or be prepared to wipe up your range after. it's a little messy.

once the vinegar has reduced a bit and is a bit syrupy, the pan comes off the heat and the eggs are placed over the greens, the vinegar drizzled over. a note about reducing balsamic vinegar: don't over do it. as the reduction cools, it thickens even more. in the pan it should have slightly more body and heft, but it shouldn't be syrupy when hot and in the pan. if it is, it'll have the consistency of stale honey as it cools, which isn't what you want.

two pieces of toast garnish the plate and it's time to eat. chow.com was right. this is a great tasting, easy to make dinner. the eggs are creamy and rich, the greens are slightly bitter and tender, and the balsamic reduction ties everything together, cutting the richness of the yolk and the bitterness of the dandelion greens. toasted bread mops all the leftover goodness up. yet while rich, this dish was pretty light. i'm making this again.

hm... this would also be fantastic over a bowl of rice. must be the asian in me...