Eggs baked in garlic rice

My second wild garlic dish of this spring is a variation of a dish I've previously made with spinach. It's got plenty of big flavours, so the punchy wild garlic works a treat. But not to worry if you don't have wild garlic - just use spinach plus a few garlic cloves.

It's not necessarily the most beautiful dish, but the taste more than makes up for it - good cheesy, starchy comfort food with all the loveliness of a runny egg yolk. And it's even pretty healthy. As long as you use a full-flavoured cheese, this dish makes a small piece of cheese go a long way.

If you use an oven-proof pan, you can make this all in one pot. Or for no extra washing up, divide the cooked rice mixture into two heatproof serving bowls just before you add the eggs and cheese, then put those in the oven (or under the grill).

Ingredients 

Serves 2

200g long grain rice (preferably brown basmati)
2 onions
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 big handfuls wild garlic (or spinach plus 3 finely chopped garlic cloves)
1 tsp smoked paprika, or to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper / hot chilli powder, or to taste
2 eggs
40g/ 2oz strong hard cheese - eg mature Cheddar, Gruyere, Parmesan

Method

Rinse the rice and put in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil. Chop the onions and add those to the rice. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes (or 10 minutes less than it says on your cooking instructions) - you want the rice to be mostly cooked but not totally done.

Now roughly chop the wild garlic/spinach and add to the pan, along with the tin of tomatoes, the paprika and the cayenne or chilli. If it seems too dry, and some extra water. Re-cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed, and the rice is tender.

At this point there are two ways to continue. To actually bake the eggs, make a well in the rice, break an egg into each indentation, grate the cheese on top and bake at 200C/180C fan/gas 6 for about 15 minutes or until the egg whites are just set. Or you can cheat by poaching the eggs so that they are a little softer than you like them (they'll cook a bit more under the grill), then put those in the hollows in the rice. Top with the grated cheese and put under a hot grill for a couple of minutes or until the cheese is melted.