Tarte aux Epinards et aux Oeufs / Spinach Egg Pie

My husband made dinner!! I was a little surprised that he chose to make this:

He chose a recipe from the January 2015 issue of Cuisine Actuelle. Yes, my friends, it looks strange, but it was actually quite tasty. It was cheesy and the golden, delicious, liquid egg yolk made it sing. We both agreed that this did turn out a little bland as is. If we make it again, I think a little onion or garlic added to the spinach would do the trick.  

Translated recipe:

Spinach Egg Pie

Serves 4, 30 min. prep time, 55 min. cook time.

1 refrigerated pie crust

250 g.(roughly 8 oz or 1/2 lb.)fresh, baby spinach*

4 eggs

50 g. of butter (about 1/2 stick)

30 cl. whole milk

125 g. (about 4 oz.) grated cheese**

2 tbsp. flour

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 210°C (~ 410°F). If your pie crust is the rolled kind, roll it out into your pie pan. Dock the dough with a fork several times and place it in the fridge.

Melt 30 g. of your butter in a sauce pan. Add in the flour and stir. Add in the milk, little by little stirring constantly until it thickens about 3 min. on low heat. Add salt and pepper.

Rinse your spinach and place them in a pan with a pinch of salt. Cook, covered about 3 min. or until wilted. Drain and squeeze out spinach. Give them a rough chop.

Place Spinach into the milk mixture. Mix in one beaten egg and the grated cheese. 

Pour this mixture into the prepared pie shell. Place it in the oven and cook for 20 min. Then, lower the oven temperature to 180°C (~350°F). Cook 15 minutes more. 

Remove the pie from the oven and top with the 3 remaining whole eggs. Return to the oven for about 7 min, or until the eggs reach the desired doneness. Salt and pepper the eggs to taste. 

*You can substitute 1 small pkg. of frozen spinach

**Pick a cheese you like. Usually in France, this would be Emmental.