Saturday, July 18, 2009

Œuf cocottes

This post has been in the draft list for a while now. So, here it is, a quick snack.

In French, cocotte is usually what in English is called a Dutch oven. It can also mean a hen, or a... woman of questionable virtue and high maintenance.

However, cocottes come in much smaller sizes too, and you can use them to cook single servings. An œuf cocotte is a fancy name for what is really just an egg in a ramequin. It's a quick snack, and easy to make too.

I made a couple of œuf cocottes a while back, with some bits of ham, cheese, tomato, basil and, of course, an egg on top. I had some stuffing left and I put some cheese over it, for a cocotte gratinée. This is also easy to do with leftover foods, and especially good with yesterday's ratatouille. A small trick: before breaking the egg wipe it and push it on the middle of the stuffing to make a small crater. Then break it close to the cocotte careful not to break the yolk, so that it rests in the middle. Cook in the oven for a few minutes depending on how runny you want the egg.

Mmm, quick and tasty.

No comments: