eggs en cocotte

Jess has this Martha Stewart cookbook that I covet intensely. It teaches all the basics of all kinds of cooking, from baking to braising to stir fry, steaming, and more. Much, much more. I've flipped through it many times when we lived together, oohing and ahhing at the different pictures, until I found an egg recipe that I couldn't resist trying. You see, I can ooh and ahh all I want at the book (this applies to food blogs also), but it doesn't mean that I'm going to try every single recipe that I find appetizing. In fact, it would take me forever to go through everything if I did that. But this egg recipe, called an egg cocotte, is a French style way of cooking eggs that's elegant but simple. If that doesn't please you, just think about it--it's egg. Enough said.


I made this for CORE for our breakfast meeting, and I hope they liked it! At least, they said they did.


Ingredients

• Shallots
• Mushrooms
• Milk
• Eggs
• French baguette

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Cut up slices of the French baguette.
2. Break an egg into an oven safe ramekin (or however many eggs and ramekins you have, but 1 egg per ramekin! You don't want sky-high levels of cholesterol do you?).
3. Saute the shallots and mushrooms until desired softness. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Turn off the heat and add milk slowly.
5. When the milk is heated, pour mixture over the eggs. Be careful to not break the yolk!
6. Put ramekins in the oven. Let it bake until the whites are set, but the yolk is not cooked.
7. Toast the slices of baguette. Serve with the ramekins!

I dip the bread in the milk mixture first to taste, then I break the yolk with the bread. There's something magical about runny yolk with toasted bread. Mmm. Do try this method of cooking eggs! So easy.