Author Notes
Whenever I make a shopping list, eggs are always at the top of it. It's the one ingredient I can never have enough of. I buy them at the fromagerie, where I am sure to get fresh local farm eggs, and they allow me to make my favorite dishes on a whim, whether chocolate swirl meringue, garden cake, or eggs en cocotte. Eggs are always within an arm's reach to satisfy any of my cooking ideas; they make me feel safe in the kitchen. Here is one of my favorite egg-based dishes–here, it's all about comfort and warmth.
Eggs en cocotte is such a simple dish to make, much like a savory pudding. You can be so creative with the recipe by adding cheese, ham, herbs, tomatoes if you like. Anything goes. One of the versions I appreciate most is this one, rich in cream, nutmeg, garlic, and a sprig of fresh thyme. And I can't resist rubbing garlic on toasted baguette–when you dip the bread in the creamy eggs, it's heavenly. —Mimi Thorisson
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
-
3/4 cup
cream (200 ml)
-
4
eggs
-
A sprig of fresh thyme
-
1
clove garlic
-
1/2 teaspoon
grated or ground nutmeg
-
1 tablespoon
salted butter
-
Coarse salt and black pepper
-
A few slices of toasted baguette bread (or any bread you like)
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350°F.
-
In a saucepan, bring the cream to a soft boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and mix well. Set aside.
-
Rub garlic in the base of the cocotte (keep remaining garlic for the bread). Pour the hot cream in the cocotte, and break the eggs one by one into the cream. Place a sprig of thyme, add black pepper and cook uncovered in a preheated oven for approximately 8 minutes. The eggs should not be overcooked and slightly runny.
-
Rub toasted baguette bread with the remaining garlic clove. Serve with eggs immediately.
Mimi Thorisson is the author of Manger, a blog devoted to French cooking, and the host of La Table de Mimi on Canal+ in France. After a career in television and having lived in Hong-Kong, Singapore, London, Reykjavik, and Paris, she settled with her photographer husband, five young children, two older stepchildren, and the family's fourteen dogs in a rural farmhouse in Médoc.
See what other Food52ers are saying.