Oeufs en Cocotte - Poached eggs in ramekins

Ingredients

1 large egg
3 tbsp strained tomatoes
grated goat cheese, feta


So here we are four weeks into the lenten fast - time flies by at the speed of light, doesn't it? Success so far:

Paying more attention to mindful cooking and eating has been a wonderful experience; the time consuming preparation of many of the dishes has given me the opportunity to calm down the carrousel of my thoughts, making me feel at peace with myself and the world - despite some days when cravings for candy and chocolate nearly drove me insane (and yes, I admit that there might have been some minor setbacks in the form of a teeny tiny piece of cake here and there...). I've re-discovered a lot of about lenten dishes and traditions, and took the time and effort to try some recipes I've had on my list for a while. And lent is far from being over yet, much more is to come, both in weeks of practicing restraint and recipes.

However, everyone needs a break sometimes. As much as I love cooking, I wanted a quick fix for a change.

One easy solution is fancily called oeufs en cocotte, or poached eggs in ramekins. The beauty of the dish is that it's not only prepared in mere minutes, but also as versatile as it gets. While I have made it as a quick dinner (inspired by a fellow blogger who also thinks that eggs for dinner are underrated), it also lends itself very well to a leisurely weekend brunch.

What you need is a base liquid to poach the egg in, one or two eggs and whatever sounds good to you, from all different kinds of cheeses, herbs, spices and veggies. Usually made with cream, I used strained tomatoes to keep the dish a little lighter, filling the ramekin by around a third. To make the tomato sauce more interesting, I put in a layer of Italian herbs and a tiny little bit of goat and feta cheese (most cheeses work, but I'd recommend something with a distinct flavor, such as feta, Gruyere, Parmesan or goat cheese).

Into this base, I very gently cracked the egg, careful to not break up the egg white and yolk, covering everything with more cheese. Depending on how runny you like your eggs, bake in the oven at 400 for 20 (still quite runny) to 30 minutes (very hard). Okay, the baking takes time but I can totally come to terms with that regarding the almost zero preparation time. And dipping a slice of crusty bread into the steaming ramekin, the creamy oeuf en cocotte is a delight.

Life is good!

Scrambled eggs with chives and feta cheese

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp milk
feta cheese
chives

The weekend was kind of rough. This whole lent thing is starting to get to me and the cravings for sugar are taking on new and scary forms. To give you a quick overview, I've been nursing a growing addiction to dried dates, pushed my drinking towards the upper end of social (yes, you have to see the movie "Rum Diaries"!) because I read that beer is converted into sugar by your body, artfully painted (aka disfigured) numerous Easter eggs to keep busy and have been incredibly cranky the rest of the time. Combined with the seemingly endless wait for this allegedly incredible feeling of lightness once weaned off sugar that has been promised left and right, I clearly am in dire need for some endorphins.

So I downloaded some new music and went for my first run of the year! The good news is that regarding the fact that it was the first run of the year, I'm still in pretty good shape and was able to keep up my slow jog for nearly 45 minutes (the bright sunshine and singing birds helped a lot!). What counts for me right now is that besides having some exercise, the run bought me a full 45 careless chocolate-chip-cake-candy-craving-less minutes!

And afterwards, inspired by Green Thyme, I rewarded myself with some scrambled eggs and lots of bread (carbs are also converted into sugar by the body...). I have to admit I like them with butter instead of regular cooking oil. Also, I don't really scramble them but once the butter has melted, I crack the eggs into the pan and kind of fold them into each other with the milk (which makes them more fluffy). Finally, season them with a little salt and pepper and add as much chives and feta cheese (or whatever cheese and herbs you have at hand), and enjoy!

Life is good!

Pancakes: applying history lessons to breakfast

Ingredients
2 eggs
½ cup flour
½ cup milk
pinch of salt
sparkling water

As you, my loyal reader, might remember, the master of the Santoku and I found ourselves in the most inconvenient situation last weekend. Having made a glass full of fresh and sweet and generally delightful blueberry jam, there was not a slice of bread in the house. Luckily, conversant in European history, we found consolation in Marie-Antoinette’s famous words “If people have no bread, let them eat cake”.

Therefore, pancakes it was, but not just any pancakes, but old world palatschinken, as my grandmother would call them. Palatschinken are the ideal hybrid of two worlds: thicker and crisper than the French crepes, and smaller and much thinner than American hotcakes, palatschinken were perfected by generations of the world-renowned Bohemian housewives and cooks to golden rounds of pleasure, beloved by the young and the old alike. To me, palatschinken is one of the simplest and easiest dishes on earth, one of the first things I have ever learned to cook and something the women in my family used to whipped up at all kinds of spontaneous occasions with ingredients that were always in the house. And fondly do I remember the days when to the shock (and pride!) of my grandmother, I devoured more than half a dozen of her palatschinken in one single sitting!

In a bowl I whisk together the eggs, the milk and flour, and add a pinch of salt. If I have sparkling water at hand, I add a tiny spritzer to make the consistency less dense but you can perfectly make do without. The exact amount of flour is also variable and it’s good to start with a little less and then keep on add it in until the dough has the desired texture - ideally it should still be a little runny; too much flour also makes them rather chewy.



Then I heat butter in a small pan on high heat, and once it is sizzingly hot, I pour in about one serving spoon of dough. Now the runniness makes it easier to evenly spread out the dough by gently rotating the pan to create a thin layer, and once the palatschinken is solid enough to be turned, I flip it over. How long you leave it to bake depends on your taste and you can go from soft to crispy, but usually it takes between one and three minutes per side.

After the early morning coffee hour was leisurely spent baking one palatschinken after the other, we were finally able to enjoy the blueberry jam, attentively filling and folding each of the palatschinken, their tender sweetness nearly melting in our mouths. Rarely has a virtue born out of necessity proven to be such a delight!

Life is good!