Oeuf en Cocotte

Oeuf Cocote

I think everyone has moments in a month, a week or a year where cooking seems to take less of a priority due to all sort of different reasons. We’ve lately been having some serious health issues within both Tom’s family as well as my family, which shift the importance of certain things quite dramatically.

It’s been busy with other things as well, so some nights we come home and the only thing we really want to do is sit and talk. Cooking is needed for nourishment, but our minds cannot set ourselves to try out new recipes so we kind of stick to the familiar or the quick and easy. I had heard about Oeuf Cocote a while ago and to me this is a perfect little dish that requires almost zero time and very little effort and with some good bread it is very suitable for a quick meal. It’s more a lunch then a dinner really, but still works fine as a quick meal. You can make it with whatever leftover’s you have in the fridge, so it’s perfect for that too!

What more can you want? I made this particular one for lunch, but then I had it again on friday for dinner after a particularly frustrating day with the telecom guys. I’ll spare you the details as it will only make me angry again. And since I will have to go to at least one more of those days to get it fixed I better keep my anger management under control…

For this particular dish I used slices of ham I still had in the fridge, little strips of roasted peppers (also leftover), cherry tomatoes and some grated gruyere on top. O and ofcourse two eggs… The one I made in the evening I added some feta cheese in and some basil as well. But you can add more veggies if you want, more cheese or all sorts of other things. The only thing you have to do is to wait until it comes out of the oven, which takes approximately 20 minutes.

I ate mine with some toasted bread and it was very filling and quite good.

I have no idea what the English name would be for this dish. “Hidden eggs” or something? There must be a name out there as it’s a really well known meal. Works as a breakfast too if you are the hearty breakfast eating kind of person.

How to make:

Use a shallow bowl to put your ingredients in so it all bakes through or if you do not have that put the bowl in hot water in the oven, so it heats evenly.

On the bottom of the bowl put your ingredients such as ham, tomatoes, peppers, feta or whatever you like or have leftover in the fridge. Crack two or more eggs in the bowl and do not stir. You want the yolks to remain whole. You can add cheese of your liking on top (grated, whole; it doesn’t really matter) and put in the oven at 200C for about 20 minutes. The only thing to keep in mind is that your veggies need to be able to get done in those 20 minute as well. If they need longer prepare them first before adding to your bowl.