Le Petit Déjeuner - Œufs en Cocotte

So last night whilst making my Chicken Burritos I also decided to make one of my favourite breakfast dishes as I have a lot of smoked salmon in the fridge, and after partaking in my weekly French lesson it had to have an element of French Cuisine. The French know their breakfasts and they know their eggs -these baked eggs are so simple and I have been addicted to them ever since I saw recipes from both Nigella (ok not so French) and Rachel Khoo. Nigella suggests that you can make these with double cream but to be honest that’s a bit rich for a Friday morning breakfast, in fact it’s a bit rich any day and Rachel makes hers with Crème Fraiche – I go that one step further and make these with half fat crème fraiche. I added smoked salmon and spinach cos they were in my fridge but smoked ham or smoked mackerel also work well…. I add the extra ingredients into the crème fraiche as it seems to work better rather than layering them but how you put these pretty pots together is entirely your choice. Bon Appétit

Œufs en Cocotte

Eggs

Crème Fraiche

Smoked Salmon

Spinach

Salt and pepper

Little sprinkling of parmesan

Take you crème fraiche and put in to bowl (you need roughly 2 tablespoons per egg). Tear up some smoked salmon and spinach and add. Season (lots of black pepper here kids)

You then but a tablespoon of the mixture in a ramekin and pat it down. Crack an egg in over it and layer another tablespoon of mixture over the top. Simples! I then put these in the fridge ready for the morning but you can cook them straight away. When you are ready to cook them, sprinkle the tops with a bit of parmesan, place them into a roasting tray and fill the tray with boiling water until they come about halfway up the ramekin. Place in a medium to high heat oven and cook for around 15 minutes for a nice runny yolk (if you are cooking them from the fridge they may need around 5-8mins longer)

This could have done with a couple more minutes to brown off the top, but I’m a busy gal and I had to rush to work. However it tasted delicious with my toast and the joy of finding the golden orange yolk takes me right back to my childhood…..perfect breakfast any day of the week!