Cocotte Egg with Mushroom

So let's check: 3 layers of clothes, a big blanket on the bed, temperatures below 10°C at night, yeap, it looks like autumn is coming in early this year. Not that I mind, it's one of my favorit time of the year, but it always takes some adjustement, because I'm a girl and I'm almost always cold, so bring on the big socks, polar jacket and blankets to watch TV.

Because of the (too) many concerts booked, the travels that are planned and some upcoming expenses I know I will have until the the end of the year, I'm mostly cooking out of my pantry these days. Which, once again, proves that it is important to have a well stocked pantry.
This simple recipe is done under 30 minutes (even if you are slow like me) and fits perfectly these early autumn days, for a decent budget.

The mushroom are still from last year's hunting, dried up and stored properly, you can keep them easily. Onions and garlic have to be in every house, I used dried up parsley (obviously fresh would be better, but as said, I'm cooking out of the pantry), a small piece of speck leftover, some cream or soja cream and you're good to go. Enjoy your autumn!

Cocotte Egg with Mushroom

for 2 Cocottes

1 Handfull of dried up Mushrooms (I used trumpets of death)
1 Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of Parsley (dried)
10cl of Cream
50gr of Speck
2 Eggs
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the dried up mushroom in some hot water and let them sit there for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, peel and dice the onion aswell as the garlic clove.

In a non sticky frying pan, heat up some olive oil and add the onions with a bit of salt and cook them for about 5 minutes. Add the dried up parsley, the garlic and the diced speck, lower the heat.

Drain the mushroom (but keep some of the water aside) and add them to the onion and garlic mixture.
Pour the water you kept in the sauce pan and reduce it on a high heat, when there is about 3 or 4 spoonfull left, add those spoonfull to the cream, it will add a nice mushroom flavor to it, add a bit of pepper.

In your cocotte, place the mushroom, onion and garlic mixture first, than poor over the cream/mushroom sauce on it and top it with a raw egg. Place in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, depending how you like your yolk to be.

Serve with some toasted bread if you want, but if you have a nice fresh loaf of good bread no need to toast it first.

Retro cooking: Curried Egg Sandwiches

Some strange thing happened to me the over day: as you may already know, I'm a bit of a TV show junkie and have many DVD (never enough to my taste though) that I enjoy to watch. I tend to wait for a serie to come to it's end, so that I can buy the boxset and marathon myself thru it. Yes, I'm strange in many ways.

So, I just went thru the absolutely brilliant second season of Sherlock, thinking what to watch next? A rerun of the Gilmore Girls or Buffy, a few Big Bang Theory or Friends episods... Than I just sat down to have lunch instead. And all the sudden there's a song in my head:

"I've been down this road.

Walking the line that's painted by pride.

And i have made mistakes in my life that i just can't hide."

It took me a few seconds to realise that's the theme song from Ally McBeal! Which is weird, I do have the DVDs, but I haven't watched it in so long, it wasn't even in my thought process of the moment.
Maybe our brains and body try to tell us stuff sometimes, and we just don't listen to them, or are too busy doing something else on top of something else. Or maybe I'm just crazy, and my brain goes coucou from all the things that are stored in it. Either way, I'm enjoying Ally McBeal, and it's great fun.

This recipe is long overdue, or at least the use of the book it came in. One of the good thing about having real friends, is that they still like you, even when they really know you and also that they know you well enough to get you cool gift, like this awesome cookbooks.
The retro cookbook has been on my shelves for almost a year now, and I pick it up quite often to get ideas, but today I finally channeled the 50's housewife in me (that took a lot of effort, believe me) to make this easy and summerish recipe.

Curried Egg Sandwich (based on the Retro Cookbook)

Serves 2

1 Egg Yolk
1/2 a Tablespoon of Mustard
Salt, Pepper
1/2 a Tablespoon Whine Honey Vinegar (such as Melfor)
3-4 Tablespoon Sunflower Oil
2 Teaspoon of Curry powder
4 Eggs, boiled
A Handfull of Salad
2 small Pickled Cucumber
Bread

Let's start with the mayonnaise, using a whip (if you have one like the picture, they work very well for mayonnaise) combine in a small bowl, the egg yolk, the mustard, the salt and pepper. Than start adding slowly the oil until you have the consistency you wish. Add the vinegar and the curry powder, whip it a bit more and taste to check the seasoning, correct if necessary. Place in the fridge.

Boil the eggs and leave them in cold water once they are cooked. Peel them and chop them up with a knife. Using a fork, mash the eggs and mayonnaise together, add the pickled cucumber that you have thinly chopped. Set in the fridge for a few minutes, it's better cold.

In the meantime, cut your bread (this should do for 2 to 3 big sandwiches) and shred your salad. On the bread, place a bit of salad, than the curried egg mixture, than a bit more salad and the other slice of bread. Cut the sandwich in two and add a toothpick so it holds better.