The Baking of Eggs

I think I'm posting this partly just to remind myself just how amazing Eggs in Pots are, and to stop my brain from picturing them as miserable, grey 1970s-cookbook fare. Baking eggs is so satisfying, especially if you refer to them by their flirtatious French name: 'oefs en cocotte'.

I've never posted a recipe here before (I'm a little nervous about it, to be honest) but Eggs in Pots just happens to fit quite perfectly with my most unexpected post-America aim: to eat small plates of food. 

There were so many amazing places to eat in New York that I often felt as though I needed to fit a whole lifetime of eating into a month; eating smaller things, more often, in lots of different places, seemed to solve the problem. I'm trying to keep it going now that I'm back in large-dinnered England, and these are so easy that even I can make them.

So, these eggs. If I could just make myself remember how incredibly tasty they are, I'd eat them all the time: for a weekend lunch, brunch, or just a small-plate kind of dinner. 

Baked Eggs in Pots for two (adapted from Stephane Renaud's Ripailles and Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen.

What you Need:

150ml (approx.) crème fraîche

2 eggs

chorizo (optional)

parsley

salt

pepper

1.  Heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). 

2.  Put a dessert spoonful of crème fraîche into each of your ramekins and season with salt and pepper.

3.  Break an egg into the ramekin, and cover with another dessert spoon of crème fraîche. 

4.  Chop some chorizo and parsley (as much as you like) and sprinkle on top. 

5.  Place the ramekins in a tray of boiled water (making sure that the water can't get into the pots) and put the tray in the oven for 12-15 minutes. 

Serve with slices of buttery toast, and you're away!

The Last Few Days in New York

Before I got there, I thought I would arrive in New York and feel just as comfortable with it as if it were London. In reality, it took at least three weeks for that to properly happen. Those first weeks were filled with trying to learn how best to use our time, how best to cross the street, where to eat, how to tip a barman (still not entirely up on that, if anyone wants to enlighten me!)... but the last week was suddenly quite calm. 

We'd worked (most) things out, we had places we wanted to revisit (rather than dashing around trying everything for the first time) and had a couple of loose ends to tie up. So, we just pottered around, drank some coffee and visited some things: Stumptown Coffee for incredible coffee and a chemistry set of brewing gadgets, Pies & Thighs for chicken and biscuits and the best donuts, the UN headquarters (strangely hospital-like) and the Met Museum. 

Then we went home.