I made these oeufs cocotte while I was back in France last June, the days were long, day light lasted until 10:30 pm. I love the month of June, it’s the longest and the most exciting of all the months where people have not left on vacation yet, unlike July or August when most large Northern cities are empty, everyone goes dans le midi! and we celebrate summer with Music Festival, music bands play all over the country on June 21, the streets are filled with happiness and excitement. June is always so vibrant and colorful with such a special ambiance.

June is over now, and August is around the corner…so it’s about time for another oeuf cocotte!

When I feel like eating eggs, most of the time they come in this cocotte form. You break the yolk and you dig further down the little cocotte to find more exciting bites. In France we call those containers cocotte, in this case, it’s a mini cocotte.

I used morbier cheese, made with raw milk and has a line of black ashes in the center of the cheese, it has a sweet taste and somehow a creamy texture. Its fabrication has been traced back to 1795 where documents found describe a round cheese from 8 kilos to 10 kilos and called “Petit Morbier“. The great news is that you can find Morbier in the US!

The combination of the bitterness of endives and sweetness of Morbier complement each other to perfection. I also used crème allégée, which is a “light” heavy cream with 5% fat. I haven’t found anything similar in the US, so just use heavy cream or regular crème fraîche.

Not only oeufs cocotte are delicious but they’re fun to eat, so just play with ingredients and have fun! But do not overcook the yolks or they’ll be ruined.

Ingredients for 4 cocottes

• 2 shallots, chopped
• 3 small endives, finely sliced crosswise
• 4 tbs crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1 tbs olive oil or butter
• 150 g morbier cheese sliced
• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan and brown shallots. Add endives, salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Cook at medium heat until the endives are soft.  Divide the endives in mini cocottes or ramequins. Add 1 tbs crème fraîche on each ramequin and top with a few pieces of morbier cheese. Break the egg, adjust with salt and pepper and add the rest of the cheese.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 7 minutes. The egg whites need the be slightly runny when you remove the eggs from the oven, they will keep cooking when outside of the oven. Serve immediately.

I have been back to the US since last Friday and one thing that I already start missing is the yogurt. If you haven’t tried homemade yogurts, you haven’t tasted the goodness of what a real yogurt can be. I have always been nostalgic about the wonderful yogurts you can find in France in the yogurt/dairy section in any supermarket area. There are about four full aisles of yogurts and dairy specialties of dairy and non dairy fresh desserts. I am in heaven. Yogurts in the US tend to be on the boring side and quite frankly not very good. I tasted all of the brands, and I always remain faithful to Strauss, their European called yogurt. It seems like all yogurts contain gelatin and taste artificial especially the flavored ones, so I stick to the plain kind.

Yogurt making is like bread making in France right now, two nationwide spread trends. So after going to FNAC, a bookstore/electronics store, and spending hours on the cook book section, I run into an intriguing book on making yogurts, and I decided to buy it.

After landing in the U S of A and going through customs with half a supermarket in my suitcase, I realized that I had no yogurt maker. Yogurts can be made in many other ways if you don’t have a yogurt maker, like using a pressure cooker, an oven, etc…but I just wanted a yogurt maker and not go through a few times of failing the yogurts, like it happened before. So on day 2, I went to buy a yogurt maker and if you are a yogurt “freak” like me, it’s a good investment. In a next post, I will explain how to make yogurts without a yogurt maker, in case you don’t have one since I suspect many people don’t have one. It’s a little more tricky but it does work.

I used approximately the recommended proportions I found on the book called “Yaourts” from Solar Editions, then I somehow flavored them according to my tastes. You can use any fruit you like.

The great thing about making yogurt is that you can play around with different milks, spices and fruits. For this first attempt, I used fat free milk, but next time I will use the 2% fat and see the difference. The only inconvenient is that it takes about 10 hours to have your yogurts ready, but then you get seven of them. You can use either a plain yogurt or yogurt ferments for your mixture.

Ingredients for 7 yogurts

• 2 kiwis, peeled and cut in small cubes
• 1/2 granny smith apple, peeled and cut in small cubes
• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) black figs, peeled and well ripe
• vanilla powder
• 2 tbs sugar
• 3.38 cups milk (or 800 ml) whole, skim or half-skimmed
• 6 tps evaporated milk (canned or in powder)
• 1 regular plain yogurt

Preparation

If you are using fruits at the bottom, I suggest to start preparing them beforehand. Peel figs and cut in small cubes, add sugar and let it cook until it becomes into a smooth consistency. Add vanilla and let it cool. Proceed the same way with the apples and kiwis (without the use of vanilla).

Remove milk from the refrigerator and keep it room temperature for a while. In a mixing container, mix milk and yogurt. Add evaporated milk. Mix well.

Place 2 tbs of fruit sauce in each jar, add milk mixture and place in yogurt maker as per instructions. Do not close jars with lids. I kept those for 9 hours in the machine since I used non-fat milk. If you are using regular milk, or half-skimmed milk, you need to leave the yogurts about 7-8 hours. When the machine has stopped, put lids on and place in the refirgerator for 3 hours.