Coquettish ways with eggs - cooking

Sunset, April, 2001 by Jerry Anne Di Vecchio

No need to trifle with truffles

In my 40-year-old copy of Larousse Gastronomique, by Prosper Montagne, there is no hint of culinary trendiness, just plenty of charming French food chauvinisms. The description of eggs en cocotte (cooked in individual dishes) is particularly amusing: "Eggs en cocotte are easily digestible, except if ... served with a heavy garnish such as foie gras, truffles, mushrooms, etc." Fortunately, my neighbor during my yearly sojourn in Provence, Herve Poron (who owns the Ets Plantin truffle factory), is unaware of this hazard, or blatantly ignores it. The eggs en cocotte that he served one balmy evening as the first course for dinner were very, very heavily garnished with truffles and buried in cream, with a mantle of cheese. Montagne's advice fell on deaf ears. I've reprised the pleasure of that first course much more economically with mushrooms--and a spoonful of couscous under the egg to soak up the abundant sauce.

Eggs en Cocotte with Couscous

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 40 minutes

NOTES: The diameter of the ramekins makes this dish work; if the baking dish is wider than suggested, the cream won't well up over the eggs.

MAKES: 6 first-course servings

1/2 pound mushrooms

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1/2 cup fat-skimmed chicken broth

1/2 cup couscous Salt

3/4 cup whipping cream

6 large eggs

3/4 cup shredded fontina or gruyere cheese

Fresh-grated nutmeg

1. Rinse mushrooms; trim and discard discolored stem ends. With a knife or in a food processor, finely chop mushrooms. Put mushrooms and butter in a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Cover and stir occasionally until juicy, about 3 minutes. Uncover and stir often over high heat until mushrooms are lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

2. Add broth and couscous to mushrooms; stir, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir couscous and season to taste with salt. Use hot or cool. If making up to 2 hours ahead, cover and let stand at room temperature; stir with a fork before using. Spoon couscous mixture equally into 6 ramekins (2 3/4 to 3 in. wide, 1 3/4 to 2 in. deep).

3. In a bowl with a mixer on high speed, whip cream until it holds soft peaks. Spoon cream equally into ramekins. Break 1 egg onto cream in each ramekin, then sprinkle equally with cheese. Sprinkle nutmeg lightly over cheese. Set ramekins slightly apart in a rimmed pan (9 by 13 or 10 by 15 in.).

4. Bake in 450[degrees] regular or convection oven until yolks are softly set (press gently with rip of a spoon to test), 8 to 10 minutes, or until firm, 12 to 14 minutes. Serve with spoons. Add salt to taste.

Per serving: 304 cal., 62% (189 cal.) from fat; 14 g protein; 21 g fat (11 g sat.); 15 g carbo (1 g fiber); 215 mg sodium; 267 mg chol.

Flat-out flavor

* Pork tenderloin is a wonderful cut--easy to find, quick to cook, lean, and boneless. Usually the tenderloin is treated like a little roast or cut into small chops. But it also makes a great steak if you pound it thin, a process that takes only a minute or two (and enhances the meat's tenderness to boot). In effect, the tenderloin becomes a big slab of scaloppine, which you can saute in butter and serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and a scattering of capers. Or you can season the meat as they do in Jalisco, Mexico, with a tangy adobo rub of paprika, herbs, and vinegar.

Jalisco-style Pork Steak

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 20 minutes

NOTES: Don't be concerned if the frying pan looks a bit small; when the meat hits the heat, it shrinks almost at once.

MAKES: 3 or 4 servings

1 pork tenderloin (3/4 to 1 lb.)

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano About 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 to 2 teaspoons olive or salad oil Lime wedges

1. Rinse pork; trim and discard any fat. Place meat between sheets of plastic wrap. With a flat mallet, pound until meat is an even 1/4 inch thick (above right).

2. In a small bowl, mix paprika, vinegar, garlic, cumin, oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Uncover meat and rub seasoning mixture evenly over both sides.

3. Add enough oil to a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over high heat to coat pan bottom when swirled. When pan is hot, add meat and cook until edges turn white, about 2 minutes. Turn meat and brown other side, about 2 minutes. Continue to turn for even color until pork is no longer pink in the center (cut to test), about 8 minutes total. Cut into serving pieces. Add salt and lime juice to taste.

Per serving: 120 cal., 33% (39 cal.) from fat; 18 g protein; 4.3 g fat (1.2 g sat.); 1.6 g carbo (0 g fiber); 333 mg sodium; 55 mg chol.

Tropical stacks

* Mashing bananas and mixing them into pancake batter make less flavor impact than you'd expect. But if you add slices of banana to the uncooked side of a pancake, then turn it over and brown the batter around the heating fruit, each bite is loaded with pure banana taste. This is the way they flip the pancakes for breakfast at 5 Spot in Seattle. Open through dinner, this casual, comfortable establishment works its way around the United States by region, with changing menu themes and walls lined with local artists' images of the destination of the moment.