Heavenly eggs...

In Julie and Julia, Julie Powell swears by Oeufs en Cocotte with Sauce au Cari (Eggs baked in ramekin dishes, with Curry Sauce). She claims that it is the absolute best meal to have the morning after a wild and crazy night out with the girls.

Well, I didn't have a wild and crazy night on Saturday, but I did decide that it was time to see what all the fuss was about, and tackle Oeufs en Cocotte myself. This led to me doing another unimaginable thing on Sunday morning: I got up relatively early, much earlier than I had to, to go buy groceries and bakeware so that I could make my eggs. I was ready to leave the house even before most of the stores that could actually sell me ramekins were open! Madness. Have I mentioned that I typically avoid going grocery shopping like the plague, and make hubby do as much of it as possible? My behavior of late is truly bizarre, I cannot stress this enough! I'm realizing, though, that what I really love to do is eat good food, and cooking recipes out of MAFC pretty much guarantees deliciousness, so apparently that's the only motivation I need to get my ass out of bed, get to the grocery store, and get cookin'.

So, I headed to Target for ramekins and curry powder, stopped by Pathmark for the onions and milk, and headed home with excitement for the delightful brunch bounty that awaited.

And oh man, was it worth the wait. Of course, everything took longer than I expected, especially making the curry sauce. I had to chop up onions (using my handy new chopper!) and cook them in butter for 10 minutes, than add tons of curry powder and cook that a bit...


then add boiling milk that I actually had the presence of mind to start boiling ahead of time (proud of myself for that one!)....

Meanwhile, I was heating up water in a pan that would eventually hold the ramekins full o' egg and sauce (oh, and mushrooms, which were left over from the poached poissons. Julia suggests adding pretty much anything you want to the bottom of the ramekin before you add the eggs, so I did!). Here's what the ramekins looked like with curry sauce and mushrooms in them, before I cracked the eggs in, topped them with more sauce, a "dot" of butter, and stuck them in the oven for 10 minutes...They came out looking like this...
Again, not entirely appetizing, but I swear, they were sooooooooooooo freakin' good!! I'm already looking for a reason to make them again next weekend! Fantastic! The eggs were cooked perfectly, just the right texture, the yolks weren't runny (which grosses me out), though I could have pulled them out a tad earlier to get runnier yolks, and the curry sauce was a perfect complement. Mmmmm, I can't gush about them enough. I made 4, with two eggs each, way too much for hubby and I, but we of course stuffed ourselves because oeufs en cocotte are too good to be denied. Trust me, if you ever want a taste, give me a heads up and I will make them for you at any time. It's a life changing experience, my friends! (Okay, so some of my gushing could be due to the fact that it's almost 1 am and I'm getting a little loopy, but really, these eggs are so good.)

Butter count: oops! forgot MAFC downstairs, will update tomorrow!