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Cooking with Jacques

It was a nice week. The sun came out, I spent two hours at the beach. It was quite windy, but it felt glorious to feel as if summer is on its way.

There was good food, too, some of which I made in my kitchen and some I ate in restaurants. Perhaps best of all, I had a chance to watch a PBS special about Jacques Pépin with many of his friends at Madison Art Cinemas. Was there food before the movie? There sure was, with hors d’oeuvres created for the evening by Alforno in Old Saybrook, Taste of China in Clinton, Bar Bouchée in Madison, and Le Petit Café in Branford, among others. There was lots of wine, too.

Even after tasting a few of the hors d’oeuvres, watching him, his daughter, Claudine, and granddaughter, Shorey, cook made me hungrier.

The beginning of the documentary begins with Anthony Bourdain talking about sex, which isn’t surprising. Before having sex, he says, one should learn from Jacques Pepin how to make a perfect omelet. If you don’t see the documentary, you can learn in either La Technique or La Methode, his iconic books. There are also videos available online, of how to make a perfect omelette.

In case you can’t make a perfect omelet, Jacques gives us a recipe for Oeufs en Cocottes Bressane. I had this first at Balthazar, a very French restaurant in New York. It was beautifully simple, absolutely delicious, and was served with sliced rectangles of toast the restaurant call soldiers. Some years later I mentioned this to Jacques and he explained how to make them. I made it often for my husband, which he loved. This is the recipe from one of Jacques’ early books.

Oeufs en Cocottes Bressane

From Jacques Pépin, A French Chef Cooks at Home by Jacques Pépin

Simon and Schuster, New York, 1973

Yield: serves 6

6 large eggs

2 tablespoons sweet butter

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

This will be a new way to cook eggs for many Americans because this method is not well known in the United States.

Butter six small porcelain ramekins (ramequins in French) or soufflé molds, then sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Break an egg into each cocotte or ramekin. Set the ramekins in a shallow pan with enough water—cold or warm, it does not matter—to reach two-thirds of the depth of the ramekins. Cover the eggs, bring the water to a boil, and cook for 1 minute. Add one-half tablespoon of cream on top of each egg, cover, and cook another minute. Place the ramekins on a plate and serve immediately with buttered toast.

The eggs should be soft in the middle like poached eggs. If you use metal rather than porcelain containers, the eggs will cook faster. If you like your eggs more done, increase the cooking time.