Shirred Eggs; The Weekly Menu and the Combi!

Shirred Eggs

I bought a new toy for my new kitchen!

A Combi!

At least that’s what they’re called here.

It’s a combination convection oven and microwave.

Cool, huh?

Since ‘we are two’ I have wanted a small oven for doing small things, especially during summer.

I also wanted a new microwave. Ours was making very scary noises.

I didn’t want to buy both.

Problem solved: a Combi.

It’s a handsome appliance, made by Samsung.

It came with lots and lots of internal apparatus.

It came with lots and lots of instruction manuals.

I haven’t a clue how to use this wonderful machine.

Naturally, this being France, all the manuals are in French.

It gave me a headache just looking at them.

Naturally, me being a geek and all, I went online to download an English version.

Except there wasn’t one.

I Googled and searched and looked and surfed and could find absolutely no information at all about combination microwave and regular oven ‘ovens’.

Anywhere.

I did find a Dutch version.

I am, shall we say, somewhat less proficient in Dutch than I am in French, but did I let that stop me?

Of course not!

I downloaded the Dutch version of the manuals.

Now I had them on my computer. (And you thought I didn’t have a plan!)

I downloaded a translator and Voila!

I am now the proud owner of a poorly translated, bastard child of a Dutch oven manual.

It tells me things I’ve always wanted to know, like how to ‘thaw a court’.

Reading the translated Dutch manual was of minuscule` help.

It was time to come face-to-face with my shortcomings.

I had to read the French manuals.

I did.

In the car.

Sitting at the kitchen table, trying to read and translate the manuals gave me a headache.

Sitting in the car on a lovely drive through wine country on a sunny Saturday, reading them was, while not a piece of cake, eminently doable.

I could read a paragraph, grab the dictionary if needed, pause, gaze out the window, absorb what I had just read, then do the next.

Like magic, all of a sudden the words lined up and made sense.

For those who are wondering what was so difficult, it came with lots of trays, racks, dishes and covers, all of which were metal. I was trying to figure out which could be used in Micro-mode, if any.

I did.

I hope.

I haven’t actually tried it yet.

When I do, I can make these again.

Baked Eggs

1 tbs butter
2 eggs
1 tsp Dijon-style mustard
3 tbs crème fraiche
1 tsp milk
1 tsp dried chives
bread I bought artisan rolls at the bakery

Divide butter and thoroughly butter 2 ramekins. Mix the mustard, crème fraiche, milk and chives. Put 1 tbs of mixture into the bottom of each ramekin. Put the egg on top of the sauce in each ramekin. Divide the remainder of the sauce and spoon on top of each egg. Put ramekins into a baking pan (I use a bread pan) with deep sides. Pour hot water into the pan coming half way up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake at 375F (190)C, 10 – 12 minutes, depending on how you want the yolks. Remove and serve directly from the ramekins.

In addition to the above, for the week of November 21 we have Paupiettes de Veau (Provencal Veal Rolls), Spaghetti Carbonara, Pork Amandine, and, of course, Thanksgiving Dinner….

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Bon Weekend!