Steak Maman Blanc

Last night was steak night here. I like how Monsieur Raymond does it. After the BBC series, The Restaurant, aired--a few cooking demonstrations were posted on the website. You can still get to his fast preparation for steak here. (Don't read the  instructions--just watch him.) My thick, beautifully marbled, aged sirloin came from Alcock's Family Butchers. 273A Banbury Road in Summertown. (Thanks, Simon!)

Oeufs en cocotte

Since working on the canonical mother sauces has meant we have, at any time, 15-20 eggs in the kitchen, we've been essentially pigging out on eggs for the last two weeks. A quick search will reveal plenty of prettier oeufs en cocotte out there, but ours were delicious anyway.



Ingredients
1 egg, preferably at room temperature
1/2 T heavy cream
five drops of truffle oil
black pepper and salt

Method
1. Boil some water and preheat the oven to 375˚.
2. Crack the egg into a ramekin.
3. Add the cream, truffle oil, salt and pepper, being careful not to break the yolk.
4. Place the ramekin into a larger, ovenproof pot, and pour the boiled water about halfway up the side of the ramekin.
5. Place egg in the oven for 11-12 minutes, until white is done but yolk is still runny (we still haven't succeeded in getting it cooked just right...)


Eaten with toast or by itself, this is one of the most delicious forms of egg I've ever had!

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin

I'm not going to pretend to have invented this recipe myself; I took it almost verbatim from epicurious. However, I changed a few of the proportions and the cooking temperature, so I feel like there are enough differences to warrant a retyping (though I'm leaving the link in just in case the original sounds better to you).

Ben and I had this last Thanksgiving when we were able to cook together, and this year both of us cooked it separately for our friends/families. So far, it's been popular wherever it went, and I'm definitely making it again (just as soon as I can find leeks and butternut squash at the grocery store--for some reason both places I went today were frustratingly squashless).

You'll need:

1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 3/4- to 1-inch cubes
Olive oil
Coarse salt
2 T (1/2 stick) butter, divided
2 t white or black pepper
3 cups leeks, cut finely
3 t chopped fresh sage, rubbed
1 5.5-ounce log soft fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked, coarsely chopped


Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 475˚
2. Place the squash in a large baking dish, pour olive oil, salt, and white pepper on top. Mix.
3. Cook for about half an hour, until the squash is tenderly fork-pokable.
4. While squash is cooking, saute leeks and sage in butter until the mix has cooked down but is not yet brown.
5. When the squash has been removed from the oven, mix the leek mixture in.
6. Lower the oven temperature to 375˚.
7. Layer the squash and leeks, alternating with goat cheese. I started with the squash, then crumbled (well, chevre doesn't really "crumble"... but it doesn't glop or pour, either. I'm at a loss for words) the cheese, and was able to make two more layers of each, with cheese on top.
8. Pour in the cream, making sure that it spreads throughout the dish as evenly as possible.
9. Sprinkle the chopped toasted hazelnuts on top.
10. Bake for about half an hour.

Let the cheesey warmness enfold you in its holiday-licious arms...