Tag Archives: Cocottes

September 3, 2015 · 3:55 pm

French Toast in a Cup

3AshevilleWe had the pleasure of staying at the Asia Spa and Bed in Asheville NC. It is a cozy little B&B just six bedrooms, but all beautifully decorated and very, very comfortable. We went there to visit the River Arts district, a very large collection of galleries and working studios in Asheville, most are open to visitors, only how they ever get any work done is a mystery to me with all the visitors. Asia serves a breakfast every day and on our first day we had French Toast in a ramekin! Imagine my surprise, I’ve written a book about ramekin cooking and here’s some one actually doing it. I haven’t thought of French Toast in a ramekin. It was great, so I asked the manager, Nicolette, if I could use the recipe, she said yes, so here is my version. Like French Toast it’s very simple and this one you make the night before. Double or triple the mixture and make four or six… and feed an army! They are all done at once so no waiting. We told her she should write an Asia Spa cook book.

Makes two

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/4 cup half and half
4 slices of bread, not Wonder bread
2 dashes of cinnamon
PAM spray
Two eight ounce ramekins (2 – 11oz. ones)
Confectioner’s sugar
2 pats of butter
Peach or Apple sliced thin (optional)

Directions

FT1In a small bowl beat the eggs well, then add the half and half and cinnamon. Cut the bread into quarter slices that will fit into the ramekin.  Spray the ramekins with PAM. Dip the cut bread into the egg mix four times or so  and put the slices in the ramekin with the bread standing up until it is full. Our friends like to put a thin slice of fruit between each slice of bread. Leave some of the crust showing as it will brown and create eye appeal. Place a small dab of butter and then a little cinnamon on top. Put them into the fridge and allow them to rest overnight.

Next day – Preheat oven to 350 degrees f.

Put the ramekins into the oven and bake for 30 min. or until they brown a little on top. Cut around the sides of the cup with a butter knife and using a fork and the butter knife on either side, carefully lift the toast out of the cup. Dust them with a little XXX sugar. Serve with some maple or other syrups on the side and some fresh fruit. At Asia we had a berry mix; blueberries, strawberries and black berries. Very yummie! PS they do freeze well, just defrost for about an hour and pop them into the toaster oven.
FtoastSM

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July 14, 2015 · 1:05 pm

Artichoke and Spinach Pie

WebSA

We usually have this dish as a side for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I thought it would make a good entrée as well, so I worked up this version. Small size, no meat, it makes a perfect light dish for summer with a salad. If you need a larger, casserole style for a big dinner, just double or triple the ingredients, skip the Filo dough and just put some bread crumbs on top to brown. We like to add some fresh cilantro to it, that brightens the taste and adds a little zing. Makes about three 8 oz. ramekins.

Ingredients

1 14 oz. can of whole Artichokes
1 Pkg. frozen Spinach
4 oz. Cream cheese
4 Tbs. of Butter, warmed
¼ cup of bread Crumbs
¼ cup chopped onion
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro leaves (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 pkg. frozen filo dough
PAM spray
Cilantro or flat parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. and spray two or three ramekins with PAM

Defrost the spinach and cook it in the microwave until it is hot. Then put it into a strainer and rinse with cold water. Press the water out of the spinach. Rinse and drain the artichokes, cut off the stems if they have any. You want these to stand up in the cup. You can add the stems to the spinach mix, if you wish for flavor. Press the water out of the artichokes between paper towels.

Cream the spinach, onions, chopped cilantro, butter, bread crumbs and cream cheese together.

Place two sheets of Filo in each ramekin and let the sides droop over the top. Stand up enough of the artichokes in the ramekin to cover the bottom of each. Put a layer of of the spinach butter combination on top. Fold the filo dough over on top of the ramekin. Bake for 30 min. or until the top browns well. Pick the package out of the dish using two forks, plate it and I like to put a leaf of cilantro or flat parsley on top as a decoration, a slice of a small tomato works well too.

Serve with a salad and a good Pinot Grigo, Enjoy!

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May 4, 2015 · 4:30 pm

Stand Up Lasagna!

LasagnaHead

I know, I did Lasagna in the first book. But I didn’t do it as a roll up, kind of an Italian Futo Maki. I thought it would make an attractive, different presentation for lasagna. You can also individualize the lasagnas, one meat, one veggie, one broccoli, etc. This also has the advantage of not making a huge amount of leftovers for you to gobble up at some later date. So grab your ramekins and let’s cook Italian.

Ingredients

8 Lasagna noodles (not the no boil kind)
¾ cup of hamburger and/or veggies you might prefer like finely chopped peppers,
spinach, broccoli flowers, etc.
1 garlic clove crushed
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs beaten
2/3rd cup shredded and chopped small, mozzarella cheese
1/3rd cup shredded and chopped small, Parmesan cheese
¾ cup ricotta cheese
½ Tbs. Oregano
½ Tsp. Basil
salt & pepper
¼ cup Italian Bread Crumbs
¼ cup spaghetti sauce (1 cup or so more for the side sauce)
3 ramekins sprayed with PAM

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large pot of salted water, boil the lasagna noodles until they are flexible. Sauté the hamburger in a little oil, breaking it up into small bits. Add the garlic and onion (sweet red peppers) and cook until they soften. Drain the pan and place the ingredients onto a paper towel to drain. Chop any other vegetables finely and reserve.

Beat the egg and add to it the cheeses, breadcrumbs, spices, etc. and spaghetti sauce. Salt and pepper this to taste. Lightly spray 3 ramekins with PAM

20222324Take two of the lasagna noodles and overlap the second noodle about an inch over the first to make a very long noodle. I make two holes with a small knife in this and jam a toothpick into each. Don’t try going thru with one toothpick as the noodle just breaks. Pull these toothpicks out when the roll is ready to place in the ramekin. Coat one side of the noodle with a very thin coat of the mixture. Lightly sprinkle this with the meat or veggie mixture, pat this down flat.

Roll the noodles up. Don’t be afraid if it oozes out the side or it is crooked. You can pat the filling back

27into the top and bottom and press it between two hands to reform it. Place it in a lightly sprayed ramekin. Put a little bit of the meat or veggies on top so you know which is which. I stick a toothpick into the seam in the roll to insure that they don’t unroll as they cook. Bake at 350 for 30 mins. Let them cool for 5 min. or so to harden up. In the meantime, heat up the side sauce. Then using two forks pick the roll out of the ramekin and put it on the plate. Serve it with some of the sauce on the side, a cool caesar salad and a good Valpolicello wine.

This will definitely go into the next book.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

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February 5, 2015 · 2:32 pm

Two Color Stuffed Pepper

Small Pepper

Red and Green Stuffed Peppers

This is a pretty easy stuffed pepper recipe. The only trick to stuffed peppers is to make sure that you do cook them enough, you don’t want them raw inside! I use one red and one green pepper. Fill half the ramekin with one color and the other half with the other. It’s very colorful. Cut the tops off and remove the seeds, then the bottoms. Then slit one side and lay it out flat. Trim off the remainders of the white gills and cut the pepper into 2 in. strips. Peppers need to be dressed up, otherwise they just look like a mound of brown meat. I defrost a few sheets of filo dough, roll them up into a tube and cut rounds out of it. Break up the rounds and you have a topping to brown and look excellent!

Ingredients

1 each medium red & green pepper
PAM
About ½ lb. of Hamburger
1 egg beaten
½ cup of mushrooms, chopped and cooked (1 min. in the microwave)
½ cup chopped onions
3 Tbs. of Ketchup
2 dashes each garlic powder and sage
1 pinch of celery seed.
¼ cup of seasoned Italian Bread Crumbs
1 Tsp. Worcester Sauce
Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees f.

SmallinCup

Core, clean, flatten and slit the peppers. Spray 2-3 ramekins with PAM. Cut enough of green pepper strip to just go half way around the inside of your ramekin. Then cut the red pepper strip to fill the other half.

Mix the hamburger and the remainder of the ingredients thoroughly. Form a ball of hamburger mix about the size of a tennis ball and place it inside the peppers. It should just fill the cup leaving a little room for the topping. If you have someone who is really hungry you can mound up the mix, although we like to leave it level to control the portion. Place the ramekins in your oven on top of a cookie sheet as they may run over a bit.

Cook the peppers for about ½ hour. Remove the ramekins and using a spatula or a fork to hold the pepper in, drain off some of the fat. Put the topping on the ramekin and place it back in the oven for 15 min. more. Pick the pepper out of the ramekin using two forks, one on each side, tap the bottom on a paper towel to dry it a little and place it on your serving dish. I’ll bet you’ve never seen a green pepper like this before! Serve this with a green salad and you got a low carb dinner. Enjoy!

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December 16, 2014 · 6:26 pm

Mini Chocolate Soufflés

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Don’t fear the soufflé! It is not a guaranteed flop. The trick is to keep your mixing bowl and beaters grease and oil free. Even the smallest amount of oil can result in the egg whites not stiffening up.

In keeping with the portion control aspect of the book, we are offering small soufflés. The idea is to cook them in micro muffin pans, one or two of these is more than enough for a dessert. They might even make an interesting appetizer. They cook quickly, just 15 mins. or so, and they don’t deflate like a larger scale soufflé. We replace the sugar in the recipe with Splenda. We will be placing this recipe in the next version of my book, “Small Foods”.

You can also make larger ones in ramekins. Put them in the oven when you serve the dinner. They cook in about 30 mins. so by the time you are done they’ll be ready. They need to be served hot from the oven as they do begin to shrink very quickly as they cool.

Ingredients

¼ cup of Splenda (1/3rd cup if you desire a sweeter soufflé)
1 Tbs. Cornstarch
1/8 Tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 Tsp. salt
½ cup milk
½ Tsp. vanilla
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate (Baker’s Chocolate)
2 egg yolks (split the whole eggs into yolks and whites)
1 Tbs. melted butter
2 egg whites

Directions

Makes 12 minis or two 7 oz. ramekins

Heat oven to 350 degrees f.

Measure the chocolate carefully. Look at the weight of the bar on the package and figure out how many blocks will make an ounce or use a postal scale. Melt the chocolate in a microwave, double broiler or one small pot in a big pot of boiling water .

Mix the Splenda and cornstarch in a small pan. Gradually add the milk stirring to dissolve the dry ingredients, then stir in the chocolate, butter and vanilla. Boil and stir until all is dissolved. Set aside to cool a little.

Separate the egg yolk from the white into separate bowls. Beat the egg yolks in a small mixing bowl. I use a whisk for this and beat until the yolks are thickened. Beat the chocolate mix into the yolks. Beat for about a minute and let stand until it cools.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl on high, adding the crème of tartar and salt. You will need to beat these for a while as you want the whites to form stiff peaks approx. 5 min. Stir about half of this mix into the chocolate mix, then gently fold the remainder in.

Spray a mini muffin pan with PAM and then fill the cups to the brim. Cook for about 15 min. They will rise up and a toothpick inserted will come out clean when they are done. These can cool and be served as needed, they don’t deflate much.

If you are going to make ramekin sized soufflés, spray two ramekins with PAM and fill them about ¾ full. Cook for about 30 mins. (same note for being done as above). Serve immediately in the cup (warn your guests that the crockery is hot!) as they do deflate rapidly.

I like to add a dollop of whip cream to the top to dress them up.

P.S. I’ve placed these in the fridge for a couple of days and warmed them in the toaster oven. They come out just fine. I’ve frozen them too and that works as well.

Enjoy!

ThumbnailSmallFoodsCoverMy book “Small Foods” available on Amazon, has lots more recipes, sorry no desserts or sauces, just Entrees and all of them ramekin sized. We will add the desserts section in the next book.

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