A French Valentine’s Day Bistro Lunch featuring Eggs in Coquetiers all the way from Paris

I was the lucky person to receive these little black French coquetiers, French egg cups, from Laura at Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook. Laura found them at the Christmas Market in the Champs Elysees and she mailed them to me all the way from Paris. Laura says in Paris, “black is very trendy in the French arts de la table (everything related to the table, tablecloths, decorations, chinaware, glassware, silverware ...) and these have a Paris touch with the Eiffel Tower in white.”

Thank you so much Laura. I’ve been saving these darling little egg cups for a special occasion and that occasion has come. It’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday, so why not prepare your valentine a French bistro lunch of Oeufs a la coque avec mouillettes, or soft boiled eggs with toasted fingers of bread, and a frisee salad with lardons or a simple green salad of curly endive with bacon gently dressed with an olive oil vinaigrette that you've seen on my blog several times.

I adapted the eggs and bread fingers recipe from Clotilde Dusoulier’s cookbook, Chocolate & Zucchini, in which she writes about her daily adventures in a Parisian kitchen. The toast fingers are normally spread with a little butter, but I mixed some goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Clotilde also used goat cheese but mixed hers with artichokes, which also sounds delicious, so be sure to check out her recipe.

Soft Boiled Eggs with fingers of bread

Oeufs à la coque avec mouillettes

Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

Four extra large, high quality brown eggs

4 of 5 sun-dried tomatoes, depending on their size

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1 4-ounce log of soft goat cheese

French baguette

Bring the eggs to room temperature to avoid the shells cracking as you lower them into the simmering water. Put the eggs in saucepan with enough water to cover. Remove the eggs and bring the water to a gentle boil. With a slotted spoon carefully put the eggs back in the water. When the water returns to a boil, turn the heat to low and allow the eggs to simmer gently for four minutes. Do not overcook or you’ll end up with hardboiled eggs.

While the eggs are cooking, chop four or five sun-dried tomatoes (the dried ones not packed in oil) that you’ve previously plumped in hot water to soften. If you are using the ones packed in oil, you can skip the plumping step. Mash the goat cheese with a fork and add the tomatoes and basil and mix together to make a smooth paste.

Slice the baguette lengthwise as if you were making a sandwich and toast it. Spread the toast with the goat cheese mixture and cut into fingers thin enough to be easily inserted in the soft boiled egg.

Drain the eggs and put them in egg cups. Serve with the toast fingers. Serves four as a light main course. (Instructions for how to properly eat the eggs is below.) Excellent with a frisee salad with lardons.

Here are Clotidle’s suggestions on the proper French way to eat a soft boiled egg with toast fingers:

Tap the pointy end of the egg gently with a knife all around so you can slice off its hat. Remove the hat and season the egg and the hat with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Scoop out the inside of the hat with a spoon and eat that first. Take one mouillette, or toast finger, and dip it in the egg, and eat the egg coated end. Repeat until you’ve eaten all of the bread. Use your spoon to eat the remainder of the egg. When you’re finished, drop the hat into the empty shell for good luck.

To make your valentine’s lunch complete, grab a fresh baguette and some flowers and a nice cadeau, French for gift, and you’ll be set.

I’ve received a couple of awards and would like to say thank you to Laura of Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook for the Kreativ Blog award and to Mama Bird at Mama Bird’s Nest and Sophie of Sophie's Food Files for the Honest Scrap award. I’m honored and pleased. You are all special ladies and I hope you have an exceptionally great Valentine’s Day. Also I want to thank two of my blogging friends, Christo of ChezWhat and Danielle of Cooking for My Piece of Mind, for generously sharing their knowledge of blogging. They both have helped me make my blog better. A big French merci beaucoup to you both.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone,

Sam