Sunday morning treat... Oven eggs with tarragon

I have been making these oven eggs for ages now. Great for a Sunday morning breakfast or brunch, with some coarse Burgundian bread or just simply on some white bread toast with some crispy fried bacon. The simplicity of making this dish contradicts the lush and sumptious look and taste of it. So you can easily serve it during an Easter brunch or Christmas breakfast.
This recipe will serve 4 persons

4 tablespoons cream
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
4 eggs

deep roasting tin
single ramekins, greased

Preheat the oven to 250 º C. Mix the cream with the tarragon, salt and pepper to taste. Try to beat some air into the cream so it becomes a bit thicker in consistancy. Divide the tarragon cream in to the greased ramekins. Break an egg over each dish and place the dishes in the roasting tin. Pour boiling hot water into the roasting pan to 1 cm below the edges of the ramekins. Put the tin in the middle of the oven and bake the eggs in 15-18 minutes. 

Tip: If you do not have any dried tarragon at hand, you can also use some fresh chives instead. 

Once you get comfortable making this dish, you can try experimenting with the ingredients. Use some dill instead of tarragon, or replace the cream with some creme fraîche. Put some cheese chavings on the top of the eggs, before putting them in the oven, or mix some parmesan cheese gratings throught the cream. 

divine moist carrot cake

I mad this cake this afternoon with a friend of mine for the first time. Never made carrot cake before. I have to say, we added some extra walnuts and half a cup of carrots. But it is sure still moist !

I find it easiest to prepare the ingredients in three separate bowls first. 

Bowl 1:

2 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

Bowl 2:

1 1/3 cups plain flour (white or wholemeal, or a mix of both, unsifted)

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Bowl 3:

2 carrots, grated (to make 1 1/2 - 2 cups)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

2 tsp finely chopped orange peel

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F. Grease and flour an 8 or 10 inch round cake tin. 
2. Beat (or hand whisk) the ingredients in bowl 1 together until creamy (2-3 minutes). 
3. Mix the dry ingredients in bowl 2 together, and add these to bowl 1. Beat the mixture until well combined (for 1 minute or so). 
4. Add the ingredients in bowl 3 to the mix, and stir to combine. 
5. Transfer this mixture to your cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. 
6. While the cake is baking, prepare your icing mixture (below).
7. The cake is ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean, and when the cake springs back when lightly touched on its center. 
8. Cool cake on a rack. Once cooled, spread cream cheese icing over cake, and decorate with walnuts, ground cinnamon or grated orange (or all three!).

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
125g cream cheese
30g butter
100g icing sugar (roughly 1 cup)
2-3 tsp lemon juice OR a few drops of vanilla extract (to taste)

1. Allow your ingredients to warm to room temperature. 
2. Roughly cut up butter and cream cheese into chunks and add to a mixing bowl. Beat together until well combined and smooth. 
3. Sift icing sugar over the cream cheese/butter in stages, mixing well to combine after each addition to get a lump-free, smooth icing. 
4. Once all the icing sugar has been well combined, stir through lemon juice or vanilla extract to taste. 
5. This icing can be stored in the fridge until the cake is ready to decorate. Remove from the fridge 5 minutes or so before icing the cake to allow for easy spreading.

Roasted Red Onions... A simple and easy side dish

Just a quick and simple, but delicious way to serve up onions. Try to use large red onions, because they have a certain natural sweetness that will be emphasized even more when you roast these onions in the oven.

take one large red onion per person
butter or margarine
freshly chopped herbs, such as dill, taragon, parsley
corse sea salt
pepper

Cut the top of the onions, but leave the bottom. Peal the skin from top to bottom. Cross cut the onions till about 3/4 deep. Do not cut them all the way down, because we need the bottom bit to hold the onion together.



Make a herb butter by adding the finely chopped herb(s) to the butter and mix well. Season the cross cut onoions at the cutting edges in the middle of the onion. Then take a generous amount of the herb butter and push it right in the cross cuts of the onions. Make sure you push in in well.


Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. Put the onions on a baking tray and give them about 30-40 minutes in the oven on 200-220 degrees Celsius.



When done, serve up with a good piece of roasted meat or some fatty fish like salmon or hering.

Bon Apetit !