Eggs en Cocotte With Morels

Œufs en cocotte aux morilles (eggs in little pots with morels) teach one precise truth: the egg is done before it looks done. The white continues setting in the hot cocotte after it leaves the oven, so pull it while the centre still trembles and the yolk remains loose beneath its glossy surface.

The original entry assumed a saucier, reduced demi-glace from a stockpot never off the fire, and a brigade filling rows of cocottes. Your honest equivalent is a good prepared, low-sodium demi-glace reduced in a small saucepan, four ramekins, and a shallow bain-marie, the hot-water bath that poaches the eggs gently. The standing stockpot and service quantities are scaffolding, so they go. The butter-fried morels, their binding with demi-glace, the lining of the pots, the gentle poach, and the final thread of sauce are the dish, so every one stays. Only the volume has changed: one cook, one stove, one evening.

When it lands correctly, dark morels cradle a tender white, the yolk shines gold, and the demi-glace draws a chestnut-coloured ring around it. Watch the white rather than the clock. That final minute decides everything.