Oeuf en cocotte in bloody mary

That Guus Meeuwis is an enthusiastic home cook is clear from his new cookbook Het Lekkerste van Guus en Dick, which he wrote in collaboration with star chef Dick Middelweerd. Because the gentlemen love nothing more than lingering over a long meal—and yes, that means it always gets late—the book concludes with a chapter full of hangover-proof breakfast recipes. These oeufs en cocotte, for example, accompanied by hangover classic number one: the bloody mary.

Guus Meeuwis on his recipe from the book Het Lekkerste van Guus en Dick:

“The morning after ‘Groots met een zachte G’, we once served oeuf en cocotte with bloody mary and it was a success! It contains tomato and egg, and I thought: why not add a splash of vodka? Then you have a bloody mary, and that is the best hangover cure known worldwide. And egg is an excellent breakfast. What’s more, the vodka gives the tomatoes’ flavor an incredible boost. It makes this breakfast just that little bit more spectacular.”

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

For the bloody mary, mix the tomato juice and vodka together. Season with pepper and salt. Place in the refrigerator (it tastes best cold).

Wash the cherry tomatoes and quarter them. Divide the tomato quarters and basil leaves among 4 small ramekins or individual oven dishes and pour the bloody mary over them.

Crack an egg into each dish and season everything once again with pepper and salt.

Place the dishes in the oven and cook the oeufs en cocotte for about 12 minutes, until the egg white has set and the yolk is still slightly soft. If you prefer an even softer yolk, cook for 5–10 minutes. For a hard yolk, cook for 10–15 minutes.

Cut the celery approximately 10 cm below the leaves. Leave the leaves attached and use the remaining stalks, for example, in a salad or another preparation.

Place a celery stalk in each dish. Serve the oeufs en cocotte with the toast.

Het lekkerste van Guus en Dick

Guus Meeuwis & Dick Middelweerd
Kosmos Publishers
€24.99