Mastering the Art of French Cooking | Julia Child

Recipes 57-58

- Oeufs en Croustades à la Béarnaise [Poached Eggs and Mushrooms, Béarnaise Sauce], p. 120
- Sauce Choron [Tomato-flavored Béarnaise], p. 85

You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking which contains these recipes here.

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Butter Count: +36.67 TB

Cost: $14.41 [~$1.80 per serving]

Do you like poached eggs? Do you like buttery sauces that make you feel like you are eating at a five star French restaurant? Do you like mushrooms on top of a piece of buttery pastry shell? If you answered yes to all those questions then I have the recipe for you! This recipe uses a lot of the same techniques as some of the previous ones- poaching, béarnaise sauce, and pastry dough.

First off, the mushrooms are sautéed in butter with shallots for about 7-8 minutes. I say this all the time, but this has to be one of my favorite smells- mushrooms, shallots, and butter. A small amount of flour is sprinkled onto the mixture to thicken it up a bit and cooked for about 3 more minutes. Next, comes the port (or Madeira). I’ll be honest, this was the first time for me to buy a port. Verdict- absolutely delicious! The taste is smooth and rich. I’d imagine it would be perfect to accompany a large piece of chocolate cake. Anyways, you will add some port wine, whipping cream, salt, and pepper into your mushroom mixture. It will thicken and taste amazing!

This dish is served inside little pastry shells. I used a muffin tin to make mine- not sure if that’s right or not, but they turned out decent. The pastry is the exact same recipe used in the quiches. Very simple ingredients- flour, salt, sugar, butter, and shortening. You will cook them through all the way, cover the bottoms in that amazing mushroom mixture, lay a perfectly poached egg on top of it, and coat with a béarnaise sauce. I decided to go with the sauce that also has tomato paste added into it (hence, the red sauce in my pictures). The exact same recipe, but a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste added into it at the very end. Honestly, I prefer the regular béarnaise sauce.

Don’t be fooled by this short recipe. When calculating in the time of making the pastry shells and poaching the eggs, this recipe does steal a good chunk of time away from your evening. But as always, it’s worth it.

You can find these recipes and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Bon appétit!

January 17, 2020 by Laura Ehlers