Stewed prunes, shirred eggs Mornay, bread

Good morning, you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thing you! It is breakfast time once again. This time, with the Hotel St. Francis Cookbook [1919]. Glorious. Breakfast is all you're getting from me from this book, and even that is iffy.

Most of the menus involve things like truffles and lobsters and cow brains and lamb kidneys. In short: either expensive, organ-related, or both. Seriously, I was only able to find a handful of menus I was willing to do. This is more impressive than it sounds at first, because this book includes a different breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipe for every day of the year. Except February 29. I guess the kitchen staff got a vacation once every four years.



Shirred Eggs Mornay
Put on a buttered shirred egg dish one spoonful of cream sauce, break two fresh eggs on top, season with salt and pepper, cover the eggs with sauce Mornay, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in oven. [about 10-12 minutes at 325 degrees F.]



Mornay Sauce [not from the book, from the internet]

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup whole or 2% reduced-fat milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
1/4 cup each coarsely grated Gruyère and Parmesan cheese [I used Monterey Jack instead of Gruyere. Do not judge me.]

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in flour, and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute. (Do not let mixture brown.) Add milk, whisking constantly. Bring to a low boil, and cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes more. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Remove from heat, and stir in cheese. Use immediately.




Stewed prunes.
Wash well one pound of prunes, and soak in cold water for two hours. Put on fire in same water, add a small piece of cinnamon stick, the peel of a quarter of a lemon, and two ounces of sugar, and cook on slow fire until soft. It will require about one hour. If an earthern pot with cover is used, put in bake oven for about two hours. The flavor will be better.


Verdict:

Shirred eggs Mornay: Oh my golly. Eggs baked in cheese sauce with cheese on top. Really good. It would have been better if the yolk was runny, but that is my own fault. Yum. Really, yum. It was pretty rich to handle on its own, but spoonfuls of this on sourdough toast were fantastic. Smooth, creamy, cheesy goodness. I ate two because I made more sauce than I needed and I felt I had to use it up, but one egg like this is enough for anybody.

Stewed prunes: Yeahhhhhh not so much. I tried to overcome my foolish modern prejudices against prunes, and it worked pretty well on the one I tried straight up. But stewed and mushified... no. The flavor was actually really good, the cinnamon stick and lemon really added something. I just couldn't get over the texture. With the super mushy inside and the skin holding it together, they were like little sacks of goosh. On the other hand, this is a meal for travelers. I think we'd all be happier if we ate meals like this on vacation instead of Taco Bell, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo.