Oeufs en Meurette

Eggs poached in red wine rather than water, which colours them and then becomes the sauce they sit in.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, chicken stock, lardons, which are pork.

Ingredients

• 8 very fresh eggs
• 750 ml red wine
• 200 ml beef or chicken stock
• 150 g smoked lardons
• 200 g button onions, peeled
• 150 g button mushrooms, quartered
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• a few thyme sprigs
• 40 g butter, cold
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 4 slices baguette, as on its own page
• chopped parsley
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE EGGS ARE POACHED IN THE WINE, NOT IN WATER. That is the dish. The wine stains the whites a strange purple-grey, which looks alarming and is correct, and the poaching liquid then becomes the sauce -- so it has picked up egg and is richer for it. Poached in water and sauced afterwards, you have eggs with a wine sauce, which is a perfectly nice and completely different plate.
2. SO THE EGGS MUST BE VERY FRESH. There is no vinegar to help here and wine is less forgiving than water: a week-old egg spreads into threads and clouds the sauce you are about to serve. Crack each one into a cup first and look at it -- the white should sit up in a tight ring round the yolk.
3. THE WINE IS BROUGHT TO A BARE TREMBLE AND HELD THERE. Any movement in the pan tears the whites apart. No bubbles at all, just a shiver at the edge.
4. AND THEY ARE LIFTED OUT AT THREE MINUTES AND TRIMMED. A slotted spoon and a pair of scissors round the ragged edges, into a bowl of warm water to wait. They can be poached an hour ahead and warmed through at the last minute, which is the only way to serve four people at once.
5. Lardons fried in a dry pan until crisp, lifted out. Button onions browned in the fat, then the mushrooms over a high heat. All lifted out and kept.
6. Shallots and garlic softened in the same pan 3 minutes.
7. The wine, stock, bay and thyme added and brought to a bare tremble in a wide shallow pan.
8. Each egg cracked into a cup, looked at, and slid in. Four at a time.
9. POACHED 3 MINUTES at a tremble, no bubbles, then lifted out, trimmed with scissors and held in warm water.
10. The remaining eggs poached the same way.
11. The poaching wine then boiled HARD and reduced by about two thirds, 15 to 20 minutes, until it coats a spoon. Bay and thyme out.
12. The flour mashed into half the butter and whisked into the sauce in small pieces to thicken it. The rest of the cold butter whisked in off the heat for gloss.
13. Lardons, onions and mushrooms returned to warm through. Tasted and seasoned.
14. Baguette toasted and rubbed with garlic. Two drained eggs on each slice, the sauce and garnish spooned over, parsley scattered, served at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes