Blog-checking lines: Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg.
I am a little embarrassed to admit that I have never poached an egg. Oh, sure, I have one of those microwave egg poachers but that’s not the real deal, right? Neil is the expert egg poacher, so why would I need to learn that, right? Well, any decent cook should know how to poach an egg, so this challenge made me very happy; I was determined to get it right. Since I posted eggs Benedict fairly recently, I decided to go with the Oeuf en Meurette – eggs poached in red wine and served on toasted/ fried baguette with a mushroom, bacon sauce.
Oeufs en meurette has always both horrified and fascinated me. Sauce meurette is one of the classics of French country cooking, a dark concentrated sauce made from red wine, stock, and vegetables. The meurette sauce accompanies a poached egg, often poached in the wine (turning them a bit of a gory hue of purple) for extra flavour.
No, neither of the two eggs (my last two in the house on that day so no room for errors!) looked perfect and smooth – in fact they looked like little piles of meat when I placed them on the toasted baguette. Clearly, I need to work on my poaching technique…
The purple colour (and ugly egg if you are me!) is thankfully hidden by the rich sauce served on top the egg which is served atop a croûte of baguette. This dish is an excellent make-ahead one, since all the components (even the egg) can be made in advance, however it is a fairly complex recipe, not one to make in a hurry.
Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, seen on Epicurious
Serves 8
If you wish to halve this recipe, make sure to adjust your large shallow pan size accordingly so that you have enough depth for poaching your eggs. The poached eggs and the meurette sauce can be made up to a day in advance. Just take care store the poached eggs in a bowl of water in the fridge, and the meurette sauce can be easily reheated
Ingredients
8 eggs (size is your choice)
1 bottle red wine (750ml/25 fl. oz.)
2 cups (400ml/16 fl. oz.) chicken stock*‡
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Bouquet garni (thyme, parsley, bay leaf)
½ tsp. (2 ½ ml/3g) black peppercorns
2 Tbl. (30 ml/30g) butter°
¼ lb. (115g) mushrooms, sliced
¼ lb (115g) bacon, diced‡
16 pearl onions, peeled (200g/7oz.) (I did not use these)
Vegetable oil for frying
8 slices of baguette, ¼” (6mm) thick
2 Tbl. (30 ml/30g) butter, room temp.°
2 Tbl. (30 ml/20g) flour *
salt and pepper
*for gluten free make sure to use gluten free stock and gluten free flour
‡ for vegetarian use vegetable stock, and omit bacon.
° for dairy free use a dairy free margarine.
Other notes on ingredients:
• You can use salted or unsalted butter, you will just have to adjust your “salt & pepper to taste” accordingly. I use unsalted.
• As this is a Burgundian dish, a full-bodied red wine like a pinot noir is a great wine to use for this dish. Anne Willan recommends a fruity red wine and I personally love the way a bold pinot noir works with this sauce, though you certainly can use whatever you like best. She also notes that you can make ouefs au mersault. Mersault is the famed white wine region of Bourgogne, and is generally made using chardonnay grapes, so it would be ok to choose a white wine if you want (though I have never tried it with white). No matter what wine you choose, make sure it is not too dry nor too sweet.
• To make a bouquet garni, just take the herbs (a few sprigs of each) and tie them together into a little bundle. Since the sauce will reduce for a while, it’s ok if you don’t have the fresh herbs – there will be time for flavor to come out of dried ones (for ex. fresh bay leaf may be hard to find). Alternatively, if you don’t have a way to tie them, you could just add the whole sprigs/bay leaves to the sauce and then just make sure to remove them when the sauce is done reducing..
Directions:
1. Heat wine and stock together in a large pan and poach eggs a couple at a time for 3-4 min. Yolks should be firming but still a little soft. Set them aside.
2. Add the veggies, herbs, and peppercorns to the poaching liquid and let the sauce simmer until reduced to half volume. This will become the meurette sauce.
3. In a separate large skillet, melt 1 tbs. (15ml/15g) of the butter on medium-high heat and sauté the mushrooms until soft and then set aside. Add in another 1 tbs. (15ml/15g) butter and the bacon, frying until browned, then set aside on a paper towel. Turn down the heat to medium, add in the pearl onions and sauté until softened and browned. Then drain off the fat and add the bacon and mushrooms back to the pan and set aside off the heat for the moment.
4. In a medium skillet, heat a few tbs. of oil and then fry the baguette slices until browned on each side. Add more oil as needed. Set the fried bread (croûtes) on a paper towel and then place on a baking sheet in an oven that is set to 200F/95C/gas mark 1/4 or whatever your lowest setting is to keep them warm. (I simly toasted and buttered my baguette)
5. Blend 2 Tbl. (30ml/30g) butter and flour together to form a paste of sorts that will be used as the thickener for the sauce. Whisk this into the reduction sauce until the sauce starts to thicken.
Strain the sauce over the skillet of mushrooms, bacon and onions, and return the skillet to heat, bringing to a boil. Season with salt & pepper to taste, then set aside again.
6. Reheat the eggs by placing them in hot water for a quick minute. To serve, plate a poached egg on top of a croûte, and then ladle some of the mushrooms/bacon/onions and sauce on top.
As you can see from the top photo, despite the ugly factor of my egg poaching, the yolks were perfect. This was tasty and rich without being too much – definitely a lovely appetizer for a dinner party. Plus, now I have tried it, I see poaching is not that hard after all. Just need to work on the pretty factor! Thanks ladies for a fun and eye-opening challenge!
I am sure they tasted delicious, but the purple color is a little off putting, which is why I opted for the Benedict! Another great DK challenge! PS – I posted it on the right day this time!
Yes the purple is definitely not for everyone that’s for sure!
Mardi I think your oeufs en meurette look fantastic!! So glad you enjoyed this challenge and great job with your poached eggs 🙂
Thanks Jenn 🙂
Poaching eggs are hard until you find a technique that works for you. I do the swirl method, which is how I was taught at my cookery school – swirl the boiling pan water with a wooden spoon then drop the egg in (if you crack it into a bowl first it makes it easier), then remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl of cold water and let sit until ready to serve. Momma Lee does the clingfilm method – put some clingfilm over a mug/cup and crack the egg into it. Twist the clingfilm closed and pop it into the boiling water until cooked to your taste. When you want to serve it, just untwist the clingfilm and pop the egg out. I’ve also heard you can drop some vinegar into the water, but I’m not sure how that helps.
Anywho, I hope you make these again, they look gorgeous! Let me know if any of those poaching tips work for you 😉 The latter with the clingfilm will obviously negate having the purple colour, but there may be a way to make it work?
Jax x
That is very interesting – the clingfilm method. Will have to try that. I cracked it into a bowl first but that didn’t seem to help. Perhaps they weren’t fresh enough?
Funny – I briefly thought about something like this for the IIP Eggs Party but I abandoned the idea because it seemed so complicated. Well done!
Hey Trix if *I* can do it, you can!
That definitely is a gorgeously poached egg!
Yes, the yolk is perfect! I was so pleased!
Anything done with wine is a hit! This look great!
I couldn’t agree more!
WOW that first photo is superb you made ‘brown’ food look great I’m very impressed. I think poaching the eggs separately might the answer to the ugly factor or covering it like you do is also great.
Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Cheers Audux, I found these so hard to photograph!!!
Great job on the poached eggs! They were definitely difficult for me as well! Practice makes perfect!
Absolutely! Now I have made them once, there’s no holding back!
OMG. These look amazing. Like something out of a Wes Craven film, but still something I’m going to make! You are amazing!
Kim
Thank you! (I think!) 😉
I love poached eggs, and poaching eggs can be both intimidating and fun. Glad you went all out with this challenge, this dish looks so elegant (even with the weird looking egg hiding underneath, haha… that’s not your fault, it’s the red wine).
Yes, I think I might try this again sometime soon and poach them in regular water…
Great job, the end result looks amazing and delicious!
Good on you for posting a pic of the wine eggs – I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yours actually look much better than mine so I’m sure you can appreciate that I didn’t want to scar anyone who saw the horrors that mine…
Well I am a firm believer in posting what’s real so I couldn’t NOT post a pic of the scary egg!
I think it looks fantastic and yes the sauce hides the poached egg’s imperfection. Funny I got purple in mine to but with the Benedict Eggs he he
Yikes! Purple Benedict? Now THAT’S scary!
Mardi, I must tell you that I hate those perfectly poached eggs that are made with a rind or poacher. They don’t look real to me! So yours are much better, even if a bit squiggly. Kudos… I bet they tasted awesome!
Oh Viviane, coming from you, that is a huge compliment!
Spectacular! Great job on the challenge!
Oh, I love Oeufs en Meurette! I haven’t made them since we returned from France and I need to. Your post is just the impetus I needed! I think your eggs are lovely (not like little pieces of meat at all!!!)
Thank so much – I definitely still need to work on my technique!
I suddenly have the urge to go poach some eggs ; )
Mmmmm!
You know I love you, your blog, your photography and most food, but I have to concede that the middle photo scares me a wee bit. Top and bottom look yummy, though.
Ah you see, I am not afraid to post the ugly!
Bravo! Those look lovely… Though, I’m terrified of poached eggs. Not so much terrified of the technique as much as eating them. I’m just not an egg person.
I am still learning to be an egg person Jen and it’s only recently I have started even eating poached eggs!
I love poaching eggs. Just love the googeyness… nomz right?
Nomz indeed. But purple nomz are a bit offputting!
That pink egg brought to mind some really terrible things. That being said, I know just how amazing this dish tastes and after topping with the sauce, yours look outstanding. Great work.
I know eh, it’s really gory!
Even if your eggs got turned that lovely mauve-ish shade, I bet they tasted amazing!!! Your photos look gorgeous, too. Great job with this challenge! 🙂
Thanks so much. I will try again to get smooth eggs soon!
Classic or no, we won’t be wasting a nice bottle of Bourgogne on this, I’ll tell you! Maybe one of those cheap ones the French are now putting out, with “Burgundy Pinot Noir” on the label. 😉
(Wait a minute…I don’t let those into the house…)
Mardi brought be a morsel as I was writing a wine essay, and I have to say it tasted quite nice. I wouldn’t refuse if it were presented to me. But as far as presentation, I’m not a huge fan.
No but getting past the presentation, the taste was awesome!
I saw you tweeted about the color yesterday. Definitely feels alien.
Red eggs and ham, Sam I am!
Jason
LOL – it DOES look like ham, doesn’t it?
It looks like we tied on the ugly egg scale. We, like you, covered it with the sauce and all was well again…
Well done!
Stay JOLLY!
D&S
Yes I think this is the perfect recipe to practice poaching eggs on – because you get to cover it with the sauce!
The sauce looks so rich and delicious! It’s a beautiful contrast with the yolk. Your photos are stunning.
Thanks – it’s hard to make food like this look appetising!
Hehe, little piles of meat. Not the most appetising description but the finished product looks gorgeous.
You and Neil should have a poach-off. The resulting egg-fest might do you in, but it’d be a fun way to go out 😉
A poach off, huh? Well after this vacation where I swear we have eaten the most eggs possible ever in a short space of time, we might not be eating eggs for quite some time 😉