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Oeufs en Meurette - 3/1/09

 

What is oeufs (French word for eggs) en Meurette?  It is Eggs poached in a red wine sauce. Sauce Meurette is one of the grand classics of French country cooking, a dark concentrated essence of red wine, stock, and vegetables. You would expect it to be paired with the equally powerful flavors of meat or poultry, but no..., Meurette is unique in accompanying fish, or poached eggs, as here.  For extra flavor, I like to poach the eggs in the wine, which is then used for the sauce; they emerged an odd purple hue, but this is later concealed by the glossy brown sauce. For poaching, it's well worth looking for farm-fresh eggs as they hold their shape better than store-bought eggs.

Oeuf en Meurette served with a few sprigs of  salad frisee, a toasted bread to soak up all the goodness of the poached egg and the tasty sauce.

The poached egg in red wine soaked up the red wine et turned purple which makes it interesting to look at!  You don't know what it is really until..

... split the egg up and the egg yolk comes out runny et yellow and then you figure out.. oh yes it is a poached egg!  The Meurette sauce is also very tasty!

Close look at the Charlotte.

Unfortunately this dish requires a lot of preparation and it is not a dish to make in a hurry. All the elements can be prepared in advance, but the full glory of oeufs en meurette is ruined by trying to cut corners

 

Preparation work..

Red wine and Chicken stock is brought to a vigorous boil in a large shallow pan.

Eggs, one by one, is placed where the liquid is bubbling so the bubbles spin the eggs.

Next the  heat is reduced and  the eggs are poached  for 3 to 4 minutes until the yolks are fairly firm but still soft to the touch.

The eggs are lifted out of the wine liquid with a slotted spoon...

..and place in bowl filled with cold water and then set aside.

onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bouquet garni, and peppercorns are added to the poaching liquid

the wine broth is then and simmer until it is concentrated and reduced by half, 20 to 25 minutes

While the wine broth is simmering, I am sautéing the mushrooms with butter.

The mushrooms are now ready and set aside.

The wine broth is now reduced.

I am pouring out the wine sauce broth reduction into the sautéed mushrooms

Straining  the sauce by pressing on the carrot, onion, and celery to extract all the liquid and flavor.

To thicken the sauce, beurre manie is added into the simmering wine mixture until the mixture becomes thick enough to lightly coat a spoon. The sauce is brought to a boil, and then seasoned to taste.

Filed as: Eggs

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