A Very French Way to Poach an Egg

To my thoughts, an egg completely poached is among the many nice, important pleasures of 1’s consuming life. The protein (the white) is fluffy and textured, formed by the currents of the water it has been cooked in. The fats (the yolk) is held in place, simply, by a skinny membrane, wanting like a bit of tropical fruit, and at all times a bit shocking when it bursts beneath the tines of a fork. An egg poached is totally different from different egg preparations: it requires no grease for frying, no butter for scrambling, nothing in any respect apart from salt and pepper. Not often is a meals that’s so easy additionally a lot enjoyable to eat.

In France, one variation includes poaching the eggs in purple wine as an alternative of water. The preparation is typically referred to as oeufs à la bourguignonne, “eggs within the type of Burgundy,” the wine area within the east of the nation, and traditionally the poaching liquid is among the native Pinot Noirs. It’s also referred to as oeufs en meurette, in reference to the sauce that’s made with the poaching liquid. A sauce meurette is delightfully unmodern and eccentrically satisfying. Historically, it’s served with freshwater fish of the area, which solely is smart (purple wine with fish?) when you understand the opposite components: onions, mushrooms, garlic, and smoked or cured pork stomach: i.e., bacon. Egg and a sauce meurette? Clearly a wonderful brunch meals.

Many cooks put together the sauce and the eggs individually, simmering the wine in a single pot and, in one other, poaching the egg in water within the typical method. You see this follow usually in eating places. It’s primarily a matter of kitchen effectivity but in addition considered one of aesthetics: the egg is dyed by the wine within the cooking. It doesn’t actually match the picture that involves thoughts while you say, “I’ll have mine poached, please”—and, for some, the colour might be startling, particularly the primary time (purple wine plus egg white plus bulbous form equals an entity that appears not not like a uncooked octopus). I consulted Russell Hone, a Scot who has lived half his life in Burgundy. Hone is married to Becky Wasserman, a famend wine exporter, and, till he retired, used to make the each day lunch for Wasserman’s workplace: in the future, a leg of lamb, say, with 100 cloves of garlic and cooked in a candy wine; the subsequent day, perhaps a pie with puff pastry, or coq au vin with morel mushrooms. (What are you able to say? It’s totally different in France.) He has additionally cooked and eaten extra eggs poached in wine than anybody else I’ve met. “It’s too fiddly to cook dinner the eggs and the sauce individually,” he defined. “It’s a peasant dish. You may’t think about a farmer utilizing two pots.” The preparation, in his description, is simple: take a bottle of the native quaffable, cut back it with bacon and onions (“Mushrooms, certain, when you have them”), poach your eggs, spoon them onto a bit of fried bread, and pour the sauce on prime. If the wine is just too sharp—acidity can typically be a function of Burgundy—he sweetens the sauce with additional onions and garlic, or “even a bit purple currant jelly.” And the wine doesn’t should be Pinot Noir. “I’ve made it with Côtes du Rhône”—the fundamental bistro wine made south of Lyon. (I discussed that I didn’t bear in mind seeing an oeuf en meurette after we lived within the metropolis. “Sure,” Hone stated, “the Lyonnais are too subtle to get pleasure from this dish.”)

Additionally, he added, don’t fuss with the sauce. In fancified bistro variations—“sensible consuming,” Hone referred to as it—the meurette tends to be decreased “to an intense dribble.” It ought to be extra soup than sauce, he advised me. “You eat it with a spoon.”

In my view, I exploit Beaujolais relatively than Burgundy ($15 a bottle, if I can discover it; by no means greater than $20), and am pleased with a new-world Pinot for much less. However style it first—the flavors, good or dangerous, focus with the cooking. I additionally like my sauce extra decreased than Hone’s, solely as a result of the meurette’s deliciousness multiplies because it reduces. And I do typically cook dinner the eggs individually (quelle horreur!), however poached in wine, by no means in water.

For me, oeufs en meurette is a contented meals. Follow making it (I nonetheless am), and incorporate it into your Sunday routine. It additionally makes a super gentle supper. The French kitchen, at its finest, has thriller and surprise and a bit weirdness. Its soul is usually present in extremely regional, rustically authentic dishes like this one, which had been made by somebody’s mother or father or grandparent or great-grandparent time and again, in a spot the place cooking is greater than a recipe and extra like a life.

Eggs Poached in Crimson Wine

Serves 4

Elements

• 1 quart hen inventory or chicken-bone broth
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 oz. lardons, i.e., cured stomach pork (poitrine, or pancetta, or bacon), cubed
• ½ pound mushrooms (cremini, white, or wild unique), brushed, stems trimmed, and sliced
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 shallot, small-diced
• ½ medium onion, small-diced
• 1 clove garlic, smashed and small-diced
• 2 bottles fruity, brightly zesty purple wine, equivalent to a Beaujolais, Bourgogne Rouge, or new-world Pinot Noir (there will probably be a lot left over to drink)
• Splash of Marc de Bourgogne eau-de-vie (non-compulsory)
• 2 or 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Baguette, sliced lengthy on the diagonal into 8 items (any easy nation loaf will suffice)
• 4 eggs, ideally free-range and from a small farm, rinsed and at room temperature
• Black pepper, to style
• Crimson-wine vinegar, to style (non-compulsory)
• Crimson-currant jelly or a candy fortified wine, like Port, to style (non-compulsory)
• Salt, to style
• Handful of parsley leaves

Gear

• Straining spoon, ideally flat

Instructions

1. Pour hen inventory right into a medium saucepan and produce to a boil, then flip all the way down to a simmer, and cut back, uncovered. How a lot you cut back is a matter of style, however, for me, the inventory is at its most sweetly savory when it’s virtually syrup, about 30 to 45 minutes.

2. Place a medium saucepan over low warmth. Add olive oil after which the lardons, and cook dinner till the fats is rendered however not too crisp. Take away with a slotted spoon and put aside. Add mushrooms, increase warmth to medium-low, and cook dinner within the pork fats till mushrooms are totally softened and liquid is rendered, about 3 to five minutes. (I cowl the pan briefly.) Take away from saucepan and put aside.

3. Give the saucepan a wipe, add 2 Tbsp. butter, and let soften over medium-low warmth. Add shallot and stir, then add onion and garlic. Stir till creamy, however don’t brown. Add ⅔ bottle purple wine and produce to a boil. I add an entirely non-compulsory shot of Marc de Bourgogne, the eau-de-vie of Burgundy, within the perception that that is what the country farmer of my goals would do. (Non-obligatory: rigorously set combination alight to burn off the alcohol, a conventional follow, however one which will make no distinction: most of it burns off through the decreasing.) Add thyme and bay leaf, and cook dinner till decreased in quantity by greater than half, about half-hour. (The decrease the warmth, the extra time the liquid will take to scale back, however the higher the discount will probably be.)

4. Add the reserved decreased hen inventory to the saucepan and produce again to a simmer. Season with black pepper (no salt, owing to the salinity of the cured pork), and style. If not sufficiently tart, add a splash of red-wine vinegar. If too tart, add a spoonful of red-currant jam or a splash of Port. If you wish to thicken or enrich barely, add 2 to three Tbsp. butter, one small piece at a time, whisking to include. Add reserved lardons and mushrooms, stir, convey again to a simmer, and preserve sauce heat on the lowest attainable warmth (it’s O.Ok. if it retains decreasing).

5. Gently fry baguette slices in a sauté pan in fats. You might be principally making a big crouton. In France, the fats could be clarified butter (in order that it doesn’t burn). On a farm, it may be bacon or duck fats. Right here, I like to recommend 1 Tbsp. olive oil and 1 Tbsp. butter, heated collectively over low to medium warmth till the fats foams. Add baguette slices and cook dinner till frivolously browned on the underside, then flip with tongs to brown the opposite aspect. When finished, put aside.