Eggs Meurette ( poached eggs in red wine sauce )

Has this ever happened to you? We fail to see what is obvious...in all aspects of life ! Well, this is what happened to me with these Eggs Meurette...

....traditional French dish, from Burgundy, that I had almost forgotten...but during my visit to New York, I went to have brunch to Balthazar, and there they were, on the menu, staring at me, wondering..."hey girl, when do we become the "stars" in your blog?"

So here they are, to please you, in all their simplicity! 

The good thing about these eggs is that they can be served as "entrée", first course (if you put two eggs per person), for brunch....

And then, they are a joy of flavours and textures: velvety eggs, crispy bacon chips, sweet caramelized onions...a certain acid taste in wine....what else? Enjoy them !

Thanks New York, and its people, for being the source of inspiration in my last two posts !

Now for the recipe !






For these Eggs Meurette (serves 2) you will need:
 * fresh eggs, 2
 * Burgundy wine ( or similar), 90 ml
 * bacon slices, 4
 * butter, 35gr 
 * vinegar, 1 teaspoon
 * red onions, 2
 * brown sugar, 2 teaspoons
 * slices of bread, 2
 * fresh greens, 


 (for the "beurre manié")
 * butter, 1 teaspoon
 * flour, 1 teaspoon

For the red wine sauce: combine using a fork,  one teaspoon of soft butter (room temperature), with one teaspoon of flour. Knead  it into a ball. Refrigerate (this is called "beurre manié" (Once you are at it, you can make more "balls" of beurre manié, keeping them in the freezer for other sauces that you will make in the future; remember the proportion flour, butter is always 50/50). Put the wine in a saucepan, let it boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer till reduced to a  third (it should have a syrup consistence). Add the beurrie manie. Whisk until well dissolved, and the sauce coats a wooden spoon.

Put the slices of bacon on the grill rack of your oven ( 110°C) Cook until crispy. At the same time, you can toast the slices of bread ( I used Poilâne here)

For the caramelized onions: slice the onions thinly. Melt the butter. Sauté the onions in it. Add the sugar. Then reduce the heat, and let the onions caramelize for 25' aprox.

For the poached eggs: put water in two saucepans. Take them to a boil and then, reduce the heat to medium. Add one teaspoon of vinegar to the water in one saucepan. Break the egg in a little bowl. Swirl the water with the vinegar using a spoon, place the egg in the central hollow that is formed. Cook the egg for 3'. Then with a slotted spoon, remove it from this water, and rinse it in the water of the other saucepan. Drain it on paper towels. Trim off the stringy edges, if necessary, using a small knife. 

Put the slice of toasted bread on a dish, accomodate one dollop of caramelised onions on it, then the poached egg. Serve with greens. Place the two slices of bacon on the greens. Spoon the sauce over the egg.