Poached eggs in red wine sauce
============================== 2025-06-02 *


Inspired by: Oeufs en meurette

Comment: Normally served as a starter.

There are two schools of thought for cooking eggs. The first cooks the eggs in wine, the other in vinegared water. You might think that a white egg is prettier than one colored by wine, but since we're going to cover it with wine sauce anyway, we might as well cook it in wine.
The problem here is that if the wine contains bay leaf, thyme, shallot, and garlic, it's hard to take the poached eggs out without taking some of them along. So I opted to cook the eggs in the wine first, then reduce it with these ingredients. This is unlikely to change the flavor of the poached eggs.
Use either mushrooms or bacon (or both for an even richer dish). The pan shouldn't be too large, so there's enough wine to cook the poached eggs. The eggs take 3 to 4 minutes to cook, depending on the temperature of the wine (and the size of the eggs). For the wine, choose a low-acid wine, such as a Burgundy or more southern-style, and don't forget a pinch of sugar to reduce any acidity. If 5 cl of wine seems too little for the pan you're using, use the whole bottle, but you'll need to reduce the sauce a little longer.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
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4 extra-fresh eggs
50+ cl red wine (see text)
200 g button mushrooms (see text)
150 g lardons (see text)
2 to 3 slices of sandwich bread or other
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
2 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
~10 peppercorns
2 to 3 pinches of sugar
parsley (optional)
butter
EVOO
salt

Preparation:
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Roughly chop the shallot
Peel and crush the garlic clove
Slice the bacon and/or mushrooms, into small pieces (if possible)
Cut the bread into small croutons
Prepare the spices: thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns
Prepare the wine
butter
beurre manié (15g/15g)

Cooking:
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In a saucepan (see text), add the red wine, bring it to a simmer, then flambé it to get rid of the alcohol (be careful, turn off the extractor fan and have a lid available to cover the pan in case it is needed).

Poach the eggs in the wine for about 3 minutes, set aside (keep warm if possible).

Add the shallot, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, and sugar, bring to a simmer, and reduce slowly to allow the herbs time to infuse.

When reduced by 3/4, strain the wine to remove the solids, then thicken with the beurre manié (with a whisk).

Meanwhile, brown the bacon and set aside on a paper towel.
In the same pan, sauté the mushrooms over high heat with a little oil and a pinch of salt, set aside.
Add enough EVOO to the pan and brown the croutons. Set aside.

Season with salt and pepper.

Off the heat, mix in a knob of butter and stir in the chopped parsley.

To serve, place the eggs on preheated plates and arrange the mixture bacon/mushrooms around, cover with sauce. A few turns of pepper, place the small croutons on top and serve.