Oeufs en Muerrete: Eggs Poached in Red Wine
Michelle and Kristen came to visit and we made several things from the 1000 things list. This morning we made eggs poached in red wine (oeufs en muerrete). It is an interesting recipe-the eggs are poached and then a sauce is made by cooking carrots, onions, garlic and celery in the wine/broth poaching liquid. After plating, there are garnishes: sauteed mushrooms, bacon and pearl onions. The dish does not look really as good as it is. I used a recipe from Epicurious.
I would certainly make this again. The really nice thing is that it is not a huge amount of work and it is something that guests would love. What did I learn after making the recipe? It is hard to poach eggs in wine-I used my plastic microwave egg poacher and put wine in the poacher so they were still “poached” in wine but didn’t fall apart. I am freezing the sauce so I think you could make it ahead and keep it frozen, poach your eggs and have it be ready faster.
Poached Eggs in Red Wine Sauce (with Julie's shortcuts)
Ingredients:
8 eggs
½ bottle of red wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon “Better than Bouillon” vegetable paste
Bouquet of thyme and parsley stems
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pam olive oil spray
Mushrooms/bacon/baby onions or other garnish
Thickening ingredient (1 tablespoon cornstarch combined with 2 tablespoons water or 1 tablespoon butter blended with 1 tablespoon flour)
Preparation:
- Combine the wine, stock, bouillon, thyme and parsley stems tied together, and pepper in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile cook your garnish. This can be anything you want to place on top of the eggs. You can sauté mushrooms with pam cooking spray until tender, fry bacon until crisp and crumble, boil small pearl onions (pealed and boiled in stock until tender) or anything else you want to use. I think sautéed leaks would be great. I also think sautéed bok choy that would place under the eggs would be tasty.
- Once the sauce has simmered for 20 minutes thicken with the preferred thickening agent. Stir until combined for 2 minutes.
- Poach the eggs. I put tablespoons of the wine mixture in each of the two egg microwave egg poaches and poached for 1 minute in the microwave because I like my eggs well cooked. When they are cooked they will be gray and not very appetizing looking.
- Plate the eggs on a plate-2 per person- spoon sauce over the top and add the garnish.
