This is your wine lesson of the day:
A bottle of dry, red Burgundy is (almost) always Pinot Noir.
The "almost always" is there for things like Beaujolais, which is technically Burgundy, but usually made with gamay grapes instead of pinot noir, but who the heck is going to name a nail polish 'Gamay?' Obviously, it would be "Gamay I Have Another?" which I just made up myself and now I think I should be EVP of Creative Names for essie or OPI or something.
Anyway...
Domaine Meix-Foulot Mercurey 1er Cru 'Les Veleys' 2008 is a good weeknight red wine, specifically a Monday night, collapsed onto the couch after a 16-hour non-stop day that was, wait really (?!), a Holiday for everyone else.
Duri Cosmetics 'Pinot Noir' is a creamy red burgundy that's more red than brown or purple, all the colors in that "burgundy" fashion family these days. Because it's not as dark as I would have expected for, you know, Pinot Noir, it's a good "neutral red" choice on short nails for the work week (which, by the way, is a stupid term because what part of the week is ever NOT "work week" when you're a full-time badass?!)
Duri, the formula in general, is also good for the work week because it seems to chip less easily than others, even with the somewhat harsher worklifestyle of a food blogger, banging away at keyboard, cooking, and washing dishes for 16 hours straight. {available: manufacturer's site, amazon}
Oeufs en Meurette is a classic French dish of poached eggs on toast with red wine sauce, in the same family as Boeuf Bourguignon and Coq au Vin, but seemingly more approachable because it's just, you know, eggs. Is it a brunch dish because it has eggs? Is it a dinner dish because it has wine? (These questions, of course, have no meaning when a not-infrequent dinner for you is Pop-Tarts and Champagne.)
The "Meurette" red wine sauce is good way to use up the bottle of weeknight Burgundy that you didn't finish the night before because 1) you fell asleep on the couch exhausted from the day and 2) you have to do it all, all over again today. Of course, to drink with this dinner, you have to open another bottle of wine, which you won't finish and will carry over into tomorrow.
It's all one big vicious, delicious cycle, isn't it? {recipe below}
Oeufs en Meurette {recipe}
Inspired by the many recipes I've read in the last couple of years.
with half a bottle of red wine, makes enough for 2. full bottle, double recipe, will make enough for 4-6.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ bottle red Burgundy wine
1 cup chicken stock (or beef if you have it!)
bouquet garni: 1 bay leaf, few sprigs fresh thyme, few sprigs parsley tied together with twine
4 ounces lardons, or thick-cut bacon cut crosswise into ½-inch wide strips
½ cup pearl onions, roots and tips removed and peeled
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 tablespoon flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
thick slices of rustic bread, grilled or toasted
4 large eggs, poached
chopped parsley and/or fresh thyme sprigs for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Melt ½ a tablespoon of butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, shallots, carrots, and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Pour wine and stock into saucepan then add bouquet garni. Turn heat to high, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced to about ⅔, about 20 minutes.
Remove the bouquet garni. You can strain the sauce by pouring it through a sieve and pressing down on the cooked vegetables to extract all the liquid, or you can just leave everything in for the "fiber."
While the wine reduces, melt the remaining ½ teaspoon of butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the lardons and cook until crisp. Remove lardons to a paper towel-lined plate to drain off excess fat.
Discard all but 1 teaspoon of fat from the frying pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until browned. Remove the mushrooms from the pan to the same plate with lardons. In the same pan (there should still be some butter/fat/liquid, but if not, add a teaspoon of butter), add the pearl onions and sauté until browned all over. Set onions aside together with lardons and mushrooms.
Mash 1 tablespoon of softened butter together with flour. Bring the Burgundy sauce to a boil, then stir in half the butter/flour paste until the sauce begins to thicken. Wait a minute or two and if you'd like a thicker sauce, add more of the butter/flour paste a little bit at a time. Pour the lardons, mushrooms and pearl onions into the Burgundy sauce, stir, taste, and season with salt and pepper.
For each Oeufs en Meurette serving, place a piece of grilled/toasted bread in the bottom of a shallow bowl or plate with high sides. Place two poached eggs on each slice of bread. Spoon the sauce over the eggs and around the bread. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and/or a few sprigs fresh thyme.
Serve with a simple, bright green salad alongside, and extra grilled bread to soak up sauce from the bowl.
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