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14 December 2010

daring cooks: oeuffs en meurette


Blog-checking lines: Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

How I wish I could say that through this challenge I perfected the technique of poaching an egg but... not even close!

Oeuffs en meurette is basically just poached eggs in a red wine sauce but Anne Willan's recipe (which we Daring Cooks followed) gave instructions to poach the eggs in the red wine.

 
My thoughts pre-poaching: Yay! Happiness! I will soon be eating gorgeously poached eggs that taste like a delicate red wine sauce!

My thoughts post-poaching: Dear Zeus, I have made boiled brains.

I actually hid the poached eggs from my flatmates when they came into the kitchen and when my flatmate, Mimey, saw them and I told her that they were brains, she believed me. Not ideal...


I know there will be hundreds of Daring Cooks whose oeuffs en meurette will look gorgeous (seen here) but I am not one of them. On a positive note though, my egg yolks were thick and creamy and the flavours overall were delicious. Another positive would be that these would be great to serve as an entree for a Halloween dinner. Also, my star toasts were cute. Oh my gosh (warning, lameness approaching), I shot for the moon, I missed, but I was amongst the stars! Cringetastic!


Oeuffs en Meurette
The recipe for this can be found here. I couldn't be bothered straining vegetables through a sieve so I just left them whole in the sauce. If I were to do this again, I would obviously not opt to poach the eggs in red wine.



17 comments:

Faith said...

I love your toast pieces and I think the dish looks great!!! I wanted to make the Oeuffs en Meurette but settled for the hollandaise!

Anonymous said...

I love the star pic!!!!! The meal was yum btw....

Jenn said...

I think your oeufs en meurette are beautiful!!! Certainly MUCH prettier than when I first made them - and the star shaped toasts are adorable. I'm glad you enjoyed how they came out!

Miri said...

@Faith - Thanks! The toast pieces were def a highlight (but then what isn't if it's fried in butter!)

@Anon - Haha thanks Mimey! Btw, Adam wins MasterChef. Boom!

Audax said...

Well poached brains LOL LOL I actually like brians LOL LOL no seriously it looks fabulous and those stars are so so cute. I just love the idea of wine poached eggs. Lovely work on this challenge.

Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

Renata said...

The dish looks pretty good to me, not at all like boiled brains LOL... Love the cute star toasts.

David and Stacy said...

Brains might just about sum up ours too. Didn't have to hide them from flatmates, but did hide them a bit from ourselves by covering them completely with the very yummy sauce.

Well done, you really are a star!
Stay JOLLY!
D&S

Mary said...

Well, calling them boiled brains is one way to keep this delicious dish all to yourself! I think it looks good, and the star toasts are a great touch.
:)

Melanie said...

I have to say that I didn't make this dish because of the pictures. As pretty as our hosts made them look, I couldn't get over the purple egg. I'm also grateful to learn that I'm not the only lazy cook who can't be bothered to do such things as strain the veggies out of a sauce! Your final dish looks great... good enough to convince me that I really should make it, purple brainy eggs and everything!

MyMacaroniPie said...

Your eggs look beautiful and delicious. Thanks for posting even though they didn't turn out the way you wanted, we've all been there ;-) I'm know they were delicious. Good job! Nice touch with the toasts too.

Miri said...

@Jenn - Your pictures were an inspiration and I'm sorry I didn't do them justice with my purple brainy eggs (what they will forever be known as, thanks Melanie!) You are so sweet - thank you so much!

@Audax - I'd love to try brains sometime too!

@Renata - I'd definitely covered those brains/eggs in the sauce before plating up!!

@D&S - Haha good one! Yes, once covered up, you couldn't tell the eggs were anything but yum!

@Mary - Thanks so much. Good plan for keeping it all to yourself - I'll keep that in mind!

@Melanie - Wow what a compliment! I'm not sure if I'd do it again but the experience was, er, interesting! Haha the sauce was lovely without straining so I think we did rather well!

Robyn Clarke said...

Love the little stars, so cute!

FabFrugalFood said...

Beautiful job - love the stars!

Suz said...

I might be tempted to try brains if they look like that! (Only if they're served with star toasts, though.) It's certainly a striking dish with the deep, crimson sauce and the egg yolk. I think it looks beautiful!

Kelly said...

I think your Oeufs en Meurette look great and the star certainly make the dish.

Anonymous said...

Taste is what truly counts. I think you did a great job. You say brains like it is a bad word.

Please Do Not Feed The Animals. said...

Ha ha - I wasn't brave enough to try this recipe (just because I didn't have time and wanted to concentrate on trying the Hollandaise) so I admire your efforts and think you did a great job of making it look good with the toast stars. Well done.

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