Oeufs en Meurette

Ingredients

• 6 very fresh eggs
• 750 ml red Burgundy or other Pinot Noir
• 150 g smoked lardons
• 12 pearl onions, peeled
• 200 g button mushrooms, halved
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 40 g butter, plus 20 g soft butter for the sauce
• 20 g plain flour
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 4 thick slices of baguette
• 1 garlic clove, halved, for rubbing
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Salt and black pepper

Before you cook

• Mash the 20 g of soft butter with the flour into a smooth paste and keep it cold
• Peel the pearl onions and halve the mushrooms
• Crack each egg into its own small cup
• Cut the baguette slices and halve a garlic clove for rubbing

Steps

1. Fry the lardons in 20 g of the butter over medium heat for five minutes, until the fat runs and the edges colour.
2. Lift the lardons out with a slotted spoon and set them aside.
3. Add the pearl onions to the same pan and brown them all over for six minutes, then set them aside with the lardons.
4. Fry the mushrooms in the same pan over high heat for four minutes, until browned, then add them to the bacon and onions.
5. Add the remaining butter, the shallot, the carrot and the crushed garlic and sweat them for five minutes without colouring.
6. Pour in the wine, add the thyme and the bay leaf, and bring to the boil.
7. Simmer briskly for 25 minutes, until the wine has reduced by half and smells rounded rather than sharp.
8. Strain the sauce into a clean pan, pressing the vegetables to get every drop, then discard them.
9. Whisk the flour and butter paste into the hot sauce a little at a time and simmer for three minutes until it thickens enough to coat a spoon.
10. Return the lardons, the onions and the mushrooms to the sauce and keep it barely bubbling.
11. Toast the baguette slices until crisp and rub one side of each with the cut garlic.
12. Bring a wide pan of water to a bare shiver with the vinegar added.
13. Slide the eggs in one at a time and poach them for three minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks still soft.
14. Lift each egg out with a slotted spoon and drain it on kitchen paper, trimming any ragged edges.
15. Set a crouton in each warm bowl, top with an egg, spoon over the sauce and garnish with the vegetables, the bacon and the parsley.