Burgundian brunch at home

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One of the most memorable dishes I had on my recent trip to Burgundy was œufs en meurette - poached eggs in red wine sauce.  I loved this hearty dish so much that when I found myself with good leftover wines - yes, the Colgin Cabernets - which I was loathe to pour down the drain, I immediately thought about using them to make this dish.

However, I quickly realized that this is a dish best made with wines of its native region - Burgundy.  As I don't have any leftover Burgundy reds around the apartment, and had foolishly poured my leftover Williams Selyem Pinot down the drain a month ago, I decided to open a new bottle.  The half-bottle of 1997 Etude Pinot Noir I had lying around seemed perfect for the job.

So I got up this morning, took my iPad into the kitchen - with the recipe I had picked up from the web - and cooked brunch.  While one might think there's nothing to making eggs for breakfast/brunch, this is actually a dish that takes almost 1½ hours to cook.  It takes time to reduce the red wine while infusing it with the flavors of the various ingredients.

As if following a recipe for the first time wasn't challenging enough, I had also come to the sudden realization that, believe it or not, I had never poached an egg in my entire life!  I've always pan-fried or scrambled my eggs, so I was a little lost when it came time to try to produce a pretty-looking egg that would sit well on a piece of toast.  Somehow I managed to come up with 2 eggs which didn't look disastrous...

Verdict?  Not bad, given that this was my first try and I had misread the instructions for a few steps.  Now that I've done it for the first time, I'm eager to try again!