Hey guys. Salut. This is Alex. Today I want to be... I shouldn't be smiling today. I want to be serious. Okay, we're gonna make...
Buckle up, buckle up. We're gonna make...
Today we're gonna make a recipe
Are you actually mad Alex?
F***ing out of my mind. And the recipe we're gonna make comes from this book, my own cookbook.
There you go. Whoa!
Yes, this is the one I want to make.
Picture-perfect eggs meurette.
Poached eggs in the wine sauce
It's a very traditional French recipe. Comes from the region of Burgundy. Delicious. Affordable.
Recipe that doesn't use any fancy ingredient and yet it's a dish that is based
Heavily on technique, but I think that that that's great news
in fact, because learning this dish will also teach you, like, tons of new chef skills. You will basically become a
better cook after
mastering this recipe, so let's get to it.
So, there are three key
elements to this dish. We're gonna start with the first one, which I think is the most important one: the sauce.
Let's be serious for a moment, okay?Being able to wrap up a good sauce
clearly states, clearly makes the difference between, like, a
random cook and a home chef. Who are you? Who do you think you are? Okay? That's what I thought.
In case you're wondering I'm not using like an expensive wine. I'm just using a cheap wine, Shiraz or Grenache.
Anything, basically, that has been grown in a sunny, very sunny environment
At the end of the day, this recipe is just pretext to learn and brag about French chef skills.
And the first one is- Flambé. Set the liquid on fire to reduce its alcohol content.
Boiling the daylight out of this liquid
I want to concentrate both the flavors
But also the color of this one you want to go for what is it's called in French a Mirroir in English a mirror
Look how shiny and how dark that surface is. You can't even tell that's wine no more. It looks like
soy sauce. Mirroir: an extreme wine reduction that can get used and stored very easily.
In terms of flavor profile, you want to embellish the story with a bit of beef stock. You can use vegetable stock you can use
chicken stock. Whatever. The guy just doesn't give a F****. I think.
No
I do
I just acknowledge the fact that everybody has his or her own
Taste and that's why I'm just suggesting a few options there
Reduction producing the amount of liquid to concentrate both the flavor and the color
So remember we started with about a liter of liquid and that's what we get on the end
Monté emulsifying the sauce by adding in cold butter
Now, you know, what is good about this sauce
Everything
have got the beef have got the acidity of the wine as well, which is just you know making that sauce a bit fresher
Otherwise with the butter and the beef stock it could get a bit heavy, but it's not. Yeah. Oops.
I'm gonna cook these for about five to ten minutes on medium heat because I want them to be fully cooked
But I also want them to caramelize
Mmm salty juicy smokey, that's the kind of reaction you get with caramelized bacon Wow
Anyway, bacon bits done. We call them Lardon in France, by the way
shallots
Glacé coating vegetables with a thin layer of
caramel
So the next step is basically to poach an egg, and I know that plenty people out there plan to cook at home
especially are afraid of
This operation because it seems too technical. It's not the case. It's not the case
You just need to get the freshest egg possible and do about nothing
To it
Let me show you
Bring vinegary water to boil
Get it off the heat and gently very gently drop a very fresh egg in
Wait three minutes, and that's it
it really looks like a little Japanese dumpling I
know the yolk is gonna be nice and runny inside rinse this in cold water to
Stop the cooking. Yes, but also to rinse off any
vinegary smell of flame
Poshé which is just cooking an egg by submerging it in hot water
That's the French cuisine made simple. Right. So I think we've got all the elements we need
Let's plate this bad boy. This nice boy. Okay, not scary
strong juice bold flavors everywhere
Garlic beef stock caramelized onions caramelized bacon smoke if this is not calling for a glass of wine
Not a Frenchman anymore
Do I have some wine carbonated wine from California? No, maybe not.
So you need some red wine to go with this take a piece of bread
Wrap it nicely with a clove of garlic and then just dig in. Dig in.
without being polite at all the paragon of
Pleasure an intense flavor. I swear you use that sauce, and you drizzle it onto a
sunny-side up egg
You probably get about the same effect
And sorry for the poached egg
But you're not the star man you are not the star the star is the sauce silky smooth and juice
Luxurious experience that you could basically enjoy on
plenty other types of food like I would love that sauce on a
Steak. For example, that would be amazing on a steak the caramelized shallots a drizzle of the sauce
flipping in a half sandwich chomp
heaven
I think sauces are underestimated
They are the foundations of French cuisine. I thought for a while about making a whole series about
Sauces if you think this is a good idea, let me know in the comments. So it's good to hear from you. Okay?
So if you're thinking about getting my book
can't blame you for that. You must know that this is one of the very few traditional French recipe inside it Ramen
Matzo ball onion soup. So French one
Moroccan vibes so it's very much globally influenced, but I can't deny
I would be a fool not to accept that there is ton to learn in the traditional French cooking
And that's also why I wanted to show you that recipe. It feels a bit fancy. Yes
But if you think of it the ingredients are very very affordable. It's a dish about
mastering new technique as I mentioned earlier
It's a dish about learning new chef skills, and I think it's a dish about becoming a better smarter
Sharper food. Anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed this recipe
If you did give it a big thumbs up and spread that everywhere spread it like butter
I will catch up with you next time, but until then, bye bye. Salut.