The Burgundian’s understandable instinct to cook in wine, whether the dish be fish, fowl, or meat, has led to a toothsome group of specialties. Here is one of their appetizing ways of cooking eggs in red wine:
Oeufs à la Bourguignonne
Pour into a pan 1 cup red wine and 1 cup bouillon. Add a bouquet garni, 1 onion, sliced, 1 clove garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch each cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Now remove the pieces of seasoning and poach 4 to 6 eggs in this liquid.
Remove the eggs and keep them hot. Strain the liquid, reduce it over the fire to 1 generous cup, and then bind it with 1 generous tablespoon butter blended with 1 tablespoon flour. The eggs are placed on slices of bread fried in butter, and the sauce is poured over them.
A wine taster will usually nibble a morsel of bread or cheese or a nut in order to clear his palate for successive wines. The native Burgundian has devised something much better than this, however. It is la gougère, a sort of cheese brioche, which is an absolutely perfect companion piece to a goblet of good Burgundy, be it red or white. But it goes with a hundred other things, too. These amounts may be cut in half, for a small gougère.
La Gougère
Heat together in a saucepan 2 cups milk, 1/4 pound butter, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. When they reach the boiling point, remove from the fire and add 1 3/4 cups flour. Return to the fire for a minute or two, stirring continually. Remove from the fire again and add 8 eggs, 2 by 2, stirring continually and working in each pair of eggs thoroughly before adding more. Now add 1/4 pound Swiss cheese, cut in very small cubes, and finally 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Butter a pastry ring (or two, if you are doing this entire recipe) and place it on a buttered cooky sheet. Pour the paste into this and stick a few small cubes of cheese into the surface. Brush a little beaten egg over the top and bake in a rather slow oven (325° F.) for 40 minutes to 1 hour. Do not open the oven door while la gougère is rising. It should emerge brown, crusty, and puffed up.
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