September 30 – October 6, 2024

Monday:                  Caesar Salad with Leftover Chicken

Tuesday:                  Pasta with Meatballs

Wednesday:          Chicken Cutlets with Braised Red Cabbage and Apples

Friday:                      Poached Cod w/ Red Pepper Sauce, Roasted Potatoes, Salad

Saturday:                Roasted Fennel and Sausage Pizza

 

 

 

Sunday:                   Coq au Vin

An Old Favorite by an Old Favorite

Ina Garten has a better PR team than either presidential candidate, getting air time on nearly every network, a nice spread in last Saturday’s WSJ Magazine, book reviews everywhere and interviews on CBS and NPR.  This is partly because she has recently published a memoir which contains some surprises, but it is mostly because she is a hard-working, creative lady who has succeeded beyond her own dreams and is not full of herself about it.  Oh – and she is helping the rest of us to be better cooks.

So then, Ina is a favorite.  But so is Coq au Vin which we began cooking from the Silver Palette cookbook and since have tried many different recipes.  Ina’s is fairly standard, but also simple.  It is best done one day ahead – the flavors get better overnight.  And, like Ina, it is not full of itself – nor could it be, given its provenance as a peasant dish.

After the peasants had sold all of the younger, plumper chickens to the solid burgers and wealthy aristocrats in the neighborhood, what were they to with an old cock that looked like he might no longer be able to uphold (excuse the pun) his duties by the harem of hens in the barnyard?  Well, cooking him, suggested itself.  But how do you cook a tough old bird?  With a good amount of red wine, slowly and for a long time – oh, and toss in some carrots and onion and garlic and herbs and season the whole brew.  Voila – Coq au Vin.

Now, we rich Americans cook young, plump chickens in our Coq au Vin, instead of scrawny old roosters, so it doesn’t take all that long, but the technique is the same and, with a good chicken, the result is specatular.  Don’t forget to serve the recipe below with some nice, crusty bread or a mound of mashed potatoes so that the latter day burghers and wealthy aristocrats who dine at your table can sop up the sauce just like they were hungry cow-hands mopping their tin plates while sitting around the chuck-wagon. 

Coq au Vin

(adapted from recipe in Ina Garten’s Be Ready When the Luck Happens)

Timing:          2 hours (best when cooked the day before serving)

Ingredients:                                           Serves 6 – 7

2 (3-4-pound)  chickens, each cut into 8 serving pieces [cut each breast in half, separate thighs, drumsticks and wings – There are excellent videos on how to butcher a chicken, and you should learn to do this, but you can ask your butcher to do it for you.  You want all the pieces to have bone-in and skin on.

8 ounces bacon or pancetta, diced (we used a good, thick bacon – – and cut each slice into 1/3” pieces – some larger, some smaller)

1 pound carrots, cut on a bias into 1-inch pieces

2 yellow onions, sliced

1 pound frozen, small white onions or pearl onions

1 pound porcini or cremini mushrooms, stems removed, thickly sliced

2 teaspoons chopped garlic – we used two medium cloves

¼ cup Cognac or good brandy

1 bottle good dry red wine

2 cups chicken stock

1 bunch fresh thyme sprigs

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature, divided in half

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more as needed (if using two Dutch ovens, put one tablespoon in each)

Prep:

Butter to room temperature

Butcher Chicken

Cut and slice vegetables and mushrooms

Bundle thyme sprigs

Measure out chicken stock and cognac

Uncork bottle of red wine

Heat oven to 275 F

Cook:

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a very large Dutch oven over medium heat.  If you don’t have a very large Dutch oven, you will want to use two Dutch ovens, and put half the ingredients in each one.

Add the bacon to the hot oil and cook for 8-10 minutes until browned, then remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.  (I’d suggest lining the plate with a paper towel – but leave as much bacon grease in the Dutch oven as possible – you’ll be using it to cook the vegetables.)

Meanwhile, pat the chicken dry with paper towels and liberally salt and pepper each piece on all sides.  When the bacon is removed from the pot add a few of the chicken pieces in a single layer and brown for about 5 minutes – you’ll have to do this in two batches, at least.  Don’t let the chicken pieces touch or they will steam rather than brown.  NOTE:  I cooked the chicken for maybe 7 minutes a side, to get a nice crisp skin.

Remove the chicken pieces to a plate.

Now add the carrots, onions (not the frozen ones, the sliced ones), 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper to the pot and cook over medium for 10-12 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the onions are lightly browned.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute and then, carefully, add the Cognac and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol.

When the alcohol has burned off (there will be no more flames flickering over the vegetables), put the bacon, chicken and any juices that collect on the plate into the pot.  Add the wine, the chicken stock and the thyme sprigs and bring to a boil, then cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink.  Remove the pot from the oven and place on top of the stove.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the butter and the flour together in a small bowl and stir the paste into the stew.  Add the frozen onions.

Now, in a medium sauté pan, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and cook the mushrooms over medium-low for 5-10 minutes – until they give up their liquid and brown.  Add the mushrooms to the stew.

Bring the stew to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes.  Season to taste and serve hot.  NOTE:  At this point we let the Coq au Vin cool and refrigerated it to reheat the next day.  If you do this, you’ll want to skim the fat that forms on the surface of the dish before reheating – you don’t need to get all of it.

FINAL NOTE:  Cooking the day before makes this a perfect dish for a dinner party.  You can drink and sit with your guests – all you have to do is heat the chicken, serve with a salad and crusty bread and not even work up a sweat.