Return of the French Classics - Coq Au Vin

I haven’t blogged for a while, but now that grilling season is over, it’s time to make some saucy comfort food. It took Coq Au Vin prepared in a traditional dutch oven to get me to start blogging again.  I’ve been very busy, and working with new techniques and dishes is what inspires me to blog (even though I seem to have zero time these days).

While this dish is meat based, the technique would work for a robust vegetable dish also. 

A dutch oven is somewhat similar to a crock pot in concept but I’m finding that for certain dishes it renders a different, less soupy flavor.  I have wanted a dutch oven for a long time.  Le Creuset is great, but I’ve decided to buy the Food Network version due; the price was more reasonable and it seems very similar the Le Creuset brand. I almost purchased the 5.5 quart one, but ended up getting 7.5 quart version instead.  I’m glad I did.  The dishes I make max out this dutch oven.  When you spend so much time making such dishes, there are economies of scale, so you may as well make a large portion.

I’ve also been reading “As Always, Julia:  The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto” by Joan Beardon.  This book inspired me to finally get this dutch oven and return to some of the French cooking I trained myself on in my early cooking days.  I made the Classic Coq Au Vin dish when I was a sophomore in college.  I liked it, but wasn’t thrilled with it, so over time, I abandoned it.  This book inspired me to finally purchase a French style dutch oven and make French style dishes again.  I have a crockpot that allows me to saute and slow cook in the same pot, but I suspected that the dutch oven would produce different results. 

To get in the mood I watched a few old Julia Child videos on YouTube.  I also read several recipes on line for Coq Au Vin.  I ended up blending various recipes (which is what I typically do).  While I liked the Julia Child recipe, I didn’t like the fact that I have to break adding ingredients at certain intervals (e.g., mushrooms at end).  One of the benefits of such cooking is once you fry your ingredients, the slow cooking is fairly easy.

There are many Coq Au Vin recipes out there…and you can add your own variation (as I did).  I basically mixed the classic Julia Child recipe with a few other ones I’ve found (one of them was an Emeril Lagasse recipe).  I believe the Beurre Manie, which is a classic French sauce thickening technique (a different version of roux) thickens a stew/casseulet well.  It consists of mixing softened butter (substitute soy if avoiding dairy) with flour and add it to a simmering sauce.  It makes for a very  nice velvety sauce.

Also, classic Coq Au Vin recipes call for using bacon fat to sauté the chicken, I avoided that also.  I’m not against it, but I must be one of the few people on the planet that doesn’t have an intrinsic craving for bacon. 

I used one free range (no antibiotic/hormone) chicken quartered and about six drumsticks.  I also added carrots to the traditional recipe.  The pearl onions are a must.  They taste delicious.

Some tips:
Always saute the ingredients.  Sauteing ahead of time locks in the meat juices (this is true for crock pot cooking too)-if you don't saute, you get soup texture for your ingredients.

Make sure you scrape those seared pieces when you pour the wine in (can’t do this with a no stick pan).

When the dish is done, make sure you uncover the dutch oven to let steam escape

Do not refrigerate a dish that is not cooled off.

Basic technique (again, there is flexibility here):

Basic Sauteing

Use a robust red wine...and make sure you scrape the  pieces that are stuck on the side...this renders a perfect sauce

with some good wine

The beauty of the Dutch Oven...it goes straight into the oven and the seal is airtight 

Voila

Make sure you remove the lid so it doesn't get locked with the steam

Ingredients

•                1 4 pound free range chicken and 6 drumsticks – patted dry and salted

•                1/2 teaspoon salt

•                1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

•                1 onion, finely chopped (optional)

•                20 small pearl onions, peeled

•                1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled-they will be thrown in straight without choping

•                1 pound mushrooms..roughly quartered-note:  I find baby portabella to be more robust than the usual white mushroom for this

•                2 teaspoons tomato paste

•                3 cups – bottle of red wine, traditional full bodied wine.  I used Bull’s Blood because it is very robust and reasonably priced (don’t use cheap junk red wine…it will destroy the dish-but a there are many reasonable priced red wines)

•                1 1/2 cups chicken stock

•                6 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

•                1 bay leaf

•                2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

•                2-3 carrots peeled and sliced (or can even use baby carrots)

for traditional side dish

boil some diced potatoes, chop some parsley and sauté in a tiny amount of oil/butter/soy butter

Beurre Manie:

mix 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour & 1 tbsp. softened butter (soy or regular)

•                 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large, heavy Dutch oven add some oil and brown the chicken, do it in batches.  You cannot simply throw the chicken into the slow cooking process.  Sautéing first locks the juices in. Remove the chicken and in the same oil sauté carrots, pearl onions, onion for about 5 minutes.  Then add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and sauté for about one minute.

Slowly add the bottle of wine and make sure that you scrape the meat parts that stuck to the pan.  Add chicken broth, tomato paste and herbs/salt/pepper. Add the chicken back, bring to a boil, cover and transfer to a preheated oven.

Cook for about 1.5 hours in the 350 oven.

Carefully remove the lid and  transfer the chicken pieces to a serving dish and cover loosely to keep warm. Return pot to medium-low heat (from oven to oven top). Skim any fat from the surface of the cooking liquid and increase the heat to medium-high. Make the Beurre Mannie (classic French thickening technique), stir into sauce as it simmers (whishing works best).  Let sauce thicken and add chicken back.  Reheat everything and serve with parsley potatoes.

This was supposed to last for two days, but most of it got eaten the first night.

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Quick, no, not fast food –it’s Garlic Chicken with Eggplant

Garlic Eggplant Chicken - final state

Stir fry eggplant until it gets soft 

sauce ingredients

fried rice - eggs

fried rice..break up and cook

Chicken stir fry part (added after ginger)

 After I got home from work I wanted to take a break and catch up on emails, facebook (yes, I admit it), news and music.  I know I should have gone straight to cooking because once I sit down I risk not cooking a great dinner.  Not that every dinner needs to be ‘great’-but with a growing child (add food allergies) I do need to make a healthy and tasty dinner.  Given the recent five-day power outage, I am out of some key ingredients.  The purchase of a portable generator allowed me to save some things.  One of these items was free range chicken breast.  Most of my ingredients come from Whole Foods or other specialty stores and my stock has not been replenished.  I also haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping for the usual this week, so I really had to make do with what was available at home (not much).

I love Chinese eggplant dishes (especially at P.F. Chang’s).  I had some eggplant that I originally purchased for a Mediterranean dish that I never got around to cooking. 

It was getting late so I didn’t want to make something that will take forever.  “She was moving like a woman possessed,” according to one observer.  But a great dinner was cooked…and it disappeared faster than it took to make (which is a big thing….if my son doesn’t like something, he drags).  The key ingredients to this dinner were:

Eggplant

Boneless chicken breast (if you are a vegetarian, substitute a well prepared tofu)

Garlic

Ginger

Green onions

Rice

Eggs (because I like fried rice more than plain rice…and a growing child needs his protein)

A sauce composed of:

Soy sauce

Vegetarian stir fry sauce (vegetarian version of oyster sauce and a lot less salty….my son is allergic to shellfish, but actually I prefer this to oyster sauce and ask for this substitution at restaurants….tastes a lot less salty)

Sesame oil (only added at end for flavor…this is not a cooking oil)

Chicken broth (can use  vegetable broth)

I don’t measure anything and mostly do this visually.  I’ve made Chinese food for years, so I move fairly fast.    I wish I had a better stove (higher heat) but it still works.

First slice (across, through) the chicken breast in Chinese style pieces

Take about

¼ c of organic soy sauce

¼ c of rice vinegar

½ tsp (again approximate) cornstarch

½ c of a good oil (canola or regular olive oil-not extra virgin  that will overpower all flavors)

stir before you add the oil, then add the oil

put the chicken in a zip lock bag and pour marinade over it. 

Let sit while you work on the other part

Now, multitask to the max

Dice an eggplant (the garlic, ginger and green onions can be chopped while the eggplant is frying)

Pour some oil into a wok (I use expeller pressed 365 brand Canola-it’s a good frying oil)

Stir fry the diced eggplant on high heat for 5-8 minutes until it looks softened

Stir some stir fry sauce into it….remove from wok and set asid

Stir fry finely chopped ginger (2-3 tbs) for 1 minute

Add the marinated chicken (without the liquid)

Stir fry on the highest heat possible and wait until it turns white – stirring constantly,

You may need to remove some of the liquid the chicken renders with a spoon (take it off the fire and quickly remove some of the extra liquid). During the last minute add the finely chopped garlic –garlic should never be overcooked…..stir constantly

Add the eggplant (that was already made)

Add soy sauce; stir fry sauce and some chicken broth.  I don’t measure this, but the key is to get a nice consistency that is not too salty.  The low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth) will dilute the saltiness.  The stir fry sauce provides a rich flavor and creaminess to the sauce and soy, of course provides a soy flavor.  Again, I use non genetically modified soy sauce.

Add some finely sliced green onions and stir

Add some sesame oil for flavor and stir

Garnish with green onions

If you have other vegetables on hand….you can add it to the vegetable stir frying

Put in a serving dish

Take some cooked rice (usually I like to to cook the day before..it fries better, but this was a last minute dinner)

Beat three ' non cage vegetarian fed’ eggs (higher in Omega 3s)

Add some oil to the frying pan

Once hot, add the beaten eggs

On high heat add the eggs and let it cook (this will be the shredded egg in fried rice)

Add some of the finely sliced green onions (or other vegetables…I was out) and stir

Add the rice and break up (still high heat)

Once broken up add some soy sauce and continue to use a break up motion

Note:  don’t add too much soy sauce, most restaurants add too much soy sauce, don’t try to match the color…a good fried rice is not too dark

Cook for a few minutes on very high heat

Add some sesame oil –stir for a minute and turn off heat

Garnish with green onions

This dinner really took hardly any time to cook (took longer to write this blog with typos).

A healthy, tasty quick dinner that is NOT fast food.     I really liked the eggplant in this dish.  I make all kinds of Chinese dishes, but given how much I like eggplant, this is one of my favorites.  I typically use more vegetables but the five day power outage and lack of time didn’t allow that this time.  However, eggplant is a pretty powerful vegetable so it provides a lot of flavor.  I will also try to make a meatless version of this with a well prepared (non GMO) tofu.  I’m working on fine tuning a five spice tofu (yes, inspired by P.F. Chang’s firm five spice tofu in their vegetarian lettuce wraps).




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