Coq Au Vin

This is Julia Child-ish, since I changed a few things from her original, but tried to keep the spirit of the thing. Julia adds cognac and flambés after browning the chicken, however she never had wooden cupboards above her stove like me, so I left that part out. Besides, I’m not buying a bottle of cognac I’m never going to drink.

Keeping with the theme of not taking a special trip to the liquor store, I used a bottle of red wine from the Loire Valley as opposed to the more traditional Burgundy called for. Also worth noting: the caramelized cippolini are the show stealer; I could eat them all by themselves and be a happy man.

Servings: 4 healthy portions

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes total

1 chicken, 4 to 5 pounds

½ pound bacon

~20 cippolini or pearl onions

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced

6 cloves garlic, peeled

2 cups red wine (Burgundy or Pinot Noir is best)

2 cups chicken stock

1 bay leaf

Handful of thyme sprigs

Handful of parsley sprigs

½ pound crimini mushrooms

3 tbsp butter, divided

Egg noodles

Parsley for garnish

Crusty bread for serving

Cut the up your chicken, separating the legs from the thighs and slicing the breast in half. If you’re not familiar with breaking down a chicken, it’s Alton Brown to the rescue.

Place the bacon slices in a pan of cold water (covered by a few inches) and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. This is a Julia Child thing for removing some of the excess saltiness from the bacon. Remove the blanched bacon pieces and cut into 1” x ¼” strips.

Heat a dutch oven over medium and add the bacon, cooking until crispy. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate, and drain the excess grease (save enough to coat the dutch oven).

Up the heat to medium high and brown the chicken in 2 batches, seasoning the meat with salt. If there’s excess grease once all the chicken is browned, drain that.

Remove the chicken and lower the heat to medium. Add the leeks and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, assemble the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf into a cheesecloth bundle, for easier retrieval.

Pour the red wine into the dutch oven, and scrape up anything sticking on the bottom. Add the stock, the chicken and bacon back in, and the herb bundle. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover, cooking for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

 

 

The wine I used

The cheesecloth looks like a gym sock in there, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, for the onions: Blanch for 30 seconds to a minute in boiling water, then remove and take off the skins. Cut off the root and stem ends. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast in a 425°F oven for 20-25 minutes until they have some nice color on them. Flip them about halfway through. Set aside.

For the mushrooms: Clean them off, and roughly chop them. Set a pan over medium high heat and melt 1 tbsp butter. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 8 minutes, seasoning with salt to help draw out excess moisture. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Okay, back to the main dish. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it to a plate. Remove the herb bundle, and the garlic cloves. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce by ½ to ¾. I probably could’ve reduced mine slightly more, but I was hungry.

While the sauce is reducing, cook your egg noodles according to the instructions on the package.

Once the sauce is in a good place, add the chicken back in, along with the onions and mushrooms to warm through.  Serve the coq au vin over the egg noodles, garnish with parsley, and serve with a heel of crusty bread.

French Hot Dogs: Pate a Choux with Boudin Blanc, Sauteed Leeks and Homemade Mustard

Pate a Choux is the versatile French pastry dough usually used to make éclairs. This was my first attempt at making pate a choux, and I ended up kind of screwing it up. I followed Michael Ruhlman’s recipe from Ratio, which calls for 10 to 20 minutes of baking at the end. I took the éclairs/hot dog buns out of the oven at 13 minutes, only to realize they were definitely not cooked through and then they deflated. I put them back in to finish cooking, but they didn’t puff back up like I had hoped.

Pate a Choux:

8 ounces (1 cup) water

4 ounces butter (1 stick)

½ teaspoon salt

4 ounces flour (a scant cup)

4 large eggs (8 oz)

Cut the butter into pieces and add to a pan with water and salt. Bring to a simmer over high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and sift in the flour. Stir, cooking for a minute or two, until the dough forms a singular solid mass.

Remove the dough and place it in a bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until incorporated.

Transfer to a pastry bag and pipe into 4 to 5 inch éclair shaped pieces on a prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350°F and bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes.

Mustard: (from http://honest-food.net/2010/10/18/how-to-make-mustard/)

3 tablespoons mustard seeds

¼ cup mustard powder

1.5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

¼ cup white wine (I used Vermouth)

1 teaspoon salt

Add all ingredients to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Add to a food processor and blend until you reach the desired consistency.

To Finish:

2 large boudin blanc sausages (mine were ~1/3 lb. each)

1 leek, washed and cut into pieces (white and light green parts only)

2 tablespoons butter

Salt

Sautee the leeks in butter over medium heat until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt. Cut the sausages into quarters and cook in a pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Slice open your pate a choux/éclair, and top with sausage, leeks and mustard. 

Duck Roulades with Blackberry Gastrique and Duck Cracklings

Something about duck just screams French to me. I took the roulades from the French Laundry cookbook, and got the gastrique recipe from http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/crispy-duck-with-blackberry-gastrique-recipe.html

I don’t usually cook specifically French food, but I’ve been exposed to various techniques of French cooking when making, say, mac and cheese using a béchamel. Gastrique is something new to me and I thought the flavor was really interesting; it’s like a fruity tasting sweet and sour sauce, and somehow works well with duck.

Roulades (for 1 serving):

1 duck breast

1 large leaf of swiss chard or savoy cabbage

Salt and pepper

Ground allspice

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the chard/cabbage leaf for 3-4 minutes, until tender and remove to an ice water bath to stop cooking. Dry with paper towels. Remove the skin from the duck breast (don’t even think about tossing it – we’ll be rendering fat and making cracklings with it), and season with salt/pepper/allspice.

Lay a large piece of saran wrap lengthwise on a flat surface, and place the chard/cabbage leaf in the center. Roll the duck breast lengthwise (aka hot dog style), and place the breast on the chard/cabbage. Trim the chard so it’s more or less a rectangle, the width of the duck, and wide enough to wrap around the breast once. Wrap the chard around the breast, then wrap the plastic around the chard. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap in opposite directions, so the plastic becomes taught around the chard and helps make a perfect cylinder. Tie the ends of the plastic wrap together, and refrigerate for an hour or two (or more).

When it’s getting to be about dinner time, bring a pot of water to 190°F, and add the roulade (still in the plastic). Be sure to adjust the heat as needed to keep the temp at 190, and cook for 6-7 minutes for medium rare, 7-8 minutes for medium. Remove the roulade and let rest for 2-3 minutes before cutting.

Blackberry Gastrique

½ cup sugar

2 Tbsp water

½ cup Red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Red Wine

2/3 Cup fresh blackberries

2 sprigs thyme

Salt and pepper

Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan over medium heat. Don’t stir the mixture, but rotate the pan around occasionally to evenly cook the mixture until is becomes a blonde caramel color, about 5 minutes Add the red wine vinegar, and cook for 3 minutes longer. Add the red wine, and cook for 2-3 minutes longer, until the mixture starts to become syrupy. Add the blackberries and thyme, and continue to cook until the blackberries start to break down, another few minutes. The sauce should be sort of syrupy when it’s done. Remove the pan from heat, and season with salt and pepper to taste. You can make this ahead and refrigerate the sauce, reheating before serving.

Duck Cracklings:

Remember the skin from the duck breast? Cut it into a few pieces, approximately 1 inch each, and place in a cold pan. Turn the heat to medium, and cook the skin for about 8 minutes, flipping as needed, until crispy. Take a coffee filter and place it in a pyrex measuring cup/other container and pour the rendered fat through. Refrigerate, and use judiciously to make everything awesome.