When I got the call that my parents were coming for a visit my first question was how long can you stay and my second was what are we going to cook.
My mom is one of the best cooks I know but she is also easy breezy. A loaf of bread, a block of cheese and some wine would've been just fine...you knew I had to get it from somewhere.
Anyway, I made the executive decision ~
we were going ALL OUT!
At my diamond in the rough bookstore
My mom and I were going to slay the Coq Au Vin dragon!
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| We smeared a couple sauce prints on the page in tribute. |
From the Kitchen of Julia Child
Servings: 4-6
Difficulty: Moderate
Cook Time: 30-60 min
Legendary chef Julia Child appeared on "Good Morning America" on
May 11, 1995, with her Ragout of Chicken and Coq a Vin recipes.
Coq au Vin is chicken in red wine with small braised onions,
mushrooms, and lardons of pork - an elaboration on the far more
elementary preceding ragout, coq au vin involves more hand work
since you have lardons of bacon to prepare for the special flavor
they give to the sauce. Then there is the traditional garnish of
small braised onions and sautéed mushrooms. This combination
makes a wonderfully satisfying dish, and a fine one for company.
Ingredients
1/2 cup lardons (4 ounces -- 1-by-1/4-inch strips of blanched
slab bacon or salt pork - see Special Note below)
2 1/2 to 3 pounds frying chicken parts
2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. olive oil (or good cooking oil)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 or 2 large cloves of garlic, pureed
1 imported bay leaf {Imported? It's one teenie leaf!}
1/4 tsp or so thyme
1 large ripe red unpeeled tomato, chopped, (or 1/3 cup canned
Italian plum tomatoes)
3 cups young red wine (Zinfandel, Macon or Chianti type)
1 cup chicken stock (or more)
Beurre manie, for the sauce (1 1/2 tbs. each flour softened butter blended to a paste)
{This wasn't in our book. We just put a shit load of butter in there. It became an in honor of Julia drinking game. Take a sip, add a pad...it worked for us.}
Fresh parsley sprigs (or chopped parsley)
1/3 cup good brandy (optional) {Pssht}
12 to 16 small brown-braised white onions
3 cups fresh mushrooms, trimmed, quartered and sautéed
Directions
Browning and simmering the chicken. Before browning the chicken,
sauté the blanched bacon or salt pork and remove to a side dish,
leaving the fat in the pan. Brown the chicken in the pork fat,
adding a little olive oil, if needed. Flame the chicken with the
brandy, if you wish -- it does give its own special flavor,
besides being fun to do.
{The one bottle of wine down, Julia Child possessed Carissa said "Hellz yes!" followed by a fist pump. Mom said no while mumbling something about my place being a rental, wooden cabinets, a pot full of booze and an open flame. In hindsight I should've hid the charred oven mitt laying next to the stove top that she couldn't take her eyes off of.}
Then proceed to simmer the chicken in
the wine, stock, tomatoes and seasoning as directed in the master
recipe.
Finishing the dish. Strain, degrease, and finish the sauce, also
as described. Strew the braised onions and sautéed mushrooms over
the chicken, baste with the sauce, and simmer a few minutes,
basting, to rewarm the chicken and to blend flavors.
Special note: To blanch bacon or salt pork: When you use bacon or
salt pork in cooking, you want to remove its salt as well as its
smoky flavor, which would permeate the rest of the food. To do
so, you blanch it -- meaning, you drop it into a saucepan of cold
water to cover it by 2 to 3 inches, bring it to the boil, and
simmer 5 to 8 minutes; the drain, refresh in cold water, and pat
dry in paper towels.
{We skipped this step. We <3 bacon in all of it's salty & smoky glory! Plus everything but the kitchen sink is in here I can't imagine how on Earth a half a cup of bacon would "permeate" the rest of the food...then again I have to beg mercy from the Kitchen Goddess on a regular basis so who am I to question the master?}
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| Mom's stamp of approval |
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Me blowing on the spoon just to reenact the moment since in truth I shoved the spoon in my mouth so fast that I scalded my tongue and dribbled sauce down the front of my shirt!
It's written all over my face...now you see it.
(of course my mom caught that shot but it will be buried in her memory card forever) |
When the house smelled so good we couldn't take it anymore we sat down to an incredible dinner family style. The records were spinning, the wine was flowing and memories were made...
I love you mom & dad!
