Today, I took on an old classic coq au vin. This is a familiar dish to anyone who has ever made french food. An old chicken, preferably says Julia Child, a rooster, is braised in a slightly thick red-wine and aromatic sauce until the chicken is fall off the bone tender. It really is delicious and economical (if you have a 750 ml bottle of Burgundy to spare). I'm sure at some point coq au vin is going to be made. But, today is something a little bit more adventurous. We move just a little bit east from Burgundy into the Rhine valley and Alsace.
Alsace has an interesting history, buffering between the major powers of Germany and France. The region has often traded hands politically and the older Alsatian people speak Alsace, which is influenced by both German and French. The food, as well, takes something from both cultures. In this case, we are doing a classic preparation of coq au vin, but, with a dry Riesling, popular in Germany, and finished with creme fraiche. I have never made this recipe before and am a little concerned that the volume of wine called for in the epicurious recipe is too low, but, I made some modest adjustments and will see what happens.
Alsace has an interesting history, buffering between the major powers of Germany and France. The region has often traded hands politically and the older Alsatian people speak Alsace, which is influenced by both German and French. The food, as well, takes something from both cultures. In this case, we are doing a classic preparation of coq au vin, but, with a dry Riesling, popular in Germany, and finished with creme fraiche. I have never made this recipe before and am a little concerned that the volume of wine called for in the epicurious recipe is too low, but, I made some modest adjustments and will see what happens.
Recipe for Alsatian Coq au Vin
While the bread was in the oven, I took a quick spin over to my local grocery store, which, by the way is really nice, and fairly affordable by high-end American grocery-store standards:
I got all the coq au vin ingriedents home and laid them out. Step one after that was browning the chicken:
Note that I really like to brown the chicken. As we are constantly reminded, the browning process is what creates the fond, which is what creates the whole basis for the flavor of the dish. People are far to scared to brown until the chicken is a deep brown, almost black color. But, don't be scared! If you are cooking at a medium temp, its nearly impossible to burn the meat.
I took care of the aromatics next, and de-glazed the pan with some brandy and then wine. Everything went into a ceramic crock and then into the oven. I'll let you know the results after dinner tonight!
Well, everything came out right on time. I was anticipating the sauce to be a bit thicker with the addition of the crème fraîche--but it was still a bit thin, so i made up a very quick blonde roux and thickened the sauce. The addition of lemon juice and crème fraîche is absolutely critical. The two ingredients work together to give and certain tang to the sauce which plays very nicely with the wine. Cream alone or sour cream could not produce the same effect. I used, only, a 1/4 of a lemon's worth of lemon juice. Next time, I will probably use half of a lemon. All-in-all, very good and cheap when served with boiled potatoes.
When I woke up this morning, the first thing I checked was the no-knead bread dough I started the night before. As I was going to sleep I remembered a stupid measurement-by-weight versus measurement-by-volume problem that often comes up in converting Americn recipes to European measurement conditions that I forgot to take into account. As I suspected, I added too much flour to the bread and the dough had barely risen at all. I was upset until I remembered that Mark Bittman also posted a recipe for quick no-knead-bread. I whipped up another loaf and in 4-hours it was ready to go into the oven.
I baked the dough in a ceramic crock at the highest temp. available on this mini-european oven and the results looked fairly respectable, but, no quite as nice as what I expect back home. The taste test was also a bit disappointing. It was not a bad loaf of bread, but, certainly not as good as what the 18-hour recipe produce.:
I baked the dough in a ceramic crock at the highest temp. available on this mini-european oven and the results looked fairly respectable, but, no quite as nice as what I expect back home. The taste test was also a bit disappointing. It was not a bad loaf of bread, but, certainly not as good as what the 18-hour recipe produce.:
While the bread was in the oven, I took a quick spin over to my local grocery store, which, by the way is really nice, and fairly affordable by high-end American grocery-store standards:I got all the coq au vin ingriedents home and laid them out. Step one after that was browning the chicken:Note that I really like to brown the chicken. As we are constantly reminded, the browning process is what creates the fond, which is what creates the whole basis for the flavor of the dish. People are far to scared to brown until the chicken is a deep brown, almost black color. But, don't be scared! If you are cooking at a medium temp, its nearly impossible to burn the meat.I took care of the aromatics next, and de-glazed the pan with some brandy and then wine. Everything went into a ceramic crock and then into the oven. I'll let you know the results after dinner tonight!
Well, everything came out right on time. I was anticipating the sauce to be a bit thicker with the addition of the crème fraîche--but it was still a bit thin, so i made up a very quick blonde roux and thickened the sauce. The addition of lemon juice and crème fraîche is absolutely critical. The two ingredients work together to give and certain tang to the sauce which plays very nicely with the wine. Cream alone or sour cream could not produce the same effect. I used, only, a 1/4 of a lemon's worth of lemon juice. Next time, I will probably use half of a lemon. All-in-all, very good and cheap when served with boiled potatoes.
1 comment:
small world you and i made coq au vin the same day. M
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