Coq au vin
At the end of last year I did a wine harmonisation course with the London Wine and Food Academy and can I say ... two hours each Monday night of tasting food and wine is the BEST way to spend a Monday evening. It was pretty much all you can eat and all you can drink food and wine and I learnt a hell of a lot about wine. Harry and Mikhail were both excellent teachers - they had a real passion for wine. They pretty much both lived food and wine. Now that is my kind of career.
Anyway, it wasn't unusual to go home with a bottle full of a mixture of the red wines that we had drank during the class to use as a marinade in cooking. Being a non-red meat eater, one evening I asked Harry what I should cook my red wine with. He told me, coq au vin. I did ... and it's now a big treat in our household. I make loads and loads of it so it lasts for days and it gets better day after day. It's especially good for dipping crusty bread.
Ingredients
Chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 bottle or so, of good quality red wine
250g ( 8oz ) Shallots
250g ( 8oz ) button mushrooms
4 rashers of smoked bacon, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
sunflower oil and equal amount butter, for frying
1 level tablespoon of flour
Bouquet garni:
Celery stalk, 3-4 parsley stalks, sprig of thyme
and a bay leave, tied all together with string.
Method
fry the diced bacon, then add the shallots and fry until light brown
remove from pan and put aside
now fry the mushrooms gently until just going brown
remove from pan and put aside
clean pan and then heat more oil and butter
brown the chicken pieces on all sides,
drain off the fat
add the wine, crushed garlic bringing it to the boil
add the Bouquet garni and season to taste
let it simmer gently for 20 minutes
now add the bacon, shallots and mushrooms and let it simmer gently for another 10-15 minutes
thicken with flour and bring back to the boil, stirring all the time
let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes
I generally serve with mashed potato. Heaven!
Kaylyn's Chicken Curry
I've known Raylyn since high school. Her mum is Chinese and her dad is Australian, so she has managed to pick up some excellent culinary skills. One of my fondest memories of my high school years (among other things) with Ray is making kick @ss pizzas. Whilst back in Australia in Feb Paul and I had dinner at Ray and her husband Todd's place when she cooked up a storm for us. One of them was her mum, Kaylyn's scrummy chicken curries. Below is the recipe for it ... along with some commentary from Ray:
Kaylyn's Chicken CurryIngredients:
- Chicken - cut into bite size pieces (about 500g will feed 4 with leftovers)
- Garlic - finely diced (taste thing I generally put 2 fatcloves, UK garlic is weaker so maybe 3)
- 1 x Onion - quartered
- 3 x Roma Tomatoes - quartered
- 3 x Potatoes - cubes (have them steamed before cooking)
- 1 x Lemon Grass - white part only smash with hard object so it splits
- 3 x Red Chilli - cut in half
- Coconot Cream - 125 ml can (I prefer cream to milk it tastes better and thickens it up)
- Pataks Madras Curry Paste - large heaped teaspoon
How to:Add oil to saucepan, wait until it is hot, add garlic, onion and lemongrass. Cook on low heat add curry paste (this is a taste thing if you like it hot add more) for about 5 mins. You want to be able to smell all the flavours
Turn up and cook chicken. Add Roma tomotoes and potatoes, chillis.
Cover and simmer. This will take about 20 mins or so. Dont worry about the fact that there does not appear to be much liquid in the pan the tomatoes and chicken will release enough liquid.
When ready to eat add the coconut cream. Simmer for a bit and it will thicken up.
Uno
I'm crazy about cooking. It's one of the things that really really relaxes me. At home, when time permits, I can cook all day. There's nothing better than cooking a gourmet meal whilst drinking a glass of wine and listening to some funky music. That to me is a perfect Saturday afternoon. A lot of the things that I cook have a story to them, this is what this blog is going to be all about.
I love watching cooking shows and getting inspiration. I love reading recipe books from cover to cover and trying/adapting the recipes in these books to my palate. Luckily I have a very willing accomplice in my quest for cooking that perfect dish. Paul. I will cook, he will eat. Perfect harmony.
