Sunday Dinner: Coq au Vin

When I was a kid, I thought this was called COCOA VAN.

Then when I took French in school, I figured out, though it was pronounced almost the same as "coco-van", it only meant "chicken with wine".
I never was voted valedictorian.



On a more serious note, this is a very serious dish.

This old school French bistro dish can be a 3 day affair if you do it the traditional French way, as Anne Willan at LaVarenne Cooking School would have you do.

She marinates the chicken for up to 3 days in a bottle of Beaujolais with all the other lovely ingredients. Who plans 3 days ahead? I wanted something easier (sorry Anne, I do love you, but......).

I found this simple version on Simply Recipes and mixed it in with the real French version from The Country Cooking of France by Ms. Willan, and I was very pleased with the results.

Another debate about coq au vin is whether to serve it over buttered noodles or not.

This is not typically the French way. When I consulted 3 of my French cookbooks, no one gives a mention to the silky, delicious, buttered egg noodle. Most bistros in Paris serve it with parsleyed potatoes or a frisee salad, but I say go ahead and serve them over the noodles, it makes the dish irresistible and after all, we are not in France.



Delicious Coq au Vin ("Cocoa Van!!"):

I recommend having all of your ingredients ready to go, including having the wine opened! Mise en place! It makes life easier.

You will need:
~ a small skillet for sauteing the mushrooms & onions.
~ a large Dutch oven (enough to hold about 8 chicken legs, about a 7 qt)
~ a 12" lidded, handled skillet or casserole dish to finish the dish
~ a platter to hold the cooked bacon and chicken when you remove it from the sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bacon slices
5-6 lbs chicken thighs and legs, excess fat trimmed, skin ON
5 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
kosher salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken stock
750ml bottle of good red wine (Pinot noir, Burgundy, or Beaujolais)
2 bay leaves
Several fresh thyme sprigs
1 tbsp flour

Garnish:

1/2 lb button mushrooms, sliced
20 pearl onions, blanched and peeled (a big pain, so buy the frozen ones, no one will notice)
2 Tbsp butter
Chopped fresh parsley
buttered egg noodles

The original recipe has you blanch the bacon or lardons to remove saltiness, but I skipped this step and went right for browning it.

Brown bacon on medium high heat in a large Dutch oven big enough to hold the chicken, about 10 minutes. Remove the cooked bacon, set aside.

Keep the bacon fat in the pan. Working in batches, brown the chicken on both sides, about 10 minutes, seasoning the chicken w/ salt & pepper during the browning process.

Spoon off any excess fat. Add the chicken stock, red wine, herbs and the bacon back into the pot. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook the chicken for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove chicken to a separate platter.

Boil the sauce quickly and reduce the liquid by three fourths until it becomes thick and saucy. This will take about 10 minutes. I added a tablespoon of flour to my sauce at the last minute and whisked it so it got nice and thick.

While the sauce is reducing, cook the mushrooms and pearl onions in 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet, about 5 minutes, until mushrooms are golden. The smell of mushrooms cooking in butter is amazing.



In a separate, clean large 12" lidded skillet or casserole, place your cooked chicken pieces along with the sauteed pearl onions and mushrooms on the bottom of the pan.



Have a strong person carefully lift up the Dutch oven and strain the sauce over the chicken in the skillet to discard the herbs, garlic, remaining skin bits and bacon (you can save some of the bacon pieces if you want to eat them in the stew, but there is a lot of bacon flavor in the dish).



Now you are ready to cover the casserole and place in the fridge for a day or so, this is even better than the day you prepare it, but of course you can eat it right away.

When you are ready to serve the dish, bring the casserole to a simmer, so the chicken and sauce flavors come together. Serve 2 pieces of chicken per person.

Serve over buttered noodles spooning the delicious sauce over the chicken. Add fresh chopped parsley and you are ready to go.

Voila! My Sunday work is done!



Bon Appetit!

East 62nd St. Lemon Cake

This 40 year old recipe gets its name from Maida Heatter's daughter and was published in the 1960's by Craig Claiborne in the New York Times.....Saveur republished it and I am glad they did.

It seems like everyone loves a lemon dessert. How come I didn't know this? I thought everyone loved chocolate. Recently, when I asked some of my friends what their favorite cake was, they all replied lemon! You think you know somebody!

I liked this cake even better than Ina's famous lemon buttermilk cake. It was simple and lovely with the lemon glaze on top. I was so tempted to put chopped fresh rosemary inside, but since no one mentioned loving a rosemary dessert, I held back.



East 62nd St. Lemon Cake (adapted from Saveur):

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
Finely grated zest of 2 large lemons

FOR THE GLAZE:
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar

Butter a 12 cup bundt or ring pan and then dust it all lightly with fine, dry bread crumbs. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula. (The mixture might look curdled—it's okay.) On lowest speed, add the dry ingredients alternately in three additions, with the milk in two additions, beating only until incorporated after each addition.

Stir in the lemon zest. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350F until a cake tester (my cake was ready in 50 minutes) comes out clean. Let the cake stand in the pan for 5 minutes and then cover with a rack and invert.



Lift pan from cake, leaving the cake upside down. Place rack over a large piece of foil or wax paper and prepare the glaze.

To make the glaze, mix the lemon juice with the sugar and brush all over the hot cake. The cake will absorb it. Let cool completely and then transfer to a cake plate. It is best to wait a few hours before cutting the cake.



This is sweet & tart. Pucker up and enjoy!

Creative Crostini (but I don't expect you to make these)

Though I know you'll never make these, I have to tell you, these were the bomb.

By Bomb I mean fabulous, not a bomb, like seeing a lousy play on Broadway.

This was part of my New Year's plan to not waste food anymore.
No throwing away vegetables that are past their prime in the fridge, no tossing leftovers. Only buy what we need, eat what I cook, and be more creative with leftovers.

I had fresh sage that was about 2 days away from the garbage, leftover roasted sweet potatoes from last night's chicken dish and a 3 day old bowl of caramelized onions (how lucky!).
I don't expect you to have any of these items in your fridge, so I am just showing off.



I toasted some leftover bread to make crostini. I spread some fig jam, a leftover sweet potato cube, a dollop of caramelized onions and a fried sage leaf on top of each slice.



We opened a bottle of nice wine and had a delicious first course!

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Spiced Chipotle Chicken Breasts w/ Sweet Potatoes

Remember that yummy chocolate chip loaf cake from a few weeks ago?
Well this recipe comes from the same book: In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite by New York Times food writer Melissa Clark.

Ok, I am liking this book a lot.



Melissa is the one responsible for that blogging sensation "Roasted Shrimp w/ Broccoli" recipe from the NYT that every food blogger has made. She is also responsible for making my life easier on a busy day when there was no time to prepare dinner.

This is not only healthy, but takes less than one hour to put dinner on the table (you can marinate the chicken in the a.m.)

If you are not a spicy hot lover, then this dish may not be for you, but you can certainly cut down the amount of chilis to 2 instead of 4.
It really cleared my sinuses!



Spiced Chipotle Chicken Breasts w/ Sweet Potatoes:

4 sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces (I left the skins on)
3 tbsp olive oil
4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced (use less if you don't like HEAT)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp cider vinegar
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus additional to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
chopped cilantro for garnish

In a small bowl, stir together the 1 tbsp olive oil, chipotles, garlic, honey, vinegar, salt, cumin, and cinnamon to make a paste.

Place the chicken into a ziploc bag and pour the chipotle mixture into it. Squish the paste and the chicken so that the chicken is fully coated. Squeeze most of the air out of the bag and chill for a few hours and allow the flavors to develop and penetrate.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Toss the sweet potatoes in 2 tbsp olive oil & kosher salt and scatter on the bottom of a roasting pan. Roast for about 20 minutes.

Place the chicken on top of the potatoes and continue to roast until the chicken is just cooked through. About 25-30 minutes additionally. Serve garnished with cilantro.

This was sweet, spicy HOT and smoky delicious. It was even great for lunch the next day.



Enjoy!

5 Minute Black Bean Soup

My husband had oral surgery last week and was only allowed to eat soft foods for a few days.
He was getting bored with yogurt, applesauce and clear broth. I needed a hearty soup with some substance.

This was the easiest thing and I think I will make it again, even if he doesn't need any teeth pulled! If you have a can of black beans and a can of diced tomatoes, you are in business.

This recipe is from my college days and based on a recipe from Real Simple magazine. You took a can of black beans and pureed it in a blender with some spicy Mexican salsa from a jar. Heat it and you had a really decent black bean soup in a minute. The fresh cilantro and sour cream on top made it extra good.

I couldn't make this one too spicy (because the post surgery instruction sheet said NO SPICY FOODS!), but feel free to add some chili powder if you are not planning to be in the dentist's chair any time soon.

5 Minute Black Bean Soup:

19 oz. can of black beans (with liquid)
14 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes (or Ro-Tel if you want some heat)
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp cumin

garnish:
small can of corn (or a cup of frozen corn)
chopped fresh cilantro or green onions

In a saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil for a minute or two. Add the cumin and stir.

Pour the beans with liquid, diced tomatoes and anything else you think might make this taste good into the pot. Simmer a few minutes to blend flavors.

With an immersion blender, blend the solids to make a nice brown puree. Be careful when you are blending hot liquids, they can splatter.

Now add the corn and heat the soup for a minute. Sometimes I put a dollop of Trader Joe's corn chile salsa in the middle!
Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve. No one will ever know this took 5 minutes to make.



Your dentist will thank you.

What's for Lunch? Double Bean Salad w/ Tuna

Once again, here is a great salad using those little white beans from a can, habichuelas blancas and some amazing quality tuna from a can.

I recently had the opportunity to try Wild Planet Tuna. A sustainably caught wild tuna. It had a wonderful texture and flavor and is the highest in omega 3 good fats (3460 mg per can!) and the lowest in mercury content of all the canned tuna out there.

You can find it at Whole Foods.



I made a great easy salad with Wild Planet.
You can add olives or tomatoes, but since tomatoes are not in season here, I used roasted red peppers instead.

I like having this salad waiting in the fridge for me, it forces me to eat a healthy lunch.

Double Bean Salad with Tuna:

1 lb. green beans, cut in half on the diagonal
1 roasted red pepper (from a jar is fine), cut into pieces
1/4 red onion, diced
1 14oz. can of small white beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of Wild Planet tuna
3 tbsp of vinegar (any flavor is fine, I used cider vinegar this time)
6 tbsp olive oil
sea salt & pepper
fresh chopped parsley

Cook the green beans in boiling water for 4 minutes until al dente. Drain and run under cold water to keep the nice bright green color and stop the cooking process.

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Toss with oil and vinegar and serve with fresh parsley on top.

Eat & stay healthy!

Frankies' Meatballs & Sauce. No Pasta Needed

I have mentioned Frankies' Spuntino in NYC quite a bit on this blog.
Their food is just fantastic, as is their house brand olive oil and their fun book Frankies' Spuntino Handbook.

For Sunday dinner, I decided to try their 4 hour tomato sauce and their Sicilian style meatballs, both recipes not being your average meatballs and sauce. They don't serve them over spaghetti in the restaurant, it's just a lovely bowl of delicious sauce w/ 3 succulent meatballs looking up at you.

Pasta is not needed (and when do I say that?).

The sauce uses 13 whole cloves of garlic, which is a strange number and a bit unconventional. It uses 4 cans of tomatoes, olive oil, some red pepper flakes and sea salt.

It's so basic, you think how can this be the best sauce? Well it is.

It's the 4 hours that cooks down the San Marzano tomatoes releasing their natural sugar to make this sauce rich and delicious.

The meatballs are a bit wacky, using 4 eggs, raisins & pine nuts, and rustic bread dipped in water. Not your typical meatball, that's for sure.

We loved them both, and they were as good as if we had ordered them at Frankies' restaurant.

So if you have 4 hours on a Sunday, make this comforting meal.



Frankies' (there are 2 guys named Frank) Meatballs: (makes about 20 golf ball sized meatballs).
You can watch their meatball making video here, and yes, I think they both need a haircut.

2 lbs. ground beef
4 slices of bread (rustic white or an Italian white bread)
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs
1/4 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 cup of golden raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
15 turns of white pepper (weird number)
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup of dried breadcrumbs

Dip the bread in water for a few seconds in a bowl, then drain the water and wring out the moisture from the bread. Tear into tiny pieces and add to a large bowl.

To the bread, add all of the ingredients, except for the dried breadcrumbs (which you will add in last).

Using your hands, combine all the ingredients together. I made golf ball size meatballs, though the recipe calls for "handball" sized. What is that? Not sure. I don't play handball (or golf for that matter).



Lay out your meatballs on 2 rimmed baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes in a 325F oven. The meatballs can now be refrigerated for a later date or used with the sauce. Recipe to follow.



Frankies' Tomato Sauce:

Four 28oz. cans of San Marzano whole tomatoes
1 cup of olive oil
13 (another weird number) whole cloves garlic
2 tsp sea salt
pinch of hot red pepper flakes



On low heat, cook the 13 whole cloves of garlic in the olive oil and let them turn golden and fragrant for about 10 minutes. If they are getting too brown and acrid smelling, take the pot off the heat immediately, you don't want to burn the garlic.
Add the pinch of red pepper flakes the last 30 seconds of cooking to flavor the oil.

While the garlic is cooking get the tomatoes ready.
In a large bowl, using your hands, crush the tomatoes and remove the basil leaves (that sometimes come in the can).

Add the tomatoes and salt to the garlic and oil and simmer for 4 hours on a nice steady low heat, stirring or "mothering" the sauce, as the Franks say. Taste at the end for seasoning.

When you are ready to serve the meatballs, drop as many meatballs as needed (3 per person) into the sauce and simmer for 30 minutes, no more, so the meatballs take on some of the wonderful tomato flavor.



I swear, no pasta is needed, but if you feel you can't break tradition, and have to serve this over spaghetti, that would be ok too!

Enjoy!

Coconut Blondies (more like "Bimbos")

Talk about decadent.

These are not your average blondies (and I am not your average brunette).
These should be called "Bimbos" instead of Blondies.

The addition of coconut and chopped pecans take these cookie bars to a new level.

If you can spare the calories (and really, who can?), then I suggest you try these this weekend, what else are you doing when it's 20F degrees outside, but cook, bake and EAT!



Decadent Blondies (adapted from Cooks Illustrated): more like Bimbos, than Blondies......

1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chopped pecans
6 oz. chocolate pieces
1 1/2 cups coconut (I used less, but you decide)

Mix first four ingredients into a bowl to combine, and then gradually add in the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate, nuts and coconut.
It's that easy.



Spread the dough out in a greased or parchment lined 9 x 13 baking dish.
Bake in a 350F oven for 22-25 minutes. Start checking them at about 20 minutes, you want them to be a little bit soft. Remove immediately and let cool on a rack before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

A Salad for All Seasons: Arugula & Parmesan

This is the most simplest of salads.

It is from Ina's older book (yes, I am on a first name basis with her by now,) Barefoot Contessa Family Style.

It's a great salad during the summer when the bright sunny flavors of citrus and peppery arugula taste refreshing and actually feel cool. I mound it on top of grilled chicken and I feel the pounds melting off.

But it's also my favorite winter salad, because I can always get good fresh baby arugula in a bag and lemons are best in the winter months, so it feels healthy and fresh when you want something bright and green.

It also goes with almost any main dish. I love it before a tomato based pasta dish the best.

Use the best Parimigiano Reggiano cheese that you can buy and the best quality olive oil and you are in business.

Arugula & Parmesan Salad (adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style):
I cut this recipe in half when it is just the 2 of us.

1/2 lb. fresh arugula (3 large bunches), washed & dried
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
black pepper
1/4 lb. chunk of good quality Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Whisk dressing ingredients together, not including the cheese. It will emulsify and get nice and thick.



Place your cleaned and dried arugula leaves on a platter and drizzle the dressing over the greens.

With a vegetable peeler, slice off pieces of the cheese and lay on top of the salad.
Serve immediately.

Broccoli & Sundried Tomato Bread

This was a pleasant surprise.

I always seem to have leftover broccoli from my weekly steamed broccoli.
I've made the broccoli bites, broccoli quiche, broccoli salad and now was looking for another way to use the leftover green cruciferous vegetable.

I had an old box of Jiffy cornbread mix in the way back of the cupboard, and remembered a broccoli cornbread recipe from way back in the celery & cream cheese era that used frozen broccoli and cottage cheese.

I updated this old fashioned recipe to create the BEST use of leftover broccoli to date.

This came out so delicious. I could eat a slice with chili, for breakfast, a snack, lunch with a salad or just for no reason at all. And I did.



Broccoli & Sundried Tomato Cornbread:

1 package of Jiffy cornbread mix
4 eggs
half stick (4 tbsp) melted butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup sundried or oven dried tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups of fresh steamed broccoli florets, chopped (10 oz. frozen chopped broccoli can be substituted)
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.



Butter and grease a loaf pan (or line with parchment paper....easier), and spoon batter into pan.

Bake 40 minutes at 400F. I served this warm, but it was also fantastic the next day and the next. I hope you try it.



Guaranteed or your money back.