Coq au Vin

Coq au Vin can seem a little passé these days. It is a dish that reminds most of us of the 1970’s along with prawn cocktail, Spaghetti Bolognese and trifle. However, I think Coq au Vin makes a wonderfully warming dish. It is hearty and delicious to eat with family or a group of friends.

Traditionally the dish was made with older chicken birds, the ones known as old boilers. If you can’t source an older chicken then a good free range chicken will work just as well. I buy the chicken whole and then cut up the bird into four large portions. All good butchers will do this for you if you need a little help. You can then roast off the main carcass and use it to make a stock.

For complete authenticity and especially if using an older bird, marinade the chicken for 24 hrs in the red wine. Only use a wine you would be happy to drink. When cooked the sauce should be thick, dark and glossy. Originally it would have been thickened with chicken blood! But don't worry, I don't advocate using this particular ingredient. These days the sauce is just well reduced then thickened with “beurre manie”.

INGREDIENTS
Serves four

One good free range chicken apx 3lb cut into four or eight portions

One fat clove of garlic thinly sliced

Good sprig each of thyme and parsley plus parsley to garnish

1 Celery stick

125 gm unsmoked bacon lardons
12 shallots (cut in half)

20 button mushrooms

Bottle of red wine

3 tbs Cognac

100ml good chicken stock

METHOD

Marinade your chicken in the wine overnight in the fridge (or for at least 6 hours).

Using an oven proof casserole, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Let the butter foam but not burn and then add the shallots and fry for about three minutes until they start to colour. Add the bacon lardons and continue to cook over a medium heat until the bacon begins to brown. Then add the garlic and cook for three or four minutes more. Don’t let the garlic colour, merely melt. Remove the vegetables and bacon from the pan, leaving the fats behind, and keep on one side.

Dry your chicken pieces with kitchen paper, turn up the heat under the pan to get the fats really hot and then pieces of chicken, skin side down and fry them without moving them for about four minutes. This will allow the chicken pieces to take on a good colour.

After about four minutes when the chicken pieces are golden, turn them over and cook for about another three minutes, remove from the pan and repeat the process until all of your chicken has been sealed and browned.

Put all the ingredients back in the casserole and turn the heat down. Have a box of matches ready, tip in the cognac, lean back away from the pan and hold a lighted match quickly a couple of inches over the bubbling liquid. It will ignite! When the flames have died down you will be left with essence of cognac without the bitter alcohol.

Season the chicken with a little salt and black pepper and add the red wine (reserving two small glasses) fairly slowly so that a simmer is maintained. Tie the herbs in the celery stick to make a bouquet garni. Then add the herbs and chicken stock, cover the casserole and transfer to a slow oven 150˚C for 1 hour.

After one hour check the chicken – take a skewer or small sharp knife and poke the thigh pieces. If the meat is separating from the bone easily, it is ready.

Whilst the coq is cooking, prepare the beurre manie for thickening the sauce. This is merely two teaspoons of butter and two teaspoons of flour mixed together until amalgamated. Keep in the fridge until needed later.

Also at this stage you could prepare the mushrooms. Clean them with a damp cloth, and add them to a mixture of two teaspoons of butter and half a glass of the reserved wine brought to a simmer in a small pan. Season with some salt and black pepper, cover and cook gently for twenty minutes giving the pan a little shake every now and then, draw them off the heat and keep till later.

When you are happy that the chicken cooked, carefully lift it out of the casserole, cover and keep warm. Remove the bouquet garni. Add any liquid from the mushrooms and then boil hard until reduced by two thirds. Taste the sauce for seasoning and then whisk in the beurre manie in small pieces a little at a time until you have the sauce as thick as you like.

Add in the chicken and mushrooms to reheat and serve the Coq au Vin, surrounded by the mushrooms and ladle the sauce over. This dish is delicious served with new boiled potatoes or mash and some seasonal vegetables.

Asparagus and chicken risotto

There is nothing quite like our wonderful British asparagus, it is delicious. It is roughly available from May through to June, which is a very short season. One of my favourite ways of cooking with asparagus is to use it in a risotto. You can make a vegetarian version with asparagus, adding some mint and lemon just before serving. I like to make an asparagus risotto served with chicken. Needless to say both versions are served with lots of grated Parmesan. A glass of Sauvignon also works well with this dish.

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 6 as a main course)

1 litre/1¾ pints vegetable or chicken stock

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 chicken breasts, chopped into pieces

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

600g/1lb 6oz risotto rice

250ml/9fl oz vermouth or dry white wine

2 bunches of asparagus, woody ends removed and discarded

1-2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus a block for grating

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

1. Bring your stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Put 1-2 tbspns olive oil in a separate pan and cook your chicken pieces. Season well with salt and pepper. Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pan and put to one side.

2. In a clean pan add 1-2 tbspns olive oil and a little butter. Add the chopped onions and cook very gently for 15 minutes until soft, taking care not to let the onions brown. Once the onions are soft add the chopped garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Next add the rice (it will sizzle) and turn up the heat. Try not to let the rice mixture catch on the bottom of the pan, so keep stirring.

3. Quickly pour in the vermouth or wine. You will smell the alcohol immediately, so keep stirring all the time until it has evaporated, leaving the rice with a lovely perfume.

4. Add the stock to the rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next. Turn the heat down to low so the rice does not cook too quickly, otherwise the outside of each grain will be stodgy and the inside hard and nutty. Add the chopped asparagus and allow it to cook with the rice in the stock. Continue to add ladlefuls of stock until it has all be absorbed. Keep stirring the risotto through out this process (for about 15 minutes).

5. Add the chicken pieces back to the pot and continue to cook the rice until soft (al dente) for approximately another 5 minutes. The risotto should hold its shape but be soft, creamy and oozy, and the overall texture should be slightly looser than you think you want it.

6. Turn off the heat. If you want a rich risotto add a knob of butter and stir in, then add a handful of Parmesan to the pot. Alternatively leave the mixture as it is for a less rich version. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Put a lid on the pan and leave the risotto to rest for a minute. Serve with some grated Parmesan on the table.