Respect the Coq!

So I've really been enjoying Chubby Hubby's Singapore-based food blog, and he had a great post about how a lot of foodies tend to thumb their noses at that most generic (at least at a lot of restaurants in the States) of meats: chicken.

Was it Anthony Bourdain who said that chefs see chicken as the menu item for people who don't know what else to order? Anyway, Chubby Hubby gives a rather impassioned defense of chicken and ends it with a lovely recipe for his wife's version of Coq au Vin.

Coq au Vin is one of those daunting, oh-so-French sounding dishes that I've never even ordered, much less tried to make myself--and I really didn't even have any idea what it was supposed to taste like. But I was feeling ambitious and the recipe seemed simple (and made my mouth water just reading it), so I figured what the hey.

It'd be silly for me to copy and paste the whole recipe, so I'll just give the abbreviated version here. Oh, and I roughly halved the original recipe, since I figured 4 drumsticks is kinda sorta equal to 2 thighs (we couldn't find thighs), and I didn't want to end up with too much sauce for two people.

So first you need to chop up an onion and a clove of garlic, and dice a carrot and a few slices of bacon (pancetta would be better, but we live in Taiwan):

Okay, so maybe Mario Batali would mock me
for my uneven dicing, but I did my best.

Then, over medium heat, heat up a little bit of butter and olive oil in a heavy pot, put the bacon in and, after that gets some color, add the carrots, onions and garlic. Let the vegetables soften for five minutes or so, then, using some kind of slotted spoon, move everything in the pot to a bowl. In the oil that's left in the pot, brown the chicken on all sides. (Coq au Vin is normally made with rooster, but where was I going to get a rooster?)


Now turn the heat up, dump your veggies and bacon back in, and pour about half a bottle of Gewurztraminer (a sweet white wine) into the pot. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down and let everything gently simmer for about 25 minutes, flipping the chicken every so often.


When the chicken seems like it's done, fish it out and put it aside for now. Now add about a third of a pint of heavy cream (the recipe calls for double cream, but you can't easily get that in Taiwan or even the States).

Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and sugar (optional) to taste. You'll need a good amount of salt and pepper, and depending on how sweet your wine is, you might want to leave the sugar out altogether. Add some chopped parsley (or dried parsley if you can't get a hold of fresh) and about a quarter pound of regular white mushrooms (cut into quarters). Now just let this sauce reduce and thicken.

Once the sauce is to your liking, just put the chicken back in and let it heat back up. What you end up with is this luxuriously creamy, subtly sweet sauce--and all the veggies and the bacon add different layers of flavor. And the chicken gets nice and tender, and absorbs some of the sweetness from the wine as well. Here's what it looked like on the plate:


Yeah, I know--it doesn't look super-appetizing. But it did taste good, I swear, especially with a nice loaf of French bread to soak up all the extra sauce and a glass of the Gewurztraminer we had left over. I don't know if anyone has suggestions for how to plate this more attractively.

And if I were to make this again, I'd try to cook the bacon a little bit longer than I did at the beginning--rendering more of the fat would have also meant there'd be more oil to brown the chicken in. I kind of flubbed that step. And I do think thighs would be preferable to drumsticks (more meat, less bone).

But anyhow, thanks to Chubby Hubby, it's good to know that you too can eat gourmet French cuisine, without having to go to too much trouble, even on a weeknight.

Another Roasted Chicken Recipe

Quick post: here's another roasted chicken recipe by Jamie Oliver to consider making in lieu of turkey for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of this - surprising considering that we've made this a ton of times - but I swear, this recipe is a guaranteed hit. Everyone we've ever served this to loves it.

A few notes:

*You can find prosciutto at either Jason's (in the basement of 101) or CitySuper (in the basement of the new Sogo on Fuxing).

*If you can't find celeriac, or don't like it, you can substitute it with a couple of large carrots.

*Jamie's recipe says that the 2lb chicken will yield six servings, but I find this a little odd. At most, I think the 2lb chicken may yield three servings - unless you and your five other guests are on diets and want only teeny tiny portions. I would suggest getting a medium sized chicken if you want to feed more to your guests - you don't even need to adjust the proportions of the butter mixture, as it comes out to probably a little more than necessary for the 2lb chicken. This doesn't mean you need to make less of it for the 2lber though: as my husband always says, you can never have too much butter.

*If you have a small oven (does anyone in Taipei actually have a regular oven? Can I be your friend?) that cooks from the top, then you'll probably need to cover the top of the chicken in aluminum foil for the last 10 minutes or so of cooking time. Just keep an eye on it, and if you feel like it's getting too brown on top, cover it up.

Enjoy!

A Very Taipei Thanksgiving

Last year for Thanksgiving Luke and I sat in Dan Ryan's, sadly eating our plate of overcooked turkey and too salty mashed potatoes. And it was just ONE plate. Contrary to popular belief, Thanksgiving is not the celebration of the day our forefathers came together with the Native Americans in giving thanks for their bounty. No, Thanksgiving is a holiday in celebration of gluttony. It is a day where Americans can actually feel good about stuffing themselves until they've swelled to twice their normal size. So, as you can imagine, it was blasphemy to us last year that we would only be served one measly plate (not to mention the ridiculous amount of money we paid for it), but what could we do?

The answer is, this year we are having our own Thanksgiving celebration with some friends. Granted, it won't be quite the same as the way we celebrate in the States, being that our oven is really just a glorified toaster oven, but surely (hopefully?) it'll be better than the way we celebrated last year. At the very least, we'll get seconds!

This week I've decided to dedicate some posts to those of you - here and abroad - who want to try your hand at cooking Thanksgiving dinner, or at least contributing to it. We're actually not making turkey for ours (again, one of the pitfalls of having an EZ Bake oven instead of a real one), and have decided instead to roast some chicken. Here's a simple recipe that I found in one of my favorite cookbooks, How to Cook Without a Book:

The No-Hassle Roast Chicken Dinner

Serves 4 (if you're using a 3 or 3 1/2 lb chicken; our chicken was about 2 1/2 lbs, which was enough for 2 people)

Basically, the secret of this recipe is that you cut out the entire back of the chicken (called butterflying). By using this method, the chicken cooks a lot quicker, and it's also easier to season.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon fine-grated lemon zest
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons minced rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 lemon

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

2. Rinse the chicken, cut out its back, flatten it with your palm or fist, and pat it dry. Then transfer it to a foil-lined roasting tray - make sure it's large enough to hold the chicken (and vegetables, if you're also roasting them along with the chicken) and shallow enough so that the chicken will brown well.

3. Mix above ingredients together in small bowl.

4. With the chicken on the roasting pan, pull back the skin from each leg, thigh and breast, and rub the herb paste under the loosened skin. If you want, you can add some of the mixture on top of the skin as well.

5. Pull the skin back in place and drizzle with a little olive oil, or rub with softened butter. Make sure the chicken skin is completely dry if you're rubbing it with the butter.

6. Roast chicken for 30 minutes. (If you're using a smaller chicken, then you need to adjust your cooking time. I don't know exactly how long we roasted ours for, but just make sure you keep an eye on it.)

7. Squeeze lemon over chicken and return to oven and continue to roast until juices run clear, about 5 - 10 minutes longer.

If you want to roast vegetables along with the chicken, tomatoes and potatoes go well with it. Arrange potatoes (halved, tossed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper) in a single layer in the pan and roast alongside the chicken. After 20 minutes, add tomatoes (halved lengthwise, tossed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper) cut side up. Continue to roast until the chicken is done, squeezing lemon juice on at the appropriate time, for 20 minutes longer.

And ta-da!


This method also makes it super easy to carve - just take some kitchen shears or a chef's knife, and cut down the middle. Then cut the skin holding each leg to the breast, and you're good to go.