Julia Child's Coq au Vin

About a month ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a fantastic movie entitled "Julie and Julia".  This movie was based on the lives of JuliaChild and a blogger, Julie Powell, that took on the project of making EVERY recipe from the Julia Child's cook book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", 565 recipes in 365 days.  Who-o-o!  Even I need to take a day off now and again.  The movie was very witty, insightful, and for a fellow foodie, extremely inspirational.  I dare to say that it was absolutely yummy!  The two women made me proud to be a foodie, and validated my own journey with food.  Who better to understand a foodie then another foodie?  It also gave me a much better picture of who Julia Child really was and why she became such an important American icon.  She was well traveled, intelligent, charming, and oh so funny.  She had a great outlook not only on cooking but on life itself, and I admire her perserverance.  Fellow Blogger, Julie Powell was also funny and showed great perseverance as well.  I myself look at the many dishes that Julie tried to create from the cook book and would not have even bothered.  But she was on a mission.  As for aspics, enough horrible things cannot be said about them.  I am pretty confident that I would have skipped that chapter all together, but not Julie.

Growing up I remember Julia Child as this hugely tall lady who performed a cooking show on t.v.  She seemed to me to have a strangely pitched voice, but appeared to have a great sense of humor, especially in the kitchen.  I loved Dan Akeroids imitation of her on Saturday Night Live, but that was about the extent of my knowledge of Julia Child.  My mother never used cook books, and she rarely if ever watched cooking shows on t.v.  The t.v. was reserved for her novellas (soap operas), and who could teach a pro (my mom) what she needed to know about cooking Puerto Rican food anyway?

 

I must tell you that in order to view this movie, please make sure that you do it on a full tummy.  If nothing else, it is sure to make you crave French Food, or at the very least, food in general.  After viewing the movie I had this strong desire to go home immediately and start cooking and baking.  Unfortunately it was about 10:00 p.m. in the evening and it was hotter than hot here in Sacramento so this was completely out of the question.  Oh dreadt!  What to do, what to do?!  I had to wait.  Unfortunately, patience is certainly not one of my virtues.

While I admit that I knew Julia Child had wrtitten cook books, I had never seen any of them.  Nevertheless, ever since I saw the movie I have wanted to delve into Julia Child's first cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", but can't seem to find a copy on the shelves at the library and I am on a waiting list and am about 100th in line for my request of said book.  My strict policy is that I never purchase a cook book unless I have viewed it from the library first or gotten personal receommendations of it from family or friends.  No sense in purchasing a cook book one will never use.  God forbid! 

The two recipes from the movie that stood out for me were:  Coq au Vin, and the other is Boeuf Burginguon.  At the time it was too hot in Sacramento to even consider making those dishes, so I decided to wait until the weather cooled off a bit.  Today is quite pleasant and I am settling in to my fall stews, soups, and roasting.  Nothing says cozy and home than the succulent aromas of a nice roast, roasting in the oven or a stew or soup simmering on the stove.  Those are the fond memories that I have of my childhood home, and I want to recreate that for my family.

As I was researching information on this dish I happened upon a bit of history on it.  I discovered that the word coq literally translated means rooster in French.  So this recipe is rooster in wine?  This dish was originally considered peasant food because the farmers would take a rooster that was too old to do much of anything else on the farm and cook it.  In the old days they would use whatever was on hand, you know the old addage of making due with what you have?  Because the rooster was old, chances are that the meat would be very tough, therefore they would cook it long and slow in wine and herbs to help make it nice and tender, not to mask its flavor.  The red wine in the recipe was used mainly to allow the acids to help break down the old meat of the rooster.  Since I couldn't find a rooster, of course I really didn't try looking, I used some organic free range chicken parts.

I must admit that 3/4 of the way through this recipe I had my doubts that this recipe was worth its lengthy and drawn out effort.  I will say that I felt great admiration for Julia Child because I knew in her day that each of the steps she requires in the recipe were an absolute must, as they did not have the advantage of frozen pearl onions (already peeled), There was no air conditioning, or microwaves, etc.  She laboriously worked at each dish she created and her only reward was her husband's fond remarks.  Making this dish helped me to feel one with Julia, even if just for a moment. 

Once we tasted that tender, succulent and heady flavor I knew it was worth every step.  From the braised onions to the sauteed mushrooms.  Fortunately I did not have to kill the rooster or even have to cut a whole chicken into parts.  The sauce was thick, and rich, and the chicken just melted in your mouth.  Even my husband who is not much of an onion person loved the braised pearl onions.  The mushrooms were absolutely perfect!  The meat, the mushrooms, the onions and the sauce just skated across the entire surface of our tongues teasing each and every taste buds and delighting them!!  The coq au vin went very nicely served over Tinkyada fettucine noodles.  Traditionally it is served over egg wide noodles and I am as of yet still on the search for the perfect tasting and textured gluten-free egg wide noodles.  I also slightly altered this recipe to make it gluten-free by using the Featherlight flour mix in place of the all purpose flour called for in the recipe.  Mixing it with the butter to make a paste worked out exquisitely.  No lumps in this sauce!  I also had the benefit of using a store bought chicken broth, rather than having had to make it from scratch.  And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that as a Puerto Rican I had to add more garlic to this recipe, a whole lot more.  But you can be the judge of how much garlic you want to go into this dish!  As always have fun and let your creativity guide you.

Julia Child's Coq au Vin

From the kitchen of Julia Child
Servings: 4
Difficulty: Moderate
Cook Time: 30-60 min
Legendary chef Julia Child appeared on "Good Morning America" on May 11, 1995, with her Ragout of Chicken and Coq au Vin recipes.
Coq au Vin is chicken in red wine with small braised onions, mushrooms, and lardons of pork - an elaboration on the far more elementary preceding ragout, coq au vin involves more hand work since you have lardons of bacon to prepare for the special flavor they give to the sauce. Then there is the traditional garnish of small braised onions and sautéed mushrooms. This combination makes a wonderfully satisfying dish, and a fine one for company.

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup lardons (4 ounces -- 1-by-1/4-inch strips of blanched slab bacon or salt pork - see Special Note below)
• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds frying chicken parts
• 2 tbs. butter
• 1 tbs. olive oil (or good cooking oil)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 or 2 large cloves of garlic, pureed
• 1 imported bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp or so thyme
• 1 large ripe red unpeeled tomato, chopped, (or 1/3 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes)
• 3 cups young red wine (Zinfandel, Macon or Chianti type)
• 1 cup chicken stock (or more)
• Beurre manie, for the sauce (1 1/2 tbs. each Featherlight flour mix softened butter blended to a paste)
• Fresh parsley sprigs (or chopped parsley)
• 1/3 cup good brandy (optional)
• 12 to 16 small brown-braised white onions
• 3 cups fresh mushrooms, trimmed, quartered and sautéed

Cooking Directions

Before browning the chicken, sauté the blanched bacon or salt pork and remove to a side dish, leaving the fat in the pan. Brown the chicken in the pork fat, adding a little olive oil, if needed. Flame the chicken with the brandy, if you wish -- it does give its own special flavor, besides being fun to do. After browning the chicken, uncover pan, pour in the cognac. Flambé by igniting with a lighted match. Let flame a minute, swirling pan by its handle to burn off alcohol; extinguish with pan cover. Then proceed to simmer the chicken in the wine, stock, tomatoes and seasoning as directed in the master recipe.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the Brown-Braised Onions and the Mushrooms.

Brown-Braised Onions:

12 to 24 small white onions, peeled (or double the amount if you want to use tiny frozen peeled raw onions)*

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

* If neither frozen nor fresh pearl onions are available, substitute one large onion cut into 1/2-inch pieces. (Do not use jarred pearl onions, which will turn mushy and disintegrate into the sauce.)
If peeling your own pearl onions drop onions into boiling water, bring water back to the boil, and let boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and drain. Cool onions in ice water. Shave off the two ends (root and stem ends) of each onion, peel carefully, and pierce a deep cross in the root end with a small knife (to keep onions whole during cooking).

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil, add parboiled onions, and toss for several minutes until lightly browned (this will be a patchy brown). Add water to halfway up onions and add 1/4 to1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover pan and simmer slowly for 25 to 30 minutes or until onions are tender when pierce with a knife.

NOTE: Onions may be cooked in advance, set aside, then reheated when needed. Season to taste just before serving.

Mushrooms:
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, washed, well dried, left whole if small, sliced or quartered if large

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Prepare mushrooms. In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat butter and olive oil; when bubbling hot, toss in mushrooms and saute over high heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from heat.

NOTE: Mushrooms may be cooked in advance, set aside, then reheated when needed. Season to taste just before serving.

Finishing the dish. Strain, degrease, and finish the sauce, also as described. Strew the braised onions and sautéed mushrooms over the chicken, baste with the sauce, and simmer a few minutes, basting, to rewarm the chicken and to blend flavors.

Special note: To blanch bacon or salt pork: When you use bacon or salt pork in cooking, you want to remove its salt as well as its smoky flavor, which would permeate the rest of the food. To do so, you blanch it -- meaning, you drop it into a saucepan of cold water to cover it by 2 to 3 inches, bring it to the boil, and simmer 5 to 8 minutes; the drain, refresh in cold water, and pat dry in paper towels.