Coq Au Vin-Recipe #1

I had the day off yesterday and thought it would be a great time to get started on my recipes that are in my recipe book that i have been collecting over the years. Renee was coming over today and I wanted to cook for her. Coq Au Vin was was the perfect thing to cook for us that evening. I had most of the items i needed to prep for dinner, however i did need to go out to the store. My store of choice is Natures Best, its a great produce place in Westmont right off of Ogden Avenue. I got what i needed and headed home to do some prep. Once Renee came by after work, I had everything ready to go. This recipe takes a little over a hour and that includes prepping time and cooking time. Coq Au Vin is a classic french dish composed of pieces of chicken(I had drumsticks in the freezer so i used them), mushrooms, onions, bacon and various herbs cooked in red wine. A simple, fresh, elegant dish that warms the soul on a cold winters day.

The recipe is as follows........

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
3 thick cut slices of apple-wood smoke bacon rough chopped
4# of chicken(any cut is fine)
1 cup of flour seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika
8 ounces of cremini mushrooms
3 large carrots cut in 1/2 and sliced on a bias
3 garlic cloves sliced
1 large sweet onion medium dice
1 bottle of red wine(what ever you cook with serve the same wine for dinner)
1 cup chicken stock
1 bay leaf
5 sprigs of thyme

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot, or cast iron pot of pan. Add the bacon and render bacon until crisp. Remove bacon to a plate with paper towels. Keep bacon fat in pan.
2. Place your chicken in a zip-lock bag with the flour and seasoning and coat well, remove from the bag.
3. Brown the chicken in the oil and bacon fat, once browned, remove from pab and place on the same plate as the bacon.
4. Saute mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and onions in the pot until they begin to brown.
5. Pour in half of the bottle of red wine and cook over high heat for six minutes.
6. Add chicken stock and the remaining half bottle of red wine, add the chicken, bacon and herbs.
7. Return to a boil, then cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
8. Serve over a bed of rice or mashed potatoes.
9. Enjoy!!!

Taking on My Recipe Book

As a Chef, i am always looking at cooking magazines. I look for new trends, new ideas, new recipes that i can put my own spin on. For the past few years i have been collecting recipes that i like and or think that i would be able to cook in my kitchen with some ease. With that being said, my binder is full of recipes, i even have it broken down into categories.
I have decided to do a Julie and Julia type of thing, only not doing every recipe in my book, I just don't have the time and or the funds to do them all. I have picked 15 different meals to recreate. By doing this I will be doing things i have never done before like Bibimbap and Cassoulet. Its a way for me to learn new things as well as to take my own notes on these recipes and create a twist on them to call them my own.
For each recipe I am doing I will be writing about it in my blog as well as possibly posting some recipes for others to try themselves.
By doing this i hope to capture a bigger audience for my blog and also get others into food more then they are when they see that some recipes are easy to do at home as well as in the kitchen for mass production.
Sit back and relax and look for upcoming posts in the next few weeks on my endeavors and or challenges it should be fun and educational all at the same time, till then take care.

Lynfred Winery-Roselle Illinois

Here are some photos of them making wine at Lynfred Winery. My friend and I were here, she has been to the winery more that I and have never seen them doing this before. The round horizontal tube is a press, its pressing the grape juice out and catching it at the bottom while a tube transfers it to one of there silos to age. The big boxes are of spent grapes. I have a video of them removing the grapes, however cant upload it to my blog. You can see the video on my Facebook page, send a friends request if your not.

My New Molcajete and Making Seasoned Salts

I have been on the hunt for a good Molcajete for sometime, the ones i did find were to expensive for my budget. Before getting the small jars for the seasoned salts I looked over near the cutting boards and such to see if they had any Molcajetes. There on the shelf was not one, but two nice lava stone Molcajetes. I hesitated to look at the price, wincing I flipped the card over to see it was only 20 dollars. I was sold, this was the first thing in my cart at World Market.
I walked over a few aisles to the containers and found some really cool small tins. There was also some cool small glass jars with cork tops, some with a mason jar style clamp. They had a few colors of the small tin one, so i got myself a few of each.
A year ago i had made some herb salts. I used fresh herbs, dried them and at mixed them with salt. I have been keeping them in Mason jars. Getting the Molcajete i was able to really grind the herbs with the salts. These salts can be used for a variety of applications, flavor potatoes, veggies, even steaks, chicken, pork, etc. this process was done with ease with the Molcajete.
A few weeks ago out exploring food, i happened to be in a shop that sold canned sliced truffles. The prices was right, so i grabbed it, I was going to keep it to make some truffle salt.
I chopped up the whole can, put on a sheet tray and put into the oven to let them air dry over night. I put some of the dried truffles into my Molcajete and begin to grind into a dust. For more friction and most importantly to infuse the salt with this flavor i added salt and pulverized some more. I removed the mixture from the Molcajete and repeated the process until all of it was done. When all said and done with the grinding and mixing of my salts and herbs i had a full quart Mason jar full of homemade truffle salt, a pint of sage salt, a pint of thyme salt and a pint of sage/thyme salt.