Coq Au Vin

Last weekend I created a meal plan, something I had never done for an entire week. My goal was to keep us committed to cooking at home several nights, to reduce our impulse buys at the grocery store (this is especially dangerous when you reguarly shop at Whole Foods - what can I say, we just love gourmet products) and to try out a few new recipes (at least one vegetarian included). We stuck to the plan throughout the week, despite a little snafu not making it to the store over the weekend.

Here was the menu:

Monday - Was supposed to be a soul food dinner at an MLK Jr. event at Memorial Hall in Racine but we arrived late. Instead we ended up eating out at Erv's mug in Franklin afterward. Unhealthy as all get out, but a colorful experience nonetheless.

Tuesday - Split Pea and Barley Soup from Simple Vegetarian Pleasures (Lemlin). Cooked by Megan.

Wednesday - Homemade Spinach/Feta & Mushroom Pizza. Homemade crust, sauce and fresh toppings. Ryan's own recipe. Cooked by Ryan.

Thursday - Leftover soup.

Friday - Coq Au Vin (Chicken in wine sauce) and braised fennel. We totally forgot about cooking the fennel and swapped it out for some homemade garlic mash taters. Cook's Illustrated Best Chicken Recipes (Kimbell). Cooked by Ryan.

We had ourselves a quiet little night together at home. Ryan loves to cook these complicated french sauce recipes so I let him go at it. We made our second use of my sister Greta's lovely Christmas gift of a dutch oven (first use was Cook's French Chicken in a Pot). Dinner preparation took nearly four hours from boiling and peeling the pearl onions to frying the bacon to searing the chicken to reducing the complicated wine sauce to chopping up the parsley garnish. The end result was rich and divine! We paired it with our recent favorite Cotes Du Rhone red (a steal at $6 from Trader Joe's).

Greta's new burnt orange dutch oven being put to the test:


A little impromptu ambiance created by Megan. Our pumpkin has dried out on the table since Halloween!


Our Friday night table. You can see the steamed windows backlit by the street light on the pedestrian mall in front of our building.



The final product. Chicken cooked in bacon fat, thyme, garlic, tomato paste drenched in a sauce reduced from pearl onions, white mushrooms, a bottle of red wine and some butter whisked in at the end for good measure. Garnished with crumbled bacon and minced fresh parsley. All I have to say is that I have a new found love for pearl onions and that my hubby is a culinary god. He has much patience for following recipes and waiting for the complicated end results. Har, har for gluttonous French recipes!