Category: Cooking

Like I mentioned in my "White Chili" post, I've been feeding the Missus and Her co-workers when She has to work on weekends. But there's just so much I can make before I hit the wall. I was wracking my grey matter trying to determine what to make….but while staring at some chicken legs, going for 49 cents a pound, I thought why not doa version of Coq Au Vin, the French chicken fricassee cooked in wine? When I told the Missus, She appeared skeptical, "isn't that French?"

Just keeping things fun, I decided to make this pretty much on the cheap. Not that Coq Au Vin is a fancy-schmansy dish mind you. After all, Coq Au Vin was originally a recipe that marked, ummm, the permanent retirement of a rooster. The chicken was just under 2 bucks, the pearl onions, just under 2 bucks…. the wine? You guessed it, 2 Buck Chuck….good ol'  Charles Shaw. I thought of calling it "Chuck Au Vin", but that would've been a bit repetitive, right? 

I'd made Coq Au Vin before, but looked for additional inspiration from various cookbooks I had lying around. And boy did the recipes differ! Anthony Bourdain's recipe in the Les Halles Cookbook did away with the flour dredge, and marinated the chicken in red wine overnight. Julia Child's classic recipe uses a brandy flambe, Mark Bittman in How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, uses porcini mushrooms for flavoring, and so on. Some other differences, many recipes use tomato, I didn't have any at home, so cross that out. Also, most recipes use the "blanching technique" for the bacon or salt pork(guess which I used) to remove excess salt and the smoky flavor. I thought my dish would need all the help it could get, so I bypassed it.

After reducing the wine and sauce, I added a little twist of my own. I added a tablespoon of Demi Glace along with some butter to fortify the sauce. I thought it turned out well, considering. I made buttered egg noodles just to cover my bases. It was also pretty quick, clocking in at a total of 40 minutes prep, one-and-half hours simmer.

Sorta Coq Au Vin

3-4 lbs Chicken parts rinsed and dried
1/2 lb small white mushrooms
1/2 lb Pearl Onions
4 cloves garlic chopped
2 carrots roughly chopped
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 ribs celery roughly chopped
1/4 lb Bacon sliced crosswise (lardon)
1 Bottle red wine
1-2 Cups chicken stock (optional)
2 Tb Butter
1 Tb Veal Demi Glace (optional)
2 Bays Leaves
3 sprigs Thyme
1/2 Cup flour
Salt and Pepper
1-2 Tb Olive Oil

– Bring a pot of water to a boil. Chop root ends off of pearl onions. Place into boiling water for 1 minute. Allow onions to cool. You'll be able to pop those pearl onions out of their skin.
– Place chicken parts in a gallon ziploc bag. Add flour and shake to coat.Remove chicken from bag to a plate, shaking off excess flour.
– Brown bacon in a Dutch Oven or similar pot. When bacon is browned, remove the bacon with a slotted spoon.
– In the same pot, add pearl onions,add salt and pepper, and saute until slightly browned. Remove onions.
– Add olive oil if necessary, and brown chicken, working in batches. Remove the chicken when browned.
– Add 1 tablespoon of butter, and saute the mushrooms. Remove the mushrooms and set aside.
– Pour off excess fat, and add garlic, celery, onions, and carrots, and saute until vegetables are soft. Deglaze with 1 cup of the red wine, making sure to scrape up all those nice brown bits.
– Add the rest of the red wine, bay leaf, and thyme, and bring to a simmer.
– Add chicken back to pot and simmer; turning every 10-15 minutes until the chicken is done.
– When the chicken is cooked, remove from the pot, and strain cooking liquid.
– Pour strained liquid back into the pot and taste. Add chicken stock, salt and pepper if necessary.
– Reduce liquid by half. You may want to thicken with a classic Beurre Manie (a paste made with 1 tb each butter and flour made into a paste), or be like me and just add butter. I also added the Demi Glace because I had some.
– When sauce is thickened, add pearl onions and mushrooms back (and bacon if desired), and heat.

There you go Half Coq'd Au Vin

Serve with egg noodles.

Did you know I did requests? he-he-he…. On occasion the Missus has to work on weekends. Recently, it has been my habit to cook up a decent batch of food, for the Missus to take to work with Her. I'm kinda flattered that it has gone over rather well. But I guess that there's just so much Chili-Spaghetti, Soy Sauce Chicken, and deconstructed Loco Mocos that I can serve. Recently, one on the Missus's co-workers, and one of my favorite persons in the world "MP", asked the Missus if I could make "White Chili". The Missus, not knowing what White Chili was said, "no problem". The thing is, I didn't even know, nor had I ever heard of White Chili. In fact, I still don't know what White Chili is. So of course I scoured the Internet…. and really didn't find out much, other than it is a "chili" made with white beans and chicken. In fact, I still don't know what the origin of this "chili" (is it really a chili???) is. Ya' know, I admire folks who can whip out dishes they've never tasted, nor heard of, or use ingredients they really have never worked with. I'm not that person…….

I can truly say, I've never had a chance to even consider using Navy Beans….or even Cannelli Beans (white kidneys). I looked over a bunch of recipes, and to my surprise, we had most of the ingredients here at home. This turned out to be a good recipe for left-over rotisserie chicken, it seems that we often have some chicken left over, you know the parts with less flavor (i.e. breast). This usually ends up integrated into several dinners for Sammy and Frankie, but this time, I had use for it (sorry Boyz!).

I worked within what I knew about MP, not good with spicy, nothing to salty, etc……

On the way home from work, I picked up a can of Cannelli Beans, 2 cans of Navy Beans (on sale), and a can of diced green chilies.

When putting the recipe together, the first thing I noticed was how "flat" the dish was. Even with the green chilies, it was fairly bland. I added some cherry peppers, using only the green ones (to fit in the color scheme). When reading the recipes, it seemed like the chili was not hearty enough for my taste. Until I read one that used cannelli beans pureed with chicken broth as a thickening agent. In essence, a typical White Bean Puree was used to give the dish body. The dish also sorely needed some acid, which is why I ended up adding Pinot Grigio (nice and crisp), and some vinegar seemed to complete the equation. A dollop of sour cream also added to the dish, lime added more acid, and a palate cleansing citrus, and I thought that corn tortillas just seemed right…… funny how the mind works.

Enough with the verbage, I'm sure you want me to get on with the recipe. If you love heat, you can add jalapenos, or be like me when I had my one bowl, I added several dashes of hot sauce.

White Chili

3 Cups Rotisserie Chicken, shredded
2 15oz cans of Navy Beans, drained
1 15oz can of Cannelli Beans, drained
1 onion minced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 Tb Olive Oil
4 Cups Chicken stock/broth
1 4oz can diced green chilies
4-5 Green Cherry Peppers, diced
1/4 cup Pinot Grigio, or similar white wine
1 Tb white vinegar
2 tsp cumin seeds (remember to crush)
2 tsp oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

Garnishes/Sides
1-2 Cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Sliced scallions
Cilantro leaves
Sour Cream
Lime
Tortillas
Hot Sauce

– In a food processor, combine Cannelli Beans and 3/4 cup chicken broth and process until smooth. Put aside.
– Heat a dutch oven or similar pot on medium heat. Add olive oil, onions, and garlic, and saute until fragrant and translucent.
– Add the remainder of the chicken broth, oregano, cumin, green chilies, and cherry peppers (or whatever chilies you want – but try to keep the color scheme in mind).
– Bring back to a simmer, and add wine and vinegar.
– Add bean puree to thicken.
– Bring to a simmer, taste and adjust seasoning.
– Simmer for 1-2 hours (or leave overnight, it'll taste even better), and serve with the sides and garnishes of your choice.

I'm guessing it'll taste even better with home made chicken stock. And geeez some nice cheese biscuits!

So maybe someone can tell me…… what is "real" White Chili supposed to be?

Next request……. quick Coq Au Vin…….

Walking along the meat department of 99 Ranch Market, I was in search of something to make for dinner. Something easy and low stress…..when my eyes happened upon these:

The humble chicken drumstick. As I stood and stared(obviously mouth agape – good thing there were no flies around) at the styrofoam tray of poultry, my mind took me back to the joys of the drumstick. Has there ever been anything more perfectly designed than natures own "meat-on-a-stick?" And as a child, I adored them. So on this day, instead of the chicken legs, or whole fryer that I had been contemplating, I returned home with 8 drumsticks.

But what to do with them…….would it be a simple "fry-job"? Or perhaps a dijon based baked drumstick? There seemed to be a  infinite number of options…… As I put away my groceries, direction became pretty clear. I had purchased some Gailan (Chinese Broccoli), so the direction would have to be Asian. And so I settled on doing a basic "Soy Sauce Chicken" recipe. Something I've been making for years. After all, I was doing drumsticks, so isn't there anything more basic than doing a simple soy sauce braise?

So here you go, a simple, Sunday, soy sauce, dish. You may want to make it on Saturday, and heat it on Sunday, it will taste better.

Soy Sauce Chicken Drumsticks

8-10 Chicken Drumsticks, or 3lbs various chicken parts, ORRR 1 whole fryer.
2 cloves of garlic smashed
2 3/4" pieces ginger smashed
2 star anise
4 scallions, white parts only, bruised
2 cups water
1 cup light soy sauce
2-3 Tb dark soy sauce
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Shao Xing Wine

1 – In a wok or dutch oven combine water, ginger, star anise, garlic, and scallions, over medium heat.
2 – When water starts to boil, add soy sauce, sugar, and Shao Xing. Stir to dissolve sugar. At about this point, I always taste my braising liquid….if you've never done that before, please do…it may taste "yuck", but after making dishes over time, you'll be able to better predict how things will turn out, and make adjustments.
3 – Add chicken to wok, turning several times to make sure chicken is fully coated for about 5 minutes.
4 – Turn heat to low, and simmer chicken, turning every 8-10 minutes until done. These drumsticks took only 20 minutes. Do not overcook, the chicken will fall apart and get mushy.
5 – Serve with a little dish of the sauce.

You can take this in many directions….soy sauce eggs anyone? I found this to be close to the salty edge, so I made up a Ginger-Scallion Oil, just like what I make for my cold ginger chicken, which cut the salt and fat real well:

I hope you had a great weekend!

Sometimes even I give in to impulse buying. I saw Pork Hocks (the lower portion of Mr Piggie's front leg) on sale for 79 cents a pound at 99 Ranch Market. I couldn't resist….. I bought three, which came out to a shade over $3.25!

Meet the piggies…..

So what to do with these? I decided to do straight forward Red Cooked Pork Hocks. For us, anything Red Cooked means a 3-phased meal plan. First we eat the meat, second, after straining, comes the boiled eggs, and third phase would be some chicken(first browned than) stewed gently in the remaining liquid with some tuberous vegetable. In theory, you could keep the braising liquid(aspic) going forever, by adding water and other liquids, seasonings, straining and skimming, and refrigeration. I've read accounts of braising liquids and soup being perpetuated in this endless cycle. I once mentioned this to a friend, who was so grossed out over this idea, that she stopped eating with me. I'd better not tell her about sourdough starter since she's a bread lover!

Red Cooking is usually associated with Shanghainese Cuisine, though the Missus recalls it being used in Her household growing up. It is a pretty easy cooking technique, and pretty much lives up to the "sweet, salty, and red cooked" monnicker often used with regards to Shanghai cuisine. There are basically 2 types of red cooking, the first is a short cooking approach, which uses a sugar-based caramelization technique of melting sugar in oil to start things out. This is used with cuts such as pork belly, and takes from 40 minutes to an hour. Since I was using a much tougher cut of meat, I used the slow braising technique, which starts with a "browning step", in the case of the pork hocks, an "oil blanching", with the Oxtails, a pan searing.

So here goes….. I know many familes have their own "secret" recipe. Here's my not-so-secret, but real easy recipe. I let the pork hocks and oxtails rest overnight before eating.

Red Cooked Pork Hocks
3-4 Pork Hocks, rinsed, patted dry with paper towels.
2/3 Cup + 2 Tb Soy sauce
1/3 Cup Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar + up to 1/4 Cup reserve
2/3 Cup + 1Tb Shao Xing Wine
5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1-2 1/2" knobs of ginger smashed
3 Star Anise broken in half
4 Scallions – white part only, roughly chopped
1 piece dried tangerine peel broken in half
1 2-3" cinnamon stick
4-5 Cups Water.
2 Tb Canola Oil
3 Cups Canola Oil for frying

1 – Rub Shoulder with 2Tb Soy sauce and 1Tb Shao Xing, and let rest for 15 minutes.
2 – Heat oil in a wok until a temperature of 375 degrees. Place pork hock into oil, and fry, ladling oil over the exposed side of the pork hock for about 1-2 minutes. Turn and repeat.
3 – Remove pork hock from the oil and place on a plate lined with paper towels.
4 – Repeat for all the other pork hocks.
5 – In another pan or wok heat 2Tb, and add the garlic and scallions and saute until fragrant.
6 – Add 2/3 Cup Shao Xing wine, and bring to a boil.
7 – Add Soy Sauces, ginger, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, star anise, tangerine peel, and cinnamon, and bring to a simmer.
8 – Add 3 cups of water, and place pork hocks in liquid. Add water to cover up to two-thirds of the pork hock.
9 – Bring to a low simmer.Turn pork hocks every hour. After 3 hours taste the liquid, and adjust sugar or water as necessary. I doubt that you'd need more soy sauce.
10 – Cook for another hour, or more as necessary. (These hocks took me 5 hours) The pork should be tender, and close to, but not falling off the bone. Or as the Missus says, "ewww, it's starting to look like an Old Man's neck."
11 – Let the hocks cool in the liquid. Once the liquid is cool, remove the hocks and place in a container and refrigerate.
12 – Strain braising liquid, and refrigerate overnight.
13 – Heat liquid (now an aspic), and place pork hocks into pot.

14 – Remove the pork hocks when heated, cut meat off the bone and chop into pieces. Use the braising liquid as the sauce and pour over meat and rice. Of course you can always go "Flintstone" and grab the whole bone and gnaw away……
15 – Place 6-8 shelled boiled eggs into braising liquid…..and so forth…..

Adjusting for Oxtails:

You can us the same basic technique as my Chinese style Braised Oxtails. Basically searing off the Oxtails seasoned with salt and pepper first.

Adjust cooking times as necessary.

I think I like these even more…..

Remember to wait a day (if you can), it'll be worth it!