Gourmet Entertaining On a Budget: Crockput Coq Au Vin

Anyone can eat well when money is not an object.The challenge is doing so on a budget, even more so when entertaining guests. I have thrown monthly parties for a number of years, and my choice of entree recipes has always been determined by what has been on sale, and minimal prep/oversight during the cooking process. I usually end up using my crockpot.

Last week, chicken was on sale - drumsticks to be exact - and i got about 5 lbs for less than $4. And the deli had bacon remnants - end pieces - on sale for only $1.29 a lb.  That sealed the deal - my take on coq au vin.

Coq au vin is chicken braised in red wine - and while chicken and mushrooms are such a great match for each other,  IMO the essential ingredient is "lardon" - pork fat (usually subcutaneous). Fat is supposed to be bad - but it's my take that the main reason for this perception is that for animals grown using any sort of chemicals, steroids, etc. anything used to stimulate growth tends to accumulate in the fat of the animal - so with any sort of organically grown animal  go for it (yeah, the common wisdom is that saturated fats can also have an impact on cholesterol level - but stress is more of a factor than diet). OTOH, pure edible fat provides twice the energy of proteins or carbs, and also help the body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, & K. And more importantly, fat adds flavor as heat breaks down the lipids.

Bacon/salt pork is most commonly used, but pork belly and fatback also works. Part of the secret is to saute/brown some of the lardon and use some of the rendered fat to brown the vegetables and meat before beginning the braising. (If you ever cook a whole goose SAVE THE FAT!!!!! - and use it to fry your potatoes. OMG!!! Amazing!)  While whole chickens are often used for coq au vin, I prefer to use dark meat (legs and thighs)  because they stand up better to prolonged cooking at lower temperatures, resulting in a better mouth feel while eating.

I chose to chop each drumstick into two pieces to better accommodate a larger number of guests. It's best to use a sharp heavy cleaver for that. If I'd had thighs, I would have have cut each thigh into thirds along the bone, the middle third containing the bone, to go more closer to bite sized pieces but without a lot of extra work. This also results in more surface area caramelizing when browning the chicken as well as the chicken cooking through more quickly for other recipes (such as my chicken casserole with shiitake mushrooms and oyster sauce which i will be making as soon as the temperate starts to fall), though minimizing cooking time is not a concern for coq au vin - you need the time for the flavors to meld.

1) If they are not already cut/cubed into small pieces, do so - for the sliced bacon, I went about 3/4" pieces. Saute the pork. I prefer for it to brown, but just barely - i like to keep a certain amount of fat to go into the pot unrendered. Remove pork with a slotted spoon to the crockpot.

2) Saute the vegetables (onion & carrot) in the rendered fat under low heat. (some recipes call for pearl onions, I used a large yellow/brown onion (they have the highest sugar content. white onions seem sweeter raw because they have a lower sulfur content)  because it was cheaper and one large carrot, all cut into approximately 3/4" cubes/pieces/ lengths. (And do the cutting while the pork is cooking). Cooking long enough to sweat the onions is probably enough, but if you want a little browning, go for it. Remove the sauteed vegetables to the crockpot.

3) Put the chicken pieces into a plastic bag (i reuse the ones i get when buying produce at the supermarket), add enough flour to coat the chicken, add salt/pepper to taste. close bag and shake to coat the chicken with flour. the flour assists in the browning process. Brown the chicken a few pieces at a time - too much meat in the frying pan brings the temperature down too low - and you many need to add oil - the vegetables tend to absorb the rendered fat. Place browned chicken into crockpot.

4) Deglaze the frying pan (from the french glacé - frozen - literally loosening the browned bits which have been "frozen" to the frying pan) by heating and adding liquid - water, wine, whatever. i used some of the red wine (i think it was a cabernet sauvignon of two buck chuck (charles shaw - available at your nearby trader joes at $2 a bottle).  scrape off everything stuck to the pan and add to the crockpot - those browned bits will contribute a lot of flavor.

5) Add thyme, (I think I used about two teaspoons) (yeah, fresh would be better, but we're talking low budget here), peeled garlic (i used 4-5 cloves), a bay leaf,  mushrooms, (i used 8 oz. white mushrooms, each sliced in half down the middle). 

6) Add the braising liquid - equal parts of red wine & water/chicken broth (just wine would result in too high an acidity) - and do not add enough to cover the ingredients, maybe only halfway or so - the mushrooms will give off liquid, set the crockpot on low, and let cook at least four hours, preferably six or more. About an hour before serving, dissolve 1/4 cup of flour into some *cold* water and add the slurry to the crockpot. The flour will bind with some of the fat, thickening the cooking liquid. (In retrospect, if I'd used more liquid, the guests would have consumed it as a sauce for the rice).

I think it's traditionally served over noodles, but my heritage being what it is, I went with rice. And my guests loved it.

Ingredients:

Red wine - as long as it's dry

Chicken - preferably dark meat (i used about 5 lbs)

Bacon - (but salt pork, pork belly, etc. will do) i probably used about 1/4 lb.

Mushrooms - i used 8oz, but if i had had more, i would have added them

Onion - preferably pearl - but a brown/yellow onion will do

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Bay leaf (1)

Garlic (i used five cloves)

Thyme (i think i used 2 TSP)

The best thing is that you don't need to be too precise.

By any other name, cont'd...pierogis and a grilled mashed potato sandwich

I hope to develop a more structured approach eventually, but as we're starting out, i'm probably going to spend a substantial amount of verbage on my background and overall philosophies that influence my cooking.

One such point that comes from my asian heritage - waste nothing. so i will often recycle something that started life as part of another recipe, and use it to make something else.

Some of the thing i made last week included potstickers, and braised oxtail over smashed potatoes.(these recipes will also get a blog post of its own eventually) . I also sampled the wares of two popular "gourmet" trucks in the past two weeks - a dumpling truck and a grilled cheese sandwich truck. These events all factor into some of this week's meals.

I should also mention that I hail from northeast Ohio - settled primarily by central and eastern europeans, including the Polish. Among the mighty wonderful conributions the poles have made to civilization, i personally rank the pierogi way near the top (just below Copernicus). The pierogi is the polish version of a potsticker/ravioli/stuffed dumpling. Back in ohio, i used to schlep over to a polish restaurant for lunch and enjoy a plate of potato pierogi with sour cream and grilled onions on the side (for only $1.25), then go back to work and wait for the food coma to hit me.

Tying all this together: I had a unopened package of leftover store bought potsticker wrappers ($.99 for 38) (yes, i cheat and use store bought wrappers, it saves me a lot of time, and i've never been that good working with flour, asides from my chocolate chip cookies.), and leftover smashed potatoes (the unpeeled potatoes were cut into 1" chunks, then steamed over the braising ox tails, so they absorbed some of those flavors, - and because they weren't immersed in liquid, a lot fluffier - i imagine that the same technique would work for rice, i need to try that). So I made pierogis.

Traditional stuffings include potato/ potato & cheese/ sauerkraut/ prunes. I went with a simple potato/cheese filling. I cut some sharp cheddar cheese into 1/2" chunks, and inserted one chunk of cheese into the potato filling as I wrapped each pierogi. Traditionally, pierogi are first boiled then sauteed, but i saved myself some time and effort by using the potsticker cooking method, browning them over medium heat, then adding a little water and covering them so that they  fiinish cooking using steam. There were a little on the crispy side this way, made them more remiscent of jiao-tse. but with sour cream, grilled onion and kielbasi.... yeah.

Here's why I mentioned the grilled cheese sandwich truck: their specialty is a sandwich made with macaroni and cheese filling (you can use their menu for inspiration on how to liven up your current grilled cheese recipe. http://www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com/Pages/menus.aspx). I still had some leftover potato, about enough to cover a slice of bread. Yes, i made a a grilled mashed potato and cheese sandwich (bread brushed with the olive oil used to pack my oven dried tomatoes, layers of  sharp cheddar cheese on top and bottom of the layer of mashed potato which had faint essences of red wine and oxtail) and ate it  with one of my homemade garlic pickles (another blog post for those) on the side. I thought it was pretty good. I think it works because you are essentially exchanging one comfort food (mac & cheese) for another (mashed potatoes), but with a crispy texture on the outside.

By any other name

Despite all of our differences, we have basic commonalities. For example, we all eat. And while ethnic cuisines can vary greatly in variety,there are only so many ways you can do things, and more often than not, it comes down to the available resources and ingredients. When i was a kid, i would occasionally bring Zongzi for lunch. of course, everyone would ask what the heck it was i was eating, and i'd go into the details of glutinous rice with dried shrimp, chestnuts, chinese sausage, etc. and most of my classmates would still be kinda mystified if not weirded out. nowadays,  i just tell people it's a chinese version of a tamale.

Similarly, a quesadilla is just a latin version of a grilled cheese sandwich.  And everybody's got their own version. For me, I prefer sharp cheddar cheese; and basic white bread. YMMV. But there are so many different things you can do to that simple combination.

It's summer, and tomatoes have been on sale for $.39/lb. So i bought about 10 lbs and roasted them in the oven, along with some garlic cloves. This is worth a blog post of its own . This time around, I've went overnight at 250, resulting in more of a sun dried tomato result, so i packed them in olive oil and put them into the fridge. It was with this kind of tomato I decided to experiiment and i was very pleased with the results.

as I can fit 3 sandwiches in my frying pan at a time, i tend to make three at a time:

1) take one large yellow onion and cut three thin slices from the middle, (diameter about the size of your bread);

2) place onion slices in frying pan, drizzle with olive oil used to pack the dried tomatoes;

3) Here's a place where you can experiment - under low/medium heat, either sweat (heat until the onion changes color) or caramelize (brown the onion). While onion is cooking, assemble your sandwich(es)

a) bread - brush top with olive oil used to pack tomatoes, and set aside, brushed side up

b) brush one side of other piece of bread, place on other slice of bread, brushed side down

c) layer of cheese on bread

d) layer of tomato

e) remove onion from pan, and place on top of tomato

f) another layer of cheese

g) place assembled sandwich (minus bread slice oiled side up) into pan

h) top sandwich with last slice of bread, oiled side *up*

Reduce heat back down to low if it wasn't, flip sandwich and brown other side. devour.

Brushing a slice of bread with mustard (with horseradish) during assembly would probably be pretty good too, but i was happy with the results.