Ultimately I would like to accomplish my adventurous day trip and culinary experiment from each issue before the next issue of Sunset Magazine arrives in my garage mail slot but I will give myself until the end of the month. I will try to have the blogging aspect done by the end of the month too, that’s a big try though.
My Menu
White Wine Coq Au Vin (Click for recipe)
Organic Swiss Chard with Garlic
Various Citric Slices
Artisan Wheat Bread
January’s Sunset had so many recipes I wanted to try. I had a difficult time choosing which possible “Yumahuh” (look on right side bar of blog for definition) meal to prepare. White wine being the star ingredient helped make my decision. Anything with good white wine will be tasty.
There is a funny story to go along with this meal. Since Dawn gave me the subscription to Sunset, she graciously agreed to be the taste tester for the recipe chosen each month. Dawn and I were talking before the meal and she asked me why I choose “Coq Au Vin”. I absolutely had no idea what she was talking about and I asked for clarification. She said, “Coq Au Vin”. I responded, what is “Cock auh von?” She said, “the meal you are cooking for dinner”. My tongue and my brain can phonetically say English (usually) and Spanish words (less usually) but French is foreign for me. We had a good belly laugh at over my lacking ability in French.
Personally, sticking to a recipe is really challenging for me, I rarely even cook with a recipe. “A dash of this, more of this, I think this will be tasty, season every step along the way” is my thinking as I am preparing a dish. The rat in the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, and I have many things in common- we have a good sense of smell and taste, we add what we think will make a dish better. So, there were some changes to this recipe, nothing major, just a few little things. A week and half after making the meal for the first time I cooked it again and kept more true to the original recipe except for the spices and the flour.
Instead of putting the salt, pepper, herbes de Provence and the flour in a bag to coat the chicken before cooking in the bacon fat, I put the cut up chicken in a bowl with about 2T of herbes de Provence (have to tell you, before this recipe, I had never heard of herbes de Provence but it was easily found in the spice isle at Lucky’s) and let the meat rest in the fridge for several hours. The bacon was cooked in the microwave and I cooked the chicken in the broth and wine. The second time I prepared the meal I cooked the chicken in the bacon fat and the meal had more flavor, and more calories too. The recipe called for heating the wine and broth in the microwave but I used the wine and the broth to saute the vegetables and be flavor up the overall taste of the dish. At the very end, I thickened the stew up with 1T of corn starch.
The side dishes I prepared were easy and finished off the stew perfectly. The Swiss chard was from my garden and was cooked with 3 cloves of garlic and a dash of the chicken broth. Right now all types of citric fruits are available at the farmer’s market. I sliced up rounds of orange, tangerine, grapefruit and Clementines. Suzanne lent me her easy bread recipe book and I prepared the dough the night before and cooked a loaf an hour prior to my company arriving. The bread was perfect for “dunking” into the stew to soak up the tasty broth. Dawn and I enjoyed a nice glass of Merlot to go with the meal.
“Yumahuh!, Yumahuh!” Absolutely my top rating for flavor, taste and satisfaction of the overall meal. All of my guests thought the meal was delicious and requested the recipe (at least one guest made the recipe for her family and for company and she said it too was yummy. This is the biggest compliment for a meal- someone else wants the recipe and they prepare the recipe).
Using the best organic and fresh ingredients make a ‘good meal’ into a wonderful outstanding “yumahuh” meal. I am very pleased with the first try of a recipe from the Sunset Magazine.
My Menu
White Wine Coq Au Vin (Click for recipe)
Organic Swiss Chard with Garlic
Various Citric Slices
Artisan Wheat Bread
January’s Sunset had so many recipes I wanted to try. I had a difficult time choosing which possible “Yumahuh” (look on right side bar of blog for definition) meal to prepare. White wine being the star ingredient helped make my decision. Anything with good white wine will be tasty.
There is a funny story to go along with this meal. Since Dawn gave me the subscription to Sunset, she graciously agreed to be the taste tester for the recipe chosen each month. Dawn and I were talking before the meal and she asked me why I choose “Coq Au Vin”. I absolutely had no idea what she was talking about and I asked for clarification. She said, “Coq Au Vin”. I responded, what is “Cock auh von?” She said, “the meal you are cooking for dinner”. My tongue and my brain can phonetically say English (usually) and Spanish words (less usually) but French is foreign for me. We had a good belly laugh at over my lacking ability in French.
Personally, sticking to a recipe is really challenging for me, I rarely even cook with a recipe. “A dash of this, more of this, I think this will be tasty, season every step along the way” is my thinking as I am preparing a dish. The rat in the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, and I have many things in common- we have a good sense of smell and taste, we add what we think will make a dish better. So, there were some changes to this recipe, nothing major, just a few little things. A week and half after making the meal for the first time I cooked it again and kept more true to the original recipe except for the spices and the flour.
Instead of putting the salt, pepper, herbes de Provence and the flour in a bag to coat the chicken before cooking in the bacon fat, I put the cut up chicken in a bowl with about 2T of herbes de Provence (have to tell you, before this recipe, I had never heard of herbes de Provence but it was easily found in the spice isle at Lucky’s) and let the meat rest in the fridge for several hours. The bacon was cooked in the microwave and I cooked the chicken in the broth and wine. The second time I prepared the meal I cooked the chicken in the bacon fat and the meal had more flavor, and more calories too. The recipe called for heating the wine and broth in the microwave but I used the wine and the broth to saute the vegetables and be flavor up the overall taste of the dish. At the very end, I thickened the stew up with 1T of corn starch.
The side dishes I prepared were easy and finished off the stew perfectly. The Swiss chard was from my garden and was cooked with 3 cloves of garlic and a dash of the chicken broth. Right now all types of citric fruits are available at the farmer’s market. I sliced up rounds of orange, tangerine, grapefruit and Clementines. Suzanne lent me her easy bread recipe book and I prepared the dough the night before and cooked a loaf an hour prior to my company arriving. The bread was perfect for “dunking” into the stew to soak up the tasty broth. Dawn and I enjoyed a nice glass of Merlot to go with the meal.
“Yumahuh!, Yumahuh!” Absolutely my top rating for flavor, taste and satisfaction of the overall meal. All of my guests thought the meal was delicious and requested the recipe (at least one guest made the recipe for her family and for company and she said it too was yummy. This is the biggest compliment for a meal- someone else wants the recipe and they prepare the recipe).
Using the best organic and fresh ingredients make a ‘good meal’ into a wonderful outstanding “yumahuh” meal. I am very pleased with the first try of a recipe from the Sunset Magazine.
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