Coq Au Vin ala Aphrodite : @ndbeledrifts 's Original Cooking adventure with the guidance of Isabel Allende, Recipe Inside!

September 26th, 2017, 04:17 pm
Coq Au Vin : belongs to steemit
Coq Au Vin

Hello, I am happy today to bring you a recipe from the only book I have purchased this year, a book by my favorite author... you guessed it: Isabel Allende. As a talented craftsman of the language, Allende never hurried through her descriptions of the sumptuous cuisine of her tales, from around the world.
Until this point in my discovery of her writings, I had only my imagination to draw from in the quest for materializing the meals of my dreams... supplied by imagery which described smells and secret desires in detail by Isabel Allende... but in this newest addition to my humble but valued book collection, she has actually gone to the trouble of supplying not only beautiful descriptions of foods that actually sound appetizing ( a miraculous feat, in itself) but a collection of recipes as well! Not to exaggerate, but I am so hung up on this particular interest in my life currently, I basically freaked out when I found out this particular detail of my newest book by my favorite author-- that it is also a cookbook! So without further ado, the recipe for coq au vin -- chicken in red wine -- with pictures-- is arriving with a reference and a bang to steemit!

From Aphrodite
by Isabel Allende

Coq Au Vin

Ingredients

1 medium chicken
1/2 cup diced bacon
1 medium onion
2 young carrots
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup pearl onio
1 bay leaf
1garni of aromatic herbs
2 tablespoons of cognac
2 cups of red wine (preferably Burgundy)
1/2 cup of dried mushrooms, previously soaked in stock
1 cup concentrated chicken stock
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
2 level tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
croutons for serving

Preparation -- ( tastier when made the day before )

Cut the chicken in peices, discarding the neck and wings. Saute' the bacon,

onion,

carrots,

and garlic in oil for 5 minutes.

Add the pearl onions, the bay leaf, and garni.

Add the chicken peices, smother in cognac, and set afire. When the flame burns down, add the wine, dried mushrooms, stock, and maple syrup. Cook over high heat until the liquid is reduced to 1 1/2 cups. In a separate pan, make a roux of flour and butter. Gradually add to the chicken, along with the fresh mushrooms, salt, and pepper to taste.

Cook 10 minutes more over low heat to blend the flavors. Before serving, remove the excess fat. Serve with croutons.


pg. 283 from Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses by Isabel Allende

I made this recipe as close to the instructions as I was able. Given some disparities: ( cognac, garni, mushrooms, and croutons) I made it with some grave differences to the original recommended; however, I found this dish to be divine, and to drink the wine with the dish as I ate it, provided a deepened flavor to the wine I had not yet experienced in my own cooking before. It was delicious, divine, da best, I have made in a while.

Instead of the garni, I used thyme, rosemary, and marjorjam herbs for my garni but they were dried, fresh, and dried, respectively, and that may have differed from the recipe, but nevertheless the flavors of those herbs, with the garlic, the olive oil, and the wine... it met a platitude of rich flavor, with smooth and round creamy tones of savory delight I was quite impressed by.

I was actually so involved of the dance of cooking and serving, once the wine met the sauce, and I made the roux-- I forgot to take a picture of the final product, with all the elements at their peak condition, wine and chicken, and herbs, all one deeply mauve shade of red... so if you want to know what a miraculous recipe looks like all finished, I'm afraid you'll have to try it yourself.

Be that as it may, the credit goes to Isabel Allende, for being an incredible writer, researcher, and world renound expert of the aphrodisiac who originally authored this fucking fantastic recipe in Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses... a national bestseller from 1998.

Well, thats all for now. Thanks for reading and keep on steeming! Much <3 to those who follow me, and to those who don't, go ahead! also comment, upvote, resteem, and savor the day! ;)