Amy & Julia: Coq au Vin

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." What better words could come from a zany, enthusiastic foodie like Julia Child, right?

While I wasn't around for the heyday of Julia's The French Chef, my first trip to Paris in 2008 confirmed how easy it was to fall in love with this city and its superb culinary pursuits like Julia did. And while I sampled some incredible food (and not so incredible) both in the original trip and a follow up in 2009, replicating French cooking is intimidating. Overall, standard meals aren't necessarily complicated as they are involved. Many steps, components from scratch and an emphasis on sauces and garnishes are French recipe staples.

Kudos to Julia Child for her work making this intimidating French cooking process feel more approachable and doable for American cooks.

While baking and cooking are areas I already feel pretty skilled in, I wanted to try one of Julia's standard recipes: Coq au Vin. Translating to rooster/chicken with wine, the Coq an Vin recipe is reflective of my earlier statements about French cooking: many steps, focus on building the wine sauce that the chicken cooks in and everything from scratch. The biggest risk you take is timing and multi-tasking. While each component isn't hard, there's a ballet of ingredients to manage.

Pearl onions, lean bacon, mushrooms and a little French bread and potatoes to accompany my chicken slathered in wine.

Soon to be covered in mushrooms, onions & red wine.

Another first for me was the need to section an entire chicken. I typically take the shortcut here and buy the pieces in the grocery store that I need ready to go. But, Julia would have been disappointed. The bird went down.

Although I feel pretty experienced in the kitchen, I've never had the chance to flambé anything either. But leave it to Julia to ask me to dump liquor on this chicken and set it on fire. Click here for a little video of my lighter struggles, but ultimately it worked.

With about two hours from start to finish, here is the final product.

Would I make Coq au Vin again? I'm one the fence. While it was very good, I think I would rather explore other French recipes. I have other chicken dishes in my repertoire that I feel are better and take less time. But, completing this recipe does give a boost of culinary confidence.

If you want to try your hand at Coq au Vin, here's the recipe to follow.

Bon appétit!

Comments

And The Journey Begins

29.....it got here a lot quicker than I thought it would. Looking back over those 29 years (and yes I know that's not a lot comparatively and I hope to have many, many more years for adventures and experiences), there are many things I'm happy to reminisce about. A great childhood with loving parents, playing softball and experiencing life with my sister, attending the University of Tennessee, completing an undergraduate and master's degree by 24, making life-long friends, marrying my best friend Chance and finding ourselves currently living in, working for and loving the Best Town Ever . There are also thoughts of missed opportunities, what if's and heartbreaks in those 29 years; the biggest of which is the loss of my father in 2007. But as I got closer to my 29th birthday, I realized that I wanted a challenge. And I of course could have picked a goal, a race, a task to strive for....but to all those that know me, I'm a bit of an over-achiever. So, I decided to

Eat All the Veggies

I love to cook. Preparing meals is not stressful for me; it's my time to relax and unwind in the evening and a way I show others that I care. But, I could go without doing the dishes. And for the month of June, I ate and cooked exclusively vegetarian. One of the reasons I wanted to try being vegetarian for a month was the challenge it would present in cooking. A big thank you to all my social media friends for sharing your vegetarian recipes, favorite bloggers, staple ideas and quick non-meat dishes that you enjoy. Below are some of the suggested items that I also enjoyed: Slow Cooker Enchilada Orzo Pizza Quinoa Casserole Quorn Products I'm not a big fan of meat substitutes, but these were good. Tofu and seitan make me want to throw up. Grilled Zucchini Hummus Wraps Zucchini Meatballs - LOVED these! Put artichokes, havarti cheese and pesto onto some fancy bread and make a panini. Cookie and Kate (blog) The First Mess (blog) Naturally Ella (blog) And f

Let's Sketch and Chat - A Story We Can Share

Unusual - that really wasn't the right word the more I thought about it. With an original list item of attending an unusual arts performance, I think I was having a "She's All That" flashback moment and thinking I might attend something like this just for the oddity. But when I really thought about this opportunity, I realized that what I wanted more was to be involved rather than a spectator in an arts centered experience that a. I wouldn't normally put myself in and b. something I could actually walk away from feeling that the content mattered versus a weird guy in his underwear and some chanting (just watch the video). My unexpected art experience ended up being an adventure in visual art and discussion. Want to know my artistic ability? Scan some kindergarten classrooms and what you'll find is probably better than what I can produce. While visual art was not something I was naturally gifted in nor an area I felt interested in developing a skill set,

30 Before 30 Journey in a Year

Search This Blog