My meager pot of tomato plants has finished producing and been cut back to a few stalks jutting from the dark soil they’ve been planted in since May, waiting for me to pull them up.  But I’m lucky to have friends whose plants are still producing and thankfully willing to share.  The challenge for me at times is knowing what to do with them because my own plants have rarely produced more than what we can eat in a salad.  Often my timing is bad in being able to enjoy the lot — just how many tomatoes can two people eat at one sitting, right?  Especially when my husband forgets to bring them home right away and they’re, well, soft.

Into the freezer they go — stems and all.  I put them on a metal tray until they’re hard as rocks, then pour them into a plastic bag for later use.  Last year I managed to save a bag until mid-February when it was a welcome addition to a hearty tomato squash soup.  This year, I’ve already used one frozen bag, but still have two more in the freezer and will enjoy deciding what to make with them.

I’ll have to blame my need to use some of my frozen homegrown tomato stash on this Irish Blue Cheese and Tomato Soup recipe from Soup Chick.   I’m a pushover to begin with because I love tomato soup, but I’ve never had it with blue cheese — let alone bacon.  I was completely intrigued, so of course I had to try it.  I had the tomatoes, but the recipe requires that they are roasted.  Roasting isn’t a problem because I’ve roasted tomatoes several different ways and truly enjoy the flavor.  However I’d never roasted thawed, frozen tomatoes.

I love a good food experiment, don’t you?  Especially when the result is such a satisfyingly, tasty soup.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Bacon, Cheese, & Orzo Recipe

Ingredients

8 large roasted tomatoes, plus juice
olive oil
3 large cloves garlic
3 strips bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 large stalk of celery, roughly chopped
1 orange bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable broth, heated
4 oz blue cheese
2/3 cup whole milk
1 cup cooked whole wheat orzo, optional
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place whole tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet covered with parchment and drizzle olive oil over.  Smash the cloves of garlic with the side of a large knife, peel them and add them to the tomatoes.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.
2. Roast at 425 degrees F for 25-30 minutes.
3. While the tomatoes are roasting, if you plan to add the orzo to the soup, prepare that now according to package directions — al dente.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough to touch.  If time is short, pour the tomatoes and their juice into a wide shallow bowl to quicken the cooling process.
5. When the tomatoes are cool, remove stems and skin and discard.
6. In a large pot, add the bacon and cook over medium high heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is just beginning to brown around the edges.  Remove the bacon pieces and place them in a small bowl to reserve.
7. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the onion, celery, and bell pepper.  Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, just until softened, about 5 minutes.
8. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, stirring to incorporate, and allow to cook 1-2 minutes.
9. Stir the heated vegetable broth over the vegetables, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Allow to cook just until it begins to thicken, about 5 minutes.
10. Add the tomatoes and their juices, continuing to cook until the soup reaches a simmer.
11. Crumble the blue cheese over the soup and stir until melted.
12. If desired, use an immersion blender, blender, or food processor to puree the soup.
13. Pour in the milk and allow it to heat briefly, about 1 minute.
14. Stir in the the cooked orzo if including it in the recipe, then add the bacon pieces, reserving a few to garnish.

Recipe Notes:

• The smaller yellow and orange tomatoes weren’t used in this recipe, but they could have been.  I just wanted to show you how I do just pop them in the freezer.  The first photo was taken earlier this past summer after I returned home from picking my dear friend’s tomatoes while she was on vacation.  Lucky me!  The second two were the last of my crop from last year which I gathered in mid-October right before we went on vacation.  Amazing how my growing season was so much longer last year!
• As usual when I’m inspired by a great recipe, I often don’t have exactly the same ingredients on hand.  In the case of this soup, I was lacking the carrots, but had the bell pepper, and although they’re both orange, of course that’s not why I made the substitution.  Both add a sweetness to the mix and if you consider the holy trinity of gumbo bases (onion, celery, and bell pepper), I knew I would be in the ball park.  I had milk but not cream, found I was out of chicken broth so used veggie, and then only a partial package of blue cheese — about half the required quantity.  And you know the story about the tomatoes from what I mentioned above.
• About those tomatoes:  My goodness they released quite a bit of water during the roasting — definitely more than what I’ve noticed when roasting fresh tomatoes.  They end up being quite soft, but the good thing is, the skins are completely separated from the flesh, so you can pull them right out of the mix simply by using a fork to poke around in it.  There’s no need to chop them, because they’re already so soft.
• We truly enjoyed the flavors in this soup, and because we’re blue-veined cheese lovers, I have to make it again using the required amount of cheese.  I used a mild blue-veined Brie for this recipe and it was a perfect choice.  Nice an creamy.
• Why the whole wheat orzo?  I had it on hand for another meal and decided to add it the next day when I was enjoying a bowl of left-over soup for lunch.  I was remembering a favorite tomato rice soup recipe and thought it might be similar.  It was a great addition, but the soup is excellent without it as well.
• Many thanks to Lydia who also writes The Perfect Pantry, for sharing such a great recipe.

More Tomato Soup Recipes:

What We’re Eating — Roasted Tomato Soup (and some incredible cheese bread!)

Sprouted Kitchen – Roasted Tomato Soup

Joylicious — Roasted Tomato Soup

Our Life in the Kitchen — Tomato Soup

Sassy Radish — Tomato Soup

I had an urge to make paella — but not the more traditional kind made with rice — and now that I think of it, if rice isn’t in it, then it’s probably not called paella.  No, I’d seen a recipe featured in Saveur some time ago which used thin, short pieces of pasta resembling spaghetti broken to bits, and it’s taken me until recently to give it a go.  I haven’t made paella for years thinking that having a best friend who’s a pro at whipping out her four foot diameter authentic paella pan whenever anyone mentions “party” has kept me lazy.  I don’t have a paella pan, but can manage a batch in a large skillet on my stove instead of a wood fueled fire on the patio which could incite neighbors to call 911 because they think the house is on fire.

The intrigue of the pasta or fideos based paella is the cooking process.  It’s very similar to a rice-based recipe, but pasta absorbs the liquid more quickly, and there’s less a worry about whether or not to stir the rice you’re not supposed to stir so it can develop a nice crust.  That isn’t the case with the pasta version, but it’s a challenge to keep from stirring it when you’ve got an impetuous stirrer in residence.

A basic paella requires a good pan which is not so thick, heat that will be distributed evenly across the pan, a short-grained rice that will absorb liquid without making the rice gummy, and liquid.  The finished product should be moist, but unlike risotto, contain separate pieces of tender rice.  Since I was foregoing rice for the recipe I chose, and because the original recipe was relatively easy, I decided to make my own fish stock — because.

Picture me at the Asian market in front of the fish case scanning several varieties of fish heads.  Large fish heads.  Inexpensive fish heads –  all under $4/lb.  A perky young man behind the counter asks whether he can help me and I tell him while pointing to a white fish, “I’m making fish stock,” to which he responds pointing to the salmon, “It better for you.”  I know this, but also know it’s very oily.  Should I mention that no matter how good salmon is for me, I am not one of its biggest fans?  He continues, “You want me clean it up for you?”  And I say that I’m happy to do it myself, but he grins and says, “I do it better for you.  You too busy.”

I am so not busy and loving every second of it.  Any busyness in my life now is self-generated.

But he certainly was correct about doing it better than I could, because after I removed the brown paper wrapping at home, I had to admire an extremely clean,  perfectly sectioned salmon head.  What had I been thinking before?  Had I insisted on taking care of it myself, I would have had to wrestle with it without the correct type of knife, then smell like the village fish monger for my trouble.  A not very busy fish monger, but still.

I was still concerned about making broth with salmon so had to do some research before choosing a recipe.  Evidently, it’s a matter of opinion.

Have you ever made any kind of fish stock before?

If you aren’t in the mood to tackle that, there are other options, but if you’re a paella lover, try this version of Fideua for a change.  Or, if you’ve always wondered about paella but haven’t tried it, start with this.

Fideua:  Spanish Pasta with Clams, Mussels, and Shrimp

Ingredients for my version

1 lb. small clams
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1  lbs. shrimp, whole with shells on
3 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 lg. leek, split, rinsed, and white and light green portion sliced
salt and pepper
8 cups fish stock (see below)
1 large pinch saffron threads
1 tsp. hot paprika
1 lb. fideos or spaghetti, roughly broken into 2” pieces
1 lb. green lip mussels, scrubbed and debearded

Directions

1. Clean the mussels and clams by  rinsing under cold water to rinse of any sand, and remove the beards from the mussels if still attached.  Rinse the shrimp as well.
2. In a very large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the leeks and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and tomatoes and allow to cook 1 more minute, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt and pepp
3. While the vegetables are simmering, heat the stock until hot, remove from heat and stir in the saffron and paprika.  Allow to steep until ready to use.
4. Sprinkle the fideos over the vegetable mixture and toss until moistened.
5. Add the shrimp, mussels, and clams to the mix and evenly distribute over the other ingredients.
6. Pour the hot broth over, making sure the seafood is as submerged as possible, and allow to cook undisturbed until the fideos are al dente, the shrimp brightly colored, and the clams and mussels opened.
7. Serve.

Ingredients for salmon stock

1 salmon head, quartered, cleaned
1 small onion, quartered
2 lg. cloves garlic smashed and peeled
1 carrot, cut into chunks
1 bay leaf
sprigs of fresh thyme
sprinkle of whole peppercorns
6 c. water
1 c. dry white wine

Directions can be found here.

Recipe Notes:

• Was this the best “paella” I’ve had?  No — but I did enjoy the variety and quantity of seafood in it.  We’re big fans of shell fish and enjoy the broth created whenever we cook it.
• Outside of chopping a couple of the ingredients, this was an extremely easy dish to prepare, and it’s a show stopper.
• If you’re not interested in making your own fish stock, you can use bottled clam juice, but it will be much more pricey than the cost of a fish head.  You can also use vegetable stock, or water.  If you use water, some white wine added to the vegetables will add to the flavor.
• We successfully avoided stirring the dish as it cooked, and it’s completely against the rules evidently, but I also covered the pan partially with a baking sheet for part of the cooking time.  I was worried about ending up with soggy pasta and unopened clams, although in other recipes I’ve tried, 6 minutes is usually enough to steam open the clams.
• So what are the rules?  This article published in Fine Cooking discusses authentic paella and it’s short and sweet.
• Here’s another version of Fideua, or Spanish Pasta by Mark Bittman which includes scallops but uses a surprisingly low amount of liquid.

More Paella Recipes:

• Cast Iron Paella at Macheesmo
• Paella La Rambla at Kitchen Butterfly
• Fisherman’s Paella at gastronomy
• Seafood Paella at Wrightfood
• Paella Amongst Other Things at La Tartine Gourmande
• And this version at Food & Wine which is on my list to try next — and I won’t wait as long as I did this time to make it.  It includes chicken, Spanish chorizo, and sole.

I’m not sure how many years ago we started the tradition of taking a long weekend trip late in January, but it’s one of my favorites.  I think it all began when I figured out that the holiday presents other than clothing my husband received were rarely used, so I surprised him with a trip to Solvang one year.  The next year it was Monterey, and from that point on, we tried to find somewhere to go just to get away.  Sometimes the boy accompanied us, but most often, it was just the two of us.  One year we may have taken a plane, and the next we’d drive.  We’d talk occasionally about stretching ourselves to go somewhere we hadn’t been before — Monterey, CA is still our favorite — but the whole point of getting away is to relax, and when you’re the semi-unadventurous people we are familiarity facilitates that relaxation.

We don’t go as often as we used to since life isn’t as hectic, but this year my husband charged me with finding somewhere to go within a reasonable driving distance.  I’m thinking it’s because the patio is torn up and figuring what to do with it is a far less attractive option than heading off on a Friday afternoon for anything unrelated to a DIY project.  I don’t blame him.

I asked the boy what he thought, and without hesitation he mentioned Julian.  You may remember me waxing over this small town early last month, and since I’d toyed with the idea of gifting my husband with a get away there before moving on to something else, my research had already been done.

We’re back now, and as much as we might have enjoyed some sign of wintery weather, there wasn’t a trace.  Clear blue skies, dry air, and highs of 65 during the day welcomed us.  The cabin was nestled against a mountainside beneath huge cedars, young pines in the undergrowth, and massive coastal live oaks.  The persistent rush of water from a stream nearby was the only sound to be heard.  We hiked, cooked a little, played cards and Yahtzee, and enjoyed the quiet, our books, and one another’s company.   I took Tessa Kiros’ breathtaking book Falling Cloudberries:  A World of Family Recipes which I finally treated myself to after seeing it for the first time about a year ago, and  read through it over the two days.

When I open it to make one of the many wonderful recipes from now on, I’ll remember last weekend and smile.

Here’s a simple, delicious vegetable soup adapted from one of Kiros’ recipes.  It’s light and full of bright, fresh flavor that will warm you through and through.

Perfect.  Just like our weekend.

Vegetable Bean Soup

1 c. large lima beans, cooked

1 leek, rinsed and sliced

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

4-5 small red potatoes, chopped

3 small carrots, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1/4 small butternut squash, cubed

1 bunch chard, chopped

4 whole roma tomatoes, canned

1 c. oyster mushrooms, chopped

1 handfull fresh parsley, chopped

2-3 pinches fresh oregano, chopped

2 bay leaves

salt & pepper to taste

fresh lemon

fruity extra virgin olive oil

Prepare the lima beans ahead of time by soaking them in a pan of water overnight.  Alternatively, bring the beans to a boil, turn the heat off and allow to soak for 1 hour.  Drain the beans, cover them with fresh water and cook partially covered over low heat about 1 hour.  When the beans are tender, remove them from the heat and drain them reserving the broth.

While the beans are cooking, prepare the vegetables.  Mix everything except the olive oil and lemon in a large pot.  Add 10 cups of water and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Cover the pan and bring the vegetables to a boil.  Turn the heat down to a low simmer, partially cover with a lid and allow to cook about 1 hour.  Taste and correct seasoning.

Add the cooked lima beans and 1 cup of the bean broth.  If desired, with any left over lima beans (some of them are very soft after cooking) mash and stir into the soup.

Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a drizzle of good, fruity olive oil.

Mix and match veggies and greens

Cover the veggies with water and cook

Fresh soup for dinner

Notes:

• I could eat this soup — or any variation of it — all week.  The broth is clear, light, and very flavorful.  Without the drizzle of olive oil, this is nearly fat-free, but the drizzle is worth it.  That and the lemon really add a bright flavor to the soup.
• I enjoyed the lima beans in this — especially the mashed up-stir-it-into-the-broth left over limas.  In fact, I could eat them by themselves.  But if you don’t have the limas or the time, I know some rinsed cannellini beans would work just fine.
• If you don’t have chard, then spinach or kale would be nice, too.
• Dried mushrooms would work well instead of fresh if you don’t have a nice variety of mushrooms available.  Cover them with hot water and allow to soak about 30 minutes.  Drain them — reserving the broth — and chop before adding to the vegetable mix.  Add the filtered broth to the soup pot.
• If you don’t have potatoes, add pasta or rice instead.  Make sure it’s partially cooked before adding it to the pot about 20 minutes before the end of cooking time.
• Use the herbs you enjoy in any combination.

I’ve been wanting to make apple butter since last fall and knew when I saw the Rome Beauties at the market the other day, now was the time.  I don’t often see Romes here, but when I do, I think of all the lovely things I might cook, because they’re the perfect apple to cook with.  Their somewhat mild flavor intensifies richly with cooking.

Why apple butter?  Why not apple pie, or apple cobbler, baked apples, a pandowdy, buckle, or slump?

Outside of apple butter being another thing I can check off my “Made it Myself” list which threatens my sanity from time to time, it’s a flavorful fat-free substitute for butter on my morning toast.  Once in the habit, you don’t miss the butter.  I like to stir it into oatmeal or hot Grape Nuts instead of milk and sugar, and it swirls nicely into a cup of non-fat plain Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of granola.

When I started looking for a recipe, I was surprised to find most were loaded with sugar — sometimes as much as four cups.  I found one that contains far less and you can make it in the slow cooker like I did, or on the stove in far less time.

Make it on a chilly day when you want the whole house to smell sweet and spicy.  You’ll have the people you love wanting to know what you’re cooking.

Apple Butter

1 c. dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 c. honey

2 T rice vinegar

1/4 c. water

1 lg. cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/8 tsp. ground mace

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

2-1/4 lb. Rome Beauties (4 lb.)

Core the apples and cut into large chunks.  Add the apples along with all other ingredients to the bowl of a large slow cooker.  Cover it and cook on low for 10 hours.

Once apples are softened, discard the cinnamon stick and scoop apples with a slotted spoon into a mesh strainer.  With the back of a spoon or spatula, mash the apples to extract fruit as possible.  Discard the remaining pulp.

Return the strained contents to the slow cooker and mix with whatever remaining juice is left.  Cook for an additional 1-1/2 hours on high, stirring from time to time.

Scrape apple butter into a sealable container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

rome beauties are best

chop them up, but go ahead and leave the peelings on

add a cinnamon stick & honey (thanks, Becky!)

a pinch of smidgen dash

put everything in the bowl

give it a good stir before you put the lid on

slow cooked 10 hours

makes 24 oz. of spicy sweet tart apple butter

slather it on your morning toast

Notes:

• This recipe was adapted from Cooking Light’s “Overnight Apple Butter.” To view the stovetop variation, click the link.
• Historically, apple butter was made simply by poaching apples in apple cider.  I didn’t have apple cider, and quite frankly didn’t want to add more sugar, so used a bit of vinegar and water instead.
• I left the peelings on the apples, because if I can, I usually do.  I can’t stand getting rid of all those nutrients and I love the texture.
• Speaking of texture, I used a chinois to strain the apple butter and was left with not much in the way of pulp, so ended up adding that back to the mixture.  The peelings had cooked nearly completely down so it made sense.
• After the final cook on high, I allowed the mixture to cool down completely in the slow cooker.  By this morning, it was a nice consistency with a delicious sweet tart flavor that was perfect on my toast.
• If you’d like to know how to properly can apple butter, then Elise of Simply Recipes has an outstanding post on making and canning.

For further consideration:

• To be honest, not much goes into this recipe, but I did pay $1.99/lb. for the Rome Beauties which cost nearly $5.00.  I ended up with three 8-oz. containers of apple butter.
• The apple butter I’ve been purchasing (R.W. Knudsen Family Organic Apple Butter) — and no I’m not being paid to say it — comes in a 16 oz. jar and sells for under $4.00.  There are only two ingredients in their apple butter:  apples and apple juice concentrate.  It’s velvety smooth, a deep caramel color, and quite delicious.
• In a taste comparison test, the spices in the recipe I made are subtle in flavor, but do make a difference.  And there’s a slight tang I also like.  Does that mean I’ll make my own apple butter when I run out?  Not necessarily. But it’s a great recipe — more than just something to check off my list.
• Now, I’m wondering about apple butter swirl gelato…and I have a gelato recipe that isn’t swimming in fat.

Something happened to our Sunday dinners this busy season.  They’re usually what I manage to hang on to after watching our weeknight dinners dissipate one by one from thoughtful, healthy salads and planned entrees, to a quick forage through the wilted inhabitants of my veggie bin for something to saute with rice or pasta.  Throw in some garlic and it’s dinner, right?  Hardly, but it can be eaten in a bowl, sometimes as late as 9:30 p.m. while we’re huddled in our dimly lit family room in front of a recorded show and making weary attempts at questioning one another about the day.

It’s no wonder that looking forward to uninterrupted time in the kitchen draws my attention to the weekend where the result is pleasant time together over a meal that is special — read:  is served on a plate at a reasonable hour.  The idea of “special”  seems to be part of a process to me;  a recipe catches my eye and lingers on the periphery of the minutiae that accumulates in my head, and somehow I manage to remember the main ingredient while on one of my less than stellarly organized grocery shopping trips.  The remembered ingredient is then wedged into my freezer, which just might contain the very same ingredient somewhere in its depths, as a reminder that Sunday dinner is a possibility.  Hopefully, this classifies me as an optimist.

Time goes by.  Other ingredients are collected in other stop-after-work trips to the store for the cat food or laundry detergent I forgot on the previous trip, and because those ingredients are often perishable, they become part of a different meal (see above).  It’s a vicious cycle.

Finally, the day arrives as it does each year.  Busy season ends, and glimmers of a normal life surface.  The long-awaited day in the kitchen and meal are planned and the big question looms:  Will it have been  worth the wait?

Absolutely.

(And this has nothing to do, of course, with the fact that Chef Voltaggio not only took the time to comment on my effort, but put a shout-out about my speck in the food universe on his site, Voltaggio Brothers in “Food Writing.”)

A gracious and hearty thanks to Michael Voltaggio!

Michael Voltaggio’s Indian-Spiced Short Ribs

1/4 c. coriander seeds
2 T cumin seeds
1 T black peppercorns
1 T ground ginger
1 T ground cardamom
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
3 bay leaves, crumbled
2 T canola oil
4 boneless short ribs (10 to 12 ounces each), trimmed of fat
Salt
1 lg. sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
3 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 heads of garlic, halved crosswise
2 cups dry red wine
1 quart chicken stock or broth

Preheat the oven to 325° F.

In a cast iron skillet, toast coriander and cumin seeds slowly over medium heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Transfer seeds to a spice grinder and add peppercorns, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, crushed red pepper and bay leaves.   Pulse to a powder and set aside.

In a large casserole pan, heat the oil. Season meat with salt and cook over high heat until browned and crusty on all sides, about 15 minutes. Remove to a platter and set aside.

Add onion, carrots and celery to the same pan and cook over medium until softened and lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic and 3 T of the spice mix.  Cook until tomatoes begin to fall apart, about 3 minutes, then add wine, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Bring to boil and reduce by half.  Add stock and bring to a simmer. Add the browned meat and juices to the vegetable mixture and season with salt. Cover with foil or a lid and place in the oven about 2 hours or until just tender but not falling off the bone.

Remove meat to a baking sheet and pour the rest of the mixture through a strainer into a saucepan. Press against the solids with a spoon to extract more juice before discarding. Boil the liquid over high heat until reduced to 1 cup.

While the sauce is reducing, preheat broiler placing a rack about 6- 8 inches from heat. Brush meat with sauce, then sprinkle lightly with some of the remaining spice mixture.   Broil briefly until sizzling.

Serve short ribs with some of the sauce spooned over.

We enjoyed this recipe with Aloo Gobi, a spicy Indian cauliflower and potato dish flavored with green chilies, cilantro, and turmeric which was also fabulous.

Notes:

• This fabulous recipe can be found in the April 2010 issue of Food & Wine and is one created by last season’s winner of Top Chef.  He and his brother Bryan have a great food forum at Voltaggio Brothers.
• The spice blend is a type of garam masala.  Ingredients for this blend vary from one recipe to another, and I’ve found it’s fun to try a variety.  This one is much different than others I’ve tried as it contains both cinnamon and cardamom.  The cloves are also an addition I’m not used to.  For the spice in my blend, I chopped up half of a red serrano chili, seeds and all.
• I rarely make a recipe as written but was fairly close with this one because it is so much different than any short rib recipes I’ve tried. I was intrigued from the start.  When I make short ribs, they’re always smaller than what is described in recipes of this nature and a couple make a nice individual serving.  There’s no way to slice anything off of the bone and arrange it as I might another cut of meat that’s been braised.
• This was almost a one-pot recipe.  I used my Mario Batalli orange enameled cast iron lasagna pan for this.  (And no, I’m not selling them.)  It works great on the stove top when I want a high brown that will be deglazed, then the whole recipe popped into the oven.
• I used hot-house tomatoes because I had them on hand.  A jammy Rosenblum Cellars California Zinfandel was used in the braise– about $12.
• This is truly an excellent recipe that seems like a lot of work, but isn’t.  Many parts can be made ahead if need be — like the garam masala.  This recipe makes enough for the short ribs and leaves a scant 3 T left over for other recipes.
• We liked this so much that I’m going to try it with a larger cut of meat just to see how the incredible flavor holds up.  I’m thinking that finishing it on the barbeque would be great.

I love cooking with wine.  Although I do enjoy a dry white splashed into a pan of caramelized shallots for deglazing, or marsala stirred into a mixture of sauteed mushrooms and garlic before a bit of cream is added, I most enjoy meat or poultry braised slowly in red wine over the course of a Sunday afternoon.  Anticipation builds as a heavenly aroma fills the house making us all a bit anxious for dinner time to arrive to see whether the finished product lives up to its promise.

Sometimes, I’m a fairly hard sell.  It isn’t so much that the most recent recipe I’ve experimented with isn’t good;  they very nearly always are.  But think about it.  Once you’ve had an amazing version of something you truly enjoy, it’s challenging for anything else to replicate the wonder of that first bite.

Mention Coq au Vin and someone will ask about what the special occasion might be.  When you consider that any braise is done because the meat used is not an expensive cut, and needs to cook for a long time to make it tender, you know it isn’t necessarily a fancy dish.  In the case of Coq au Vin,  traditionally, the farmer’s old rooster became the dinner.  Bacon, mushrooms, onions, and a liberal quantity of red wine made for quite the send off for that old rooster, and a savory treat for the farmer after a hard day’s work.  All things considered, Coq au Vin is a one pot dish.

I’ve had my eye on a recipe for Coq au Vin I first saw in Saveur. The only reason I haven’t made it before now is that it required marinating the chicken overnight and sometimes my lack of planning gets the best of me.  That oversight hasn’t kept me from making Coq au Vin because I just choose a different version.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t solved the problem.  I’ve wondered about how the marinade might change the complexity of the flavors and whether this particular recipe might be the one to best all of the others.

Evidently, I’m not the only one. It just so happens that it’s the source of the next recipe I’d like to try for Coq au Vin.  Might it be the one?  I’d have to actually find a rooster that doesn’t have his feathers on to get started…and deal with his kidneys.

Coq au Vin

3 cups red wine
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
3 cloves garlic (1 whole, 2 chopped)
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1  5–6-lb. chicken, cut into 10 pieces
3 tbsp. olive oil
8 sprigs flat-leaf parsley plus 1 tbsp.
chopped leaves
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
1/2 lb. slab bacon, cut into 2″-long slivers
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups Chicken Stock
2 shallots, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp. butter
18 pearl onions, peeled
1/2 lb. button mushrooms, quartered

The directions can be found here.

Notes:

• I used a whole, pre-cut chicken and included all but the gizzard, liver, and heart in this recipe.  With respect to the bacon, I’ve never taken the time to find out where I can get slab bacon, so just use thick-cut bacon:  about 10 strips because you can never really have too much bacon, can you?
• I chopped all the garlic and added it to the marinade.  I’d like to say I did this purposefully, but that would not be the case.  In any event, it was all going into the pot, so I decided it wasn’t a grievous error.
• I don’t make my own chicken stock.  I consistently use “Better than Bouillon” bases for my cooking.  They cost more, but are worth it when you’re making something nice.
• I used a small package of red pearl onions.  To prepare them, drop them into softly boiling water and allow them to cook for a few minutes before pouring them into a strainer and dousing them with cold water until they’re cool.  A bowl of water filled with ice cubes works just fine.  To peel them,  slice off the root end and the covers slide right off.  This still takes patience, so don’t underestimate the time involved in this step unless you’re an Olympic pearl onion peeler. You might assign it to an unsuspecting person related to you who happens to live in your house.  Train them early is what I always say.
• If I’m going to cook with wine, I don’t use anything I wouldn’t drink.  It’s tempting to go with something less costly, but taste it and then you’ll know.  You might be surprised at how great a $10 bottle of wine is.  The chicken isn’t expensive, so splurge on the wine. I probably committed a faux pas by using a lovely Rioja Tempranillo from Espana.  When you live in California, the French wine selection isn’t always that great (or you’re like me and don’t really understand what is good and what isn’t), and the Spanish selection is constantly improving.  There’s no logic in that explanation beyond the parenthetical insertion, but I’m sticking with it.
• Leave the skin on.  Resist the urge to take it off.  You’ll have other opportunities to avoid it later.  For example, peel it off after you’ve plated your portion.  Or, if you make this ahead, and you can do that, after refrigerated, the excess fat is visible, and you can remove it before reheating it.
• This is a very good recipe.  Very.  If you’ve not made Coq au Vin, it’s a great place to begin.
• The three of us enjoyed this with roasted parsnips and had plenty left over for another meal.
• If you’d like to try Julia’s version, it can be found here.
• Or you can read about which version is better at Chowhound. That would be the throwdown between Julia and Molly.

Ready for the oven.

Ready to serve.

Done.