Wine + mushrooms + onions + chicken + bacon = coq au vin

Oct 06, 2018,12:37 PM
 

The other evening I was enjoying a beautiful day outside while fearing my evening at a giant dinner organized by my wife and a group of charitably-minded women. I'm sure you have been to such things in a hotel room with speakers, lots of strangers wearing name badges, and recalcitrant overhead projectors and feedback-plagued sound systems. Plus a pledge envelope at the end.



The good thing about this event was we were chosen to sample the food and wine, and voted on the final selections. You may have read about it in July, when I reported on helping with this assignment.


One bad thing about a banquet is the high prices necessary to cover all the room cost, servers, etc. 

In this case, our frugal ladies struck a deal that allowed them to bring in the wine, and take the extras home. We had to pay for corkage fee for every bottle opened - which of course is NOT the same as every bottle consumed. So after the dinner a small team of us went around and poured out the low bottles to happy guests, and carried the full-but-open bottles back to our "take it home" case. Which was given to me.



Don't you hate this sort of thing? 

We had 7 full Cotes du Rhone and 5 full Chardonnay, with corks pulled. And a case or so of red and white still unopened. We made a deal with the ladies - if they bought 2 pristine bottles for $10 each, we gave them one of the "slightly opened" bottles too. That worked to sell off 3/4 of the wine.



Now we still have 4 reds and 3 whites, so I have put out a plea to friends and we will do our best to consume this immediately, before it "goes bad". A thoughtful suggestion from TimJ resulted in my French wine-consuming recipe for today, coq au vin.



I don't care for onions so I used garlic cloves instead. It smells wonderful in here!



Now to find some crusty French bread and we'll be all set.

Cazalea

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Thanks! The banquet was a success

 
 By: cazalea : October 6th, 2018-13:24
and she has received many congratulations and pats on the back. Now I hope she can relax for awhile.

Hi Mike!

 
 By: renerod : October 6th, 2018-14:23
It looks totally delicious! Have a great rest of the day. I could only hope if you would share the recipe with us. Oh! And I forgot to tell you what a lovely vintage seiko on your wrist! Best. René

Coq a vin Recipe

 
 By: cazalea : October 6th, 2018-14:45
It's not too hard. This is how I do it. Soak 8-10 chicken pieces in the red wine overnight. In the morning take it out, and dry it off carefully. You can use the wine later in the pot. Fry three thick pieces of bacon. Take the bacon out of pan and let it ... 

Yummy!

 
 By: renerod : October 6th, 2018-15:33
Thanks a lot dear Mike, will make it soon! Best. René

I’m salivating at the thought of dining later my friend!

 
 By: Tim Jackson : October 7th, 2018-11:01
Look forward to catching up and seeing you guys. Will bring some libations too, in case all yours went into the cooking pot ;-) Cheers, Tim

That’s looking absolutely delicious, Mike :)

 
 By: KMII : October 6th, 2018-21:25
Wish I could help out in consuming it

Well, we ate and drank our fill

 
 By: cazalea : October 7th, 2018-21:34
Some white, two varieties of bubbly, and the red ... The Coq au vin Only a few bones left The orgy ended with a bar of 72% chocolate. Thanks for checking in on us. Mike ...  

Wow, I've been remiss with this worldwind week...Huge "Thank You" to the chefs

 
 By: Tim Jackson : October 13th, 2018-15:57
A brilliant afternoon catching up and dining on your excellent Coq au vin. Much laughter and sharing of stories together with dear friends, oh and we enjoyed our Independent Watchmaker pieces that kept us company. You and Mrs. Cazalea are tremendous hosts...