Balthazar's Coq au Vin

It might seem bizarre turning to an American cookbook for a classic French recipe but this version from the Balthazar Cookbook is hard to beat.

Though we might be inclined to use a tender young chicken, Coq au Vin was originally made by braising the meat from a sinewy old rooster in cheap red wine for a long period of time.

Serves 4

4 large stewing hen legs
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1cm dice
1 large carrot, cut into 1cm dice
2 celery stalks, cut into medium dice
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
1 bottle of red wine*
1 bouquet garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons plain flour
750ml veal stock (for which there is a recipe in the book) or homemade chicken stock
250g pearl onions, peeled
225g smoked streaky bacon in one piece, diced
450g small button mushrooms
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a large bowl, combine the legs, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, wine and bouquet garni. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.

Strain the legs and the vegetables from the marinade, reserving the liquid and separating the chicken and vegetables. Season the legs with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a large casserole. When it begins to smoke, add the legs, in batches if necessary, being sure not to crowd the pan. Brown evenly and deeply on all sides, about 8 minutes per side. Set the finished legs to the side and discard the oil; replenish it between batches.

When finished browning the legs, reduce the heat to medium and add the reserved vegetables to the pot. Cook until they soften and begin to brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the flour, stirring again for about 2 minutes. Add the reserved wine marinade and, as it bubbles up, use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot and incorporate any flavourful bits into the broth. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, about 20 to 25 minutes, then add the stock. As it reaches the boil, reduce the heat to low and maintain a slow and gentle simmer for 1 hour, at which point the meat should be meltingly tender.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients: blanch the pearl onions in boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Drain and set aside. Cook the bacon in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until brown, about 10 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Add the mushrooms to the pan and the now very hot rendered bacon fat, cook until brown, about 5 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Add the blanched pearl onions to the pan, sauting until they too are brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove the legs from the braising liquid and strain the contents of the pot, reserving the liquid and discarding the vegetables. Bring to a strong simmer and skim the surface of the sauce as it bubbles, removing any visible fat. When the sauce has reduced by half, return the legs to the pot along with the bacon, onions and mushrooms and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Just prior to serving, add the chopped parsley.

Serve with French-style pomme purée (creamy mashed potato)

From The Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr & Lee Hanson, published in the UK by Absolute Press, price £25.

What to drink*:
The tradition with this types of recipe is to drink a slightly better version of the wine you've used to cook it - a Nuits-St-Georges when you've used a basic burgundy for example but a less well-known appellation like Aloxe-Corton or Fixin would be less costly and rather more interesting. Or you could perfectly well use an inexpensive southern French red

Cheat’s Chilli for Chilli Dogs

As you'll see in the entertaining section today I've come up with the idea of throwing a hot dog party and here's a recipe for a basic chilli to go with it. You could of course use a more authentic recipe (without beans) but authenticity isn't the point of hot dogs. They're basically fun food.

Enough for 10-12 dogs

3 tbsp sunflower oil or other light cooking oil

500g minced beef

2 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 rounded tbsp mild chilli powder or a good slug of chipotle sauce

400g tin of chopped tomatoes or 500g passata

Salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan for about 3 minutes over a moderate heat. Add the oil then, when it’s hot, tip in the mince and break it up in the pan. Keep frying and turning it for about 2-3 minutes until it has browned then tip away the excess fat. Add the tomato paste and mix well with the meat then add the garlic and chilli powder or chipotle sauce. Stir and mix well.

Tip the the tomatoes, breaking them down with a fork. Season with salt and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cool for 5-10 minutes before using.

 

 

Momofuku's 'Volcanoes'

At a time when everyone seems to be looking for meals they can make from 3 ingredients in under 15 minutes Christina Tosi's Volcanoes recipe from Momofuku Milk Bar will strike you as insanely long. It involves 3 separate recipes before you even begin to embark on the Volcanoes themselves. So why am I suggesting you should attempt it?

Because they're the best bread rolls in the universe - stuffed with sliced potato and cheese. I confess I haven't made them myself - yet - but my friend blogger Dan Vaux-Nobes of Essex Eating has and is obsessed with them. I tasted them the other day and could see his point: warm, cheesy and comforting (that's the rolls, not Dan) they're almost a meal in themselves. And not that difficult once you read the recipe(s) through.

Here they are with introductions from Christina.

makes 4 volcanoes (yes, just 4. Insane but they're BIG)

In February 2008, I traveled with Dave to Deauville, France, for the third annual Omnivore Food Festival. The two of us were like fish out of water in this off-season beach town. Straight off the plane from New York and jet-lagged, we were left to our own devices in the tiny, remote town to gather Asian ingredients for a kimchi demo.

We agreed to wake up at 6 a.m. the next day to get breakfast and get going. We met drowsy and confused in the empty hotel lobby and proceeded to sleepwalk through the ghost town until we could smell fresh-baked bread and saw a light on in the only bakery in town. Dave took charge and pointed at nearly everything in the joint, as that’s how we eat when we’re abroad. “I’m full” is not a phrase you’re allowed to use—such is the price of traveling with chef Dave Chang.

We found a bench outside and unwrapped this mound of bread that looked like it had some sort of creamy gravy inside. Still half-asleep, we wrestled the filled bread ball out of the bag and bit in. When you are having a food moment, it’s like tasting food for the first time. Your eyes open wide and then close, as if in slow motion. You chew as if no food with flavor has ever touched your tongue before and what you are eating at that very moment is what will shape all future food opinions you will ever have. That was our 6:05 a.m. February morning in Deauville. Neither of us speaks French, so we decided to call it what it was, a volcano—an explosion of potato, lardons, and cheese like no other. We raced each other to the bakery every subsequent morning that week. And on the plane ride home, we agreed that if and when we opened a bakery, it must serve our very own volcano.

½ recipe Mother Dough (see below), risen

1 recipe Caramelized Onions (see below)

1 recipe Scalloped Potatoes (see below)

1 egg

4g / ½ teaspoon water

100g shredded Gruyère cheese (Dan uses Keen's cheddar)

1. Heat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5.

2. Punch down and flatten the dough on a smooth, dry worktop. Use a dough cutter to divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Use your fingers to gently stretch each piece of dough out into a mini pizza about 15 cm wide.

3. Divide the onions equally among the rounds, plopping them in the center. Grab the scalloped potatoes from the fridge and cut into four 7.5 cm squares. Use an offset spatula to wrestle each square of potato gratin out of the baking tray and onto a dough round, directly on top of the onions.

4. Take the edges of each dough round and pinch together to seal so that there is no speck of onion or potato in sight, then gently roll the ball between the palms of your hands to ensure the volcano has a nice, round, dinner roll–y shape. Arrange the volcanoes, seam side down, 12.5 cm apart on a parchment- or silicone-lined baking tray.

5. Whisk the egg and water together and brush a generous coat of egg wash on the buns. Use a paring knife to cut a 2.5 cm-long X in the top of each volcano. Divide the Gruyère evenly among the volcanoes, stuffing it into the X in each one.

6. Bake the volcanoes for 25 minutes, or until the dough is a deep, golden brown and the Gruyère cheese on top is caramelized. They are best served warm; allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes before digging in. If you’re saving a couple of volcanoes for later, let them cool, wrap them well in cling film, and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days; warm them in the oven before eating.

Caramelized onions

makes enough for 1 recipe Volcanoes

I love caramelized onions. I make them constantly at home and put them in everything from sandwiches to nachos piled high to scrambled eggs. They add a roasted depth of flavor and an unbelievable sweetness.

20g / 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

2 medium Spanish onions, halved and thinly sliced

6g / 1½ teaspoons kosher or sea salt

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium-high heat for 1 minute, or until it’s very hot but not smoking. Add the onions and let them cook for 2 to 3 minutes without stirring.

2. Toss the onions with a large spoon or spatula while seasoning them with the salt. Lower the heat to medium-low. The rest of the caramelization process happens slowly over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Work on another sub-recipe, pay some bills, kill some time productively—but don’t go too far from the onions. Toss the onions over on themselves every 3 to 4 minutes so they all get their time on the bottom of the pan. The onions will weep and then slowly take on color as they release their liquid. When your onions are the color of a brown paper bag, they are done. Cool completely before using in the volcanoes, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Scalloped potatoes

makes enough for 1 recipe Volcanoes

1 garlic clove

105g/120ml whipping or double cream

85g/80ml milk

½ bay leaf

¼ rosemary sprig

2g/½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

0.5g/pinch freshly ground black pepper

80g pancetta (Dan leaves this out as his girlfriend Elly is a vegetarian - they're fine without it)

2 baking potatoes

1. Smash the garlic clove with the palm of your hand and remove the skin. Put the garlic in a small saucepan with the cream, milk, bay leaf, rosemary, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer over low heat, then take the saucepan off the heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes. The cream mixture will seem strong and overseasoned, but it will eventually season all of the scalloped potatoes, so don’t freak out.

2. Meanwhile, cut the pancetta, if using, into 1 cm cubes. Brown it in a small saucepan over medium heat. You want to caramelize and cook the pancetta slightly, to increase its presence later in the scalloped potatoes. Set aside.

3. Peel the potatoes and slice just thicker than paper-thin slices, about 3 mm thick. Submerge them in a bowl of cold water.

4. Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Pull out a 15 mm square baking tray (if you don’t have one, you can probably buy a disposable one at the supermarket).

5. Layer the potatoes in the tray like shingles (overlapping tiles), putting bits of browned pancetta between each layer of potato shingles, until you are out of both potatoes and pancetta. Fish out the herbs and garlic clove from the steeped cream mixture with a slotted or regular spoon, and then pour the cream over the potatoes.

6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the potatoes on top are golden brown and have a milky translucence but have not burned or turned into potato crisps.

7. Cool and chill the scalloped potatoes in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours, covered with cling film and with a bowl of leftovers weighting them down and keeping every shingle tight and condensed in the tray.

8. Use in the volcano once cool. To store for later use, take the weights off, wrap the scalloped potatoes especially well in cling film, and return to the fridge for up to 5 days.

Mother dough

makes about 850 g

This bread dough is always tasty, very forgiving, and can be fashioned into nearly any style or variety of bready item. It takes a very “don’t take yourself so seriously!” approach to bread baking and is the easiest, most versatile recipe in the book—your resulting bagel bombs, volcanoes, brioche, focaccia, and croissants will be proof of that.

Make this dough one day, refrigerate it, and use it the second, third, or fourth day, if need be. Or freeze it for up to 1 week; just make sure to let it come to room temperature before using.

550g bread flour

12g / 1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt

3.5g / 1¹⁄8 teaspoons dried yeast

370g / 420ml water, at room temperature

grapeseed oil

1. Stir together the flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer—do it by hand, using the dough hook like a spoon. Continue stirring by hand as you add the water, mixing for 1 minute, until the mixture has come together into a shaggy mass.

2. Engage the bowl and hook and have the machine mix the dough on the lowest speed for 3 minutes, or until the ball of dough is smoother and more cohesive. Then knead for 4 more minutes on the lowest speed. The dough should look like a wet ball and should bounce back softly when prodded.

3. Brush a large bowl with oil and dump the dough into it. Cover with cling film and let the dough rise at room temperature for 45 minutes.

4. The dough is ready to be used as directed in the following recipes. If you do not plan to use your mother dough the day you make it, you can store it in an airtight container at least twice its size in the fridge for up to 3 days. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature 30 to 45 minutes before using.

What to drink with Volcanoes
I haven't done extensive research on this (that's obviously to come) but can recommend a creamy oak-aged chardonnay or a glass of good sparkling wine or champagne. They'd probably go pretty well with a Merlot or an American IPA too.

Extracted from Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi published by Absolute Press at £25.00. There are many other insanely good recipes in it, mostly sweet. Read the Crumb section and try the Crack Pie. No, not that kind of crack.

Rose petal cupcakes

I call these cupcakes but in fact they're more like old-fashioned English fairy cakes which seem more appropriate for the Jubilee. I must say I prefer them. Made with butter rather than oil they taste more natural and 'cakey than an American-style cupcake and have about a third the amount of icing.

Makes 24 cakes

250g soft butter
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten with 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
250g self raising flour, sifted twice
125ml whole milk

For the icing
50g soft butter
a few drops of pink food colouring
200g icing sugar, sifted twice
1/4 tsp rosewater
a small pinch of salt (about 1/3 of a tsp)
2-3 tbsp whole milk

You will need two shallow muffin tins and some pretty paper cases and some rose petal-shaped cake decorations

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4

Tip the butter into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until smooth. Add the sugar about a third at a time and continue to beat until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla essence gradually, adding a spoonful of flour with the last few additions. Fold in the remaining flour alternately with the milk taking care not to overmix. Spoon into the paper cases and bake for about 20- 25 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Remove the baking trays from the oven for 5 minutes then transfer the cakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Rinse and dry the beaters then make the icing. Beat the butter until soft. Pour a few drops of pink food colouring onto a teaspoon (easier to control than pouring straight from the bottle) then carefully add to the butter, pouring back any excess into the bottle. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar 2-3 tablespoonfuls at a time. Add the rosewater, salt and enough milk to make a spreadable consistency. Spread on the tops of the cupcakes and decorate with the sugar roses. Leave for 2 hours before stacking them into a tiered cake. Scatter real pink rose petals around the cake.

What to drink: Pink moscato or a nice cup of tea.