Favorite Rooster Recipes: Coq au Vin

What follows is my latest incarnation of Coq au Vin (or Rooster Stewed in Wine). Coq au Vin is a simple and delicious chicken stew that can be as complicated as you like. It does take advance prep to marinate and (if you’re using a rooster) plenty of time to stew.

Except for the mushrooms, everything on this plate came from our homestead: rooster, onions, shallots, garlic, thyme, potatoes, goat milk (for the mashed potatoes) and chard. So good. So good.

Now I know most of you who are not raising your own chickens will not be able to obtain a rooster. I don’t think store bought chicken has enough “ooh la la” to handle Coq au Vin, but if you’ve never had rooster, then you won’t know what you’re missing. You just won’t need to stew it as long.

I came across a wonderful website detailing one man’s quest for an authentic Coq au Vin recipe. Unfortunately I couldn’t locate it again to post the link here. He wrote that “traditonally” a 2-3 year old rooster would be used. We almost never have a rooster that old. Usually we’re butchering at 5-8 months. However, I have to add that it’s easy to get caught up in the details of modern retellings of “peasant” type cuisine. My own peasant-style cooking dictates that whatever I have on hand is what goes in the recipe. That said, I love to include mushrooms in Coq au Vin if I have them or can coordinate my grocery shopping with butchering day. – Jen

Coq Au Vin

(This version is loosely adapted from looking at recipes from the Epicurious website and previous experience making Coq au Vin).

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

1 rooster, cut into 6-8 pieces (I usually keep the wings for making stock.)

1 bottle of wine (This permutation used a ho-hum Blackstone Merlot, but people can get really fussy about the wine they use. Ho hum.)

4 cloves garlic, smashed

4 shallots, smashed (Optional. I don’t always have shallots on hand, but we had a great crop this year.)

3 bay leaves

For the stew:

6 slices bacon (I used up an end of salt pork from our home-butchered pig.)

3 medium onions, chopped into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Handful shallots, chopped (Our shallots from the garden were smallish.)

1 pound mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini.)

Bacon grease or olive oil

6 stems fresh thyme

2-3 cups reduced or regular stock or more wine to cover (I use homemade unsalted condensed stock. Adjust salt accordingly if you’re using store bought stock.)

sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

For those of you butchering your own rooster: After butchering, I separate the rooster into drumsticks, thighs, four breast pieces and put them in water in a glass tupperware dish and then keep covered in the fridge for at least two days. I put the back, neck and wings into the stock pot and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer off and on for two days. (this is my lazy stock: simmer until I have to go out, then turn off and leave on the stove, then turn back on when I get back inside. At night I just put it outside to keep cool, then start er back up in the am. After a few days, I strain out the meat and bones, and then reduce by half.) For this particular gastronomic event, the rooster was soaking in water for four days before I got around to making the stew.

1 day ahead: Marinate the Rooster:

Soak the rooster pieces, garlic, bay leaves and shallots in wine to cover, overnight, up to two days. Usually I add thyme leaves here, but this particular time I prepped the dish late at night and didn’t feel like going out in the garden. Plus it was raining. Also, many recipes will call for chopped onions and carrots to go in the marinade. I like doing this too, but was too lazy this time.

To Make the Stew:

1. In a 3 quart minimum heavy pot (I use a Le Creuset, but you could use any stainless steel), cook bacon until browned.  Remove to a plate. If there is not enough fat from the bacon, add bacon grease or olive oil, heat and brown the rooster pieces. Sometimes I just leave the bacon in. Remove to a plate when browned.

2. Add bacon grease or olive oil as needed in order to saute onions. Saute onions with sea salt till tender, add garlic and shallots and saute for a minute or so. Add thyme. If the pot gets dry I just throw in some wine. Add the mushrooms and saute for several minutes. Add rooster pieces, marinade and additional liquid to cover to the rooster pieces. I add wine if I have a bottle open. This time I used two cups of condensed home-made stock, salt free. Add freshly cracked black pepper to taste. I used probably just over a half-teaspoon.

3. Cover the pot, bring contents to a simmer, reduce heat and simmer, cover ajar, until the rooster is tender, 2-5 hours, depending on your stove and the rooster. I only had to simmer a few hours till he was falling off the bone. At this point, I take off the lid and simmer more vigorously to reduce liquid. This step will depend on how much gravy you want with your stew. We like a lot to pour over mashed potatoes, so I don’t reduce too much. I also don’t add flour at any stage, because I like the natural gravy that long stewing creates.

4. Serve with mashed potatoes (I keep them lumpy and simple -not too much butter or milk to compete with the rich gravy. Definitely no cheese!) and steam-sauteed greens. A favorite is kale or collards, but we served chard last night since we expected a frost, and the chickens have been getting out and having their way with it. Red wine accompanied the meal. And for dessert, of course, homemade apple pie with the last apples from our trees. Bon appetit!

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Blackened String Beans

This year I planted a bunch of pole and bush beans throughout our gardens. So far we’ve harvested about 5 pounds of beautiful crisp green beans. A few nights ago we made blackened string beans with a mustard remoulade dipping sauce using Ric Orlando’s recipe. Ric owns New World Home Cooking, a restaurant that we visited often when we lived in New York’s Hudson Valley. If you like hot and spicy, you’ll love these. They go great with crab cakes. -Tree

Blackened String Beans with Mustard Remoulade dipping sauce

Crab cakes made with scallions from our gardens.

We’ve been eating well at Sunstone

Another great meal from the pig Jen and I raised and butchered: Barbecued ribs marinated in ginger, honey, garlic and fish sauce; sauteed amaranth greens from our garden, and home-brewed beer. Talk about eating local.

We got the recipe for the ribs from the July issue of  Bon Appetit magazine. -Tree

We cooked the ribs 8 minutes on each side with the grill cover open, and then 8 minutes each side with it closed.

Barbecued ribs, amaranth greens and home-brewed beer.

Favorite Rooster Recipes: Corfu Rooster

Every now and then, a rooster must be dispatched from the farm. Often I’ll see ads for free roosters to a good home –not to be eaten, but the likelihood of finding a home that does not involve a freezer or cock-fighting setup is slim. Putting the rooster in the stew pot is a time-honored way of living sustainably on the land, making use of all our resources.

Here are some of my favorite recipes, but you can use any chicken stew recipe. Your rooster will have so much more flavor than a grocery store chicken, organic or not, that you will finally understand why many old-timers (my 96 year old grandmother included) or foreigners complain that our chicken is tasteless.

The first think you have to do is age your rooster after you butcher. If you cook your rooster right away, it will be tough, tough, tough, no matter how long you stew. The meat will be chewier than grocery store chicken which is so flabby you can cut it with a fork, but remember this bird has been running around your yard, chasing off hawks and finding grubs for your hens. To age your bird, let the meat rest in the refrigerator for two to four days. I usually wait two or three days. Aging it in a bring also helps. If you only have 24 hours to age the bird, then definitely age it in a brine, or wine, or buttermilk, depending on your recipe.

Notice how dark yellow the fat is on these roosters which spent their lives running around outdoors, eating grass, bugs and other good stuff.

My favorite recipes include Coq au Vin, Chicken Paprikash, a Corfu dish Pastisatha (my new favorite), Ajiaco (a delicious Columbian-style chicken stew), and good old boiled chicken to use in pot pies, enchiladas, etc.

I’ll add recipes for all my favorites, but here is the Corfu Rooster recipe to start. I originally found this from Gourmet magazine. A reader requested the recipe after vacationing on Corfu. If you use a grocery store hen, the recipe won’t have the outstanding flavor of a rooster, but it will still be good, and you won’t have to cook it nearly as long. I serve this with mashed or roasted potatoes and steam-sautéed greens. – Jen

Corfu Rooster
Serving size depends on the bird

1 rooster, cut into pieces
7 garlic cloves, smashed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoon olive oil or lard
1 tablespoon tomato paste (or use some tomatoes)
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)
2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
3 ½ cups water
½ cup dry white wine (or vermouth or other booze)
1 teaspoon sugar

Pat chicken dry.

Stir together cinnamon, salt, pepper and sprinkle over chicken.

Heat oil in a skillet and brown chicken in two batches on all sides, transfer to a plate
meanwhile, stir tomato paste and vinegar.

Add more oil to skillet if necessary and sauté onions till golden; about 6 minutes.

Stir in tomato mixture and simmer 1 minute. Stir in water, wine sugar and simmer uncovered, ~5 minutes.

Add chicken to pot and simmer, covered, until tender (1-3 hours, depending on how tough your rooster is).

Transfer cook chicken to a platter and boil sauce, uncovered, till reduced to about 2 ½ cups (about 10 minutes). Season with salt!

Recipe for Nettle and Oat Straw Infusion

Nettle and Oat Straw Infusion

Oat straw or dried milky oat seed makes a delicious and nourishing herbal infusion, especially when paired with nettles. To make the infusion, place a handful of nettles and a handful of oat straw or seed in a mason jar. Fill with almost-boiling water to the top. Cover and let steep at least four hours or overnight. Strain and heat, or refrigerate to enjoy a refreshing herbal iced tea. Store the remainder in the refrigerator up to three days. Honey added when the water is hot will increase the storage time by a few days.

Nettle and oat straw infusion is a wonderful tonic all year but especially in the spring and fall for seasonal allergies. I have great success using nettles and oat straw tea for hay fever even though many sources will say only the freeze-dried capsules will work (nonsense!). Enjoy! -Jen

Basil, Garlic and Walnut Goat Cheese

One of my favorite recipes for herbed goat cheese I learned from a friend I knew in San Francisco. He was a chef and explained the recipe is those vague chef like terms, just add a bit of this and a bit of that. At the time, I still needed recipes to follow, though now I’ve graduated to the bit of this, bit of that cooking school.

Basil, Garlic & Walnut Goat Cheese

1. Toast approximately 1/2 cup walnuts (I generally toast a lot more and then add extra nuts to cheese or save for snacking). When cool, chop. Set aside.

2. If using store bought chevre, let cheese come to room temperature. Blend 8oz of cheese in a small bowl till smooth and soft. Add a handful basil, finely chopped. Add one or two minced or crushed cloves of garlic, depending on how garlicky you like your food. If you’re not a fan of garlic, mince the garlic and use a small clove. Add the walnuts to the cheese. Adjust seasonings to taste. Sometimes I sprinkly finely chopped walnuts over the top of the cheese before serving.

This cheese is always a big hit. Caveat: I never measure amounts, and I usually make 2 pounds at a time with this cheese (this is based on the amount of milk my goatie girls produce on a daily basis) so take the recipe amounts with a grain of salt. -Jen

Thanks, Desi!

The River Cottage Meat Book

Jen opened her Christmas present from me this morning (I can never wait until Christmas) so now I can write about it. I gave her a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book which was originally published in the UK in 2004 and was released this year in a revised American edition.

Engagingly written and accompanied by gorgeous photographs of British farm life, perfect cuts of meat and mouth-watering dishes, this book is far more than a cookbook. It opens with a manifesto on high-quality, local, and sustainable meat production that forces you to think long and hard about the meat you eat. What breed of animal did it come from? Where was the animal raised? How was it treated? What did it eat? Questions that Big Agriculture doesn’t want you to think about.

A guide on choosing and storing meats and fowl follows with the remainder of the book devoted to procedures and recipes for roasting, cooking, barbecuing, preserving, and processing meats as well as getting the most out of leftovers. I can’t wait to try the loin of lamb stuffed with apricots and pine nuts!