...or so Jenny & I were calling it on instant messenger, in a fit of pun (a pit of fun?) around Continental philosophers/philosophies--Mr. Herman Nutix, Esq.; Sick Sue? I hope she feels better soon!; a good kick in the Derrida; etc. Well, we had fun with it. (You know you're a humanities Ph.D. student when....)
Anyway, tonight as the evening's recreation I made coq au vin, and it was fabulous, if I may say so myself. I'd show pictures, but as ye know, it's not really that photogenic a food, and besides, my housemate Sarah and I devoured it before it could pose for the camera.
I made it with an eye to Delia's recipe, but as usual I only used it for the structure of the thing. So I fecked in some carrots and diced new potatoes after it had been cooking awhile. My only complaint with her recipe is that her notion about thickening the sauce didn't work so well (she said to make a paste of butter and flour and add that to the reduced liquid, but I think I'd have done as well the flour-water way, since I wound up with some lumps in it using the paste, and I had certainly put in enough butter already).
I used the Sainsbury's version of beaujolais, which does actually come from France (unlike some of their other wines, which come from Bulgaria and Mars and places like that). More than adequate for cooking, decent to drink while cooking, but I found that it wasn't really worth drinking with the meal. It needed something to take attention away from it as a drinking wine--either a bunch of merriment & shite talk like a departmental w(h)ine and cheese, or a task at hand, like putting together the Coco Van. But at about 3.50 sterling (about $7) I have no complaints.
In other news, I realize I have been very remiss about indicating which Books I'm Not Reading lately. So....
The Book I'm Not Reading: Adriana Cavarero's For More Than One Voice
...and I think I may also start posting poems. If it's good enough for Jeanette Winterson, it's good enough for me!
3 comments:
Hm. That thickening technique (beurre manière) is a never-fail thing for me. It's like a roux in reverse. I wonder what happened?
And what is this "enough butter" thing of which you speak?
I loves me some coco van. I'm going to have to make this for myself soon.
Hmmm. Maybe I didn't work the flour into the butter well enough? And was I right to just feck in the glob of paste into the already-boiling juice? That was a bit unclear from the recipe.
In any case, I expect I'll be making more coco van soon....
It takes a bit of whisking while the butter is melting, I guess. The idea is that since the flour is evenly distributed in the paste, it permeates your sauce as the butter melts without clumping.
I'm eating Honey Nut Cheerios and a green banana while I'm typing this. Sigh.
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