Coq au Vin Yummy, but

I made coq au vin a la bourguignonne last night. It was quite tasty, but it certainly took a lot of time to prepare. None of the steps was difficult, but there were a lot of them.

I had most of the ingredients on hand, but I had great difficulty in finding boiling or pearl onions, and had to go to four stores before I found some. [Snooty oenophiles: skip to next paragraph so you won't gag.] I was also kind of looking for an inexpensive red wine to use instead of the stuff I had at home. On the endcap in one grocery store, I discovered some Gallo Twin Valley Hearty Burgundy with coupons hanging around their necks marked down to only $2. Perfect.

Speaking of onions, until the Farmer's Market got in some decently priced onions at 39 cents/pound, for the last few months we've faced onion prices of $1.29-$1.59/lb (and this is for ordinary, yellow onions--not Vidalias). The grocery stores here are still selling onions in that high range. What's going on?

And speaking of grocery stores, one of my prime directives was to buy some corn that was on sale. Of course, I bought everything else and totally forgot the corn. Duh. I hate it when I do that. Does that ever happen to you?

<i>Coq au vin</i> is one of those recipes that we think of as a timeless classic, but is in really a product of the 20th century. And it’s rarely made from a tough old cock! I wrote a little article on the subject last year.

You can see from the recipes in the article that the concoction is not always prepared with red wine, and not a particularly large quantity, so price may not much of an issue.

Larry, I'm with you. I don't like to use our "good wine" for cooking. Never had any complaints on anything I've braised with inexpensive wines.

I'll have to look at the price next time I buy onions. That is one of my downfalls---I forget to look at prices of anything in the grocery store. Usually find out at check out, like the time time I put one red bell pepper in the cart and it rang up at $3.99. I left that baby behind.
My big complaint about onions is that I had been buying a mesh bag of regular brown onions for everyday use, and out of about seven onions in the bag, three or four of them would be rotting on the inside. Really ticked me off.

And yes, forgetting to purchase the item that gets me to the grocery store in the first place happens all too frequently. Scary.

For your Coq au Vin, did you cut up a whole chicken? I've never made it. Do you braise it in the oven? Is the chicken totally submerged or does some of the top peak out giving it the chance to get a little crispy?

I rarely make recipes with all the complicated steps anymore but when I do, I find that many of the steps can be deleted and other methods used. My results usually end well. Some recipes ask for steps using several bowls or pots, these are the ones I really cut back on.
Our kids nudged me along with this, they said I spent too much time in the kitchen.

Carrie, I have had the same problem with rotting onions, especially the last few months. I believe someone on here mentioned the same thing and wondered if it was due to freezing.

Another thing I am ticked off about are the limes. I cannot find any juicy ones anymore. No matter where I buy them, they are dried up. I spoke with the produce guy and got nowhere near a decent answer. So I resort to using only the zest. Thank goodness the Farmer's Market is open. Onions came in last week, they are cleaned up with the skins off. I buy what I will use for the week, wrap in paper towels and park them in the refer.

It is hard to eliminate the steps in the one. After all the smoke died after last August's thread on the subject: http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/vil ... t=cog++vin we did eliminate purging the lardons per Chef Carey's suggestion. We still do the onions and mushrooms separately while the chicken is cooking.

Riesling is an option recommended by even the legendary Michael Field, but having tried it, we've gone back to the red wine version.

Hey Larry...I have never made Coq au Vin because it definitely seemed a lot of work for chicken stew...LOL! But, I always cook with cheapy wine and I think sometimes it works even better. Last time I used Livingston's chianti for my lamb stew and it was delicious.

As for the pearl onions...would you ever consider using frozen? We only get them fresh in our markets every once in a while, so I usually buy a bag of frozen and they are just fine, especially in a stew.

Karen - I haven't had a juicy lime in I don't know how long!! What is with that?

Piling on here about the limes. Same here. Most are dry as bones, every once in a while, one in the bunch will have some juice but that's rare.

A few weeks ago I bought two bags of Key Limes for homemade key lime pie. I bought the second bag "just in case" I couldn't get four ounces of juice out of just one bag. Wouldn't you know, I needed one and a half bags? It was like squeezing blood from stones from those things. My hands ached for days.

As for the pearl onions...would you ever consider using frozen? We only get them fresh in our markets every once in a while, so I usually buy a bag of frozen and they are just fine, especially in a stew.

A good idea, but three of the stores didn't even have the frozen variety.

onions have been high for some time - we were working off last year's storage and supplies were dwindling, so the prices rose accordingly.

We're into new crop now, and prices have plunged back down to where they normally reside.

The following is from a Farm report preceding the drop, from a month or two ago:

Produce experts say dry onion prices are expected to remain high in retail stores until at least June. Supplies from the Pacific Northwest are shrinking and quality is reported only as fair. Prices will remain high until harvest begins in the San Joaquin Valley. Onions from the California desert are behind scheduled and harvest isn't expected to begin until May. Weather has caused onion crop quality problems in all growing regions, including Texas where the crop was severely damaged.

For your Coq au Vin, did you cut up a whole chicken? I've never made it. Do you braise it in the oven? Is the chicken totally submerged or does some of the top peak out giving it the chance to get a little crispy?

Carrie, usually when I make recipes like Coq au Vin or something similar I will use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I find the dark meat more flavorful and tender.

I will brown the thighs to render some fat and then remove the skin. I use the fat to sautee some of the veggies and retain some flavor (I will mix the fat with another like butter, etc.)

rwj

For your Coq au Vin, did you cut up a whole chicken? I've never made it. Do you braise it in the oven? Is the chicken totally submerged or does some of the top peak out giving it the chance to get a little crispy?

I cut up chicken quarters, which were on sale. After browning the chicken, it was braised in the oven in a covered casserole dish. No crispy parts, but I did skin the chicken before browning (probably a horrible culinary gaffe) for fewer calories. It worked just fine, though.