Coq au vin

Coq au vin is just the french way of saying chicken cooked in wine.  This is normally red wine, which gives a very dark rich casserole. It is not a difficult or complicated dish and should not be intimidating to make, but is well worth making for a warming winter or fall evening.

1 chicken cut up in to pieces or the equivelant in already cut up chicken
1/4 cup of salt pork or 4 rashers of bacon cut up ( I used pancetta)
1 tablespoon of flour
1/2 a bottle of red wine (something that you would drink but it does not have to be a great wine)
1 sprig of fresh thyme or teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of peeled pearl onions

Place the chicken in a frying pan skin side down and brown on both sides, there should be no need to add fat as the chicken skin will provide quite enough on its own.

Remove the chicken and place it in a large casserole dish, then in another frying pan or the cleaned out one already used fry the bacon pieces until crispy and drain on some kitchen paper. Reserve a little of the fat for later.

Wineries in the Okanagan

I spent the last few days in the Okanagan Valley. It is only 4 or 5 hours drive from Vancouver but it could not be more different, the climate is much drier and hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.  Over the last 20 years the wineries have come to rival some of the best wine growing areas in the world. Not only the wines are good, but it is a great area to wander from winery to winery tasting and enjoying the views.

view from "See Ya Later" ranch

I drove south of Penticton to go to See ya later Ranch I love their chardonnay and I think that they have one of the best views so I decided to go and have a taste.  I bought not only their chardonnay but also a very nice Pinot Noir.

See Ya Later ranch

Earlier in the week I went along the Naramata Bench to take in some of the wineries and have some lunch.  First stop was Township 7 this is not one of the most beautiful wineries but they consistently have good wines.  This year their chardonnay was excellent (OK chardonnay is really my favourite) but I also bought a bottle of 7 blanc which is a blend of white wines and is a little off dry.  I thought this would go very well with a spicy meal.

The next stop along the Naramata bench was La Frenz winery

Tenderloin with red wine sauce

On Sunday Nancy and I were both feeling like rack of lamb with fresh mint and maybe some mohitos.  Unfortunately IGA did not share our dream, there was no fresh mint anywhere in Madeira Park, so visions had to be changed.  We found two very nice tenderloin steaks and tried to put our disappointment behind us.

A little research was required and I found versions of this recipe in several different places, all assuring me that they were wonderful.  It requires a full bottle of wine! This makes way more sauce than we needed, but we had a disappointing bottle of red wine from Friday night that we did not know what to do with it.  "Life is too short to drink bad wine" is one of my favourite sayings, this bottle was sacrificed to make a very good sauce.

Ingredients

1 bottle of red wine
2 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of beef stock
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
Beurre Manier
2 tablespoons of butter and  tablespoons of flour mixed together to make a soft paste

Pour the wine and two stocks in to a pot, and put them to simmer for about an hour.  Though you do not have to watch it all the time you want to stay close by to ensure it does not boil away.