Coq au vin: Julia's Child recipe

As I watched "Julie & Julia" for the first time in my life, the idea of having my own food blog appeared in my head. Years passed by until I finally did it - 23d of August, 2014. Now, after a year of having it, I cannot help but wonder - Wow! So many recipes, so many good feedback words from my readers. This all keeps me going further. A lot of ideas are still not realised. So let's see, where will we be next year :)

For such a special occasion and to express my gratitude to Julia Child, today I would like to share the recipe of Coq au vin. In other words, a casserole of chicken in red wine, with onions, mushrooms, and bacon. 

Ingredients: (4-6 servings)

100g lean bacon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium-sized chicken, cut into parts (or all of one kind of part)

1/4 cup Cognac 

 salt, black pepper

1 bay leaf

1/4 tsp dried thyme

2 onions (in original recipe 20 small white onions, I did not have them this time)

3 tbsp flour

1 tbsp butter

2 cups red wine, preferably Burgundy, Côtes du Rhône, or Pinot Noir

About 2 cups brown homemade chicken stock, or beef stock

1 or 2 garlic cloves, mashed or minced

About 1 tablespoon tomato paste

300 g fresh mushrooms, trimmed, washed, and quartered

2 carrots (*optional ingredient)

Coq au vin is one of the most famous French dishes. With its' wine flavor, tender taste and mushroom note, it is the No 1 dish for special occasion. I modified a little bit with the ingredients, added carrots, though it is optional, of course. Get all the needed ingredients prepared, so that you mainly focus on the process. Curious? Let's start right now.

1. Cut bacon into stripes or sticks if you have the whole piece. In a heavy bottomed casserole saute it with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. When bacon is very lightly browned, remove to a side dish, leaving fat in the pan.

2. Wash and dry chicken parts thoroughly in a towel. Add them to the fat left from bacon, not crowding the pan too much. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Pour in cognac, ignite with a lighted match, shake pan back and forth for several seconds until flames subside.

3. Peel onions and carrots, cut them into medium pieces, and fry them in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a separate bowl/pan for about 2-3 minutes. Add them to  the chicken. Sprinkle on the flour turning chicken, carrots and onions so flour is absorbed; cook 3 to 4 minutes more, turning once or twice. 

4. Add bacon from step 1 and cook covered slowly for 10 minutes.

5. After the chicken parts turned golden-brown, pour wine into pan, and add just enough bouillon to cover the chicken. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer on slow heat covered for about 20-30 minutes, or until chicken meat is tender. 

6.  Test chicken pieces, piercing with a fork. Take tender parts out and if needed simmer another 10 minutes.

7. Put all the chicken pieces into the pan. In a separate pan melt butter and oil, add mushroom pieces and saute them for 3-4 minutes. Them add them to the chicken pan.

8. Taste carefully. Sauce should be just thick enough to coat chicken and vegetables lightly. If too thin, boil down rapidly to concentrate; if too thick, thin out with spoonfuls of bouillon.

Decorate with sprigs of parsley when serving. Accompany with the same wine you used while cooking.

Bon Appétit! And happy Gourmet Anniversary :) 

Chocolate naked cake with mascarpone cream and fresh berries

What is your first thought when I say "Birthday"? Or "Wedding anniversary"? Presents? Or big party? Maybe surprise? For me it is all in one - a perfect cute cake. On those days I believe, we can create a perfect mood with only one cake, even despite all the problems or anything else that disturbs us at the moment. And I have a prefect recipe. Proven by my own experience. 

As my husband's birthday and wedding anniversary happen to be within 1 week, I decided to dedicate my time once and bake a really perfect cake. Chocolate layers with tender mascarpone cream and seasonal berries will literally make your day. I promise!

Just prepare all the ingredients, one 24 cm round baking form and a mixer. Get ready :)

Ingredients:

For cake:

220 g chocolate (I chose 85% cocoa)

200 g almond flour

150 g sugar

1 banana

9 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayanne pepper

40 g cacao powder

pinch of salt

3 tbsp home-made marmelade (mine was made from different berries)

50 ml water

For cream:

500 g mascarpone

300 ml whipping cream

180 g sugar powder

For decor:

strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or else

Firstly preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Separate in 2 bowls yolks from egg whites. Beat the egg yolks with mashed banana, pinch of salt and half of sugar until light and fluffy. Melt chopped chocolate and add it to the batter. Set aside. 

Beat egg whites with the rest of sugar until stiff peaks. 

Mix dry ingreadients in another bowl: almond flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and cayanne pepper. Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter. Add dry ingredients and gently fold not to ruin the air bubbles. 

Coat 24-cm baking form with butter. Pour the batter into the form and bake the cake 50 minutes. 

Split the cake into 3 layers. Mix water and marmelade and bring them to boil. Brush the top of each layer with the hot marmelade sirup and let them soak for half an hour.

For the cream combine mascarpone, whipping cream and powdered sugar. Whip them thoroughly until stiff peaks. Spread the cream over each layer and on the top of the cake forming nice untouched waves. Wash summer berries/fruits of your choice and decorate the cake from the sides and on top. 

Tip!

The bigger variety of fruits and berries you choose, the more colorful your cake will look. In combination with dark chocolate it will leave you speechless.

Chocolate dipped dried plums

Who has never ever had hunger cravings?! We all did... In my everyday life I observe people prioritizing work more than anything else: health, family, friends, yourself... Unfortunately we get in a trap trying to prove the best performance at work, unbelievable productivity etc. And then having no time to eat is a usual thing you can hear from as an excuse. But that is not the way to survive. We deserve having time for ourselves, enjoying nice friends' company, taking care of our family. Moreover, we always have to reserve time for our eating habits as this has the biggest impact on the other spheres: work, ability to think, analyze, being productive, happy etc. I can write the list much longer... But is it worth to?! We just have to understand one thing: Taking care about our nutritional habits will make a much bigger outcome than working overtime months through. Now back to the recipes :)

As I already mentioned, hunger cravings are a common thing. But taking them into everyday life will only cause a lot of health problems, weight gain and stress. To avoid them: STOP eating sweets-crackers-bounty-mars-twix-whatever-unhealthy-staff instead of lunch. BEGIN cooking for your body and taking care!

The recipe of this post comes actually from my motherland. A widespread and typically from regional manufacturer these sweets became one of the most favorite things I usually ask for when someone visits us and asks what to bring from Ukraine. Today I decided to prepare piece of my motherland at home. Easy, quick and tasty! I bet these sweets will not live until tomorrow even :)

Ingredients: (outcome: 12 sweets)

12 dried plums, pitted

12 pieces of greek nuts

30 g dark chocolate (I chose 85% cacao)

Stuff each plum with small piece of nut. Shape to form round shape. Set aside. 

Tip!

Instead of nuts, you may always be creative and use marzipan, dried ginger, dried cranberries. It's up to you.

Now let's melt chocolate. Place it into small bowl, set in pot of hot (not boiling) water over low heat; allow to melt, stirring until smooth.

Remove chocolate from heat. With the help of a fork, dip dried plums into chocolate; drain excess. Put them on the baking sheet and place in the refrigerator immediately until set.

When chocolate is set, you may finally enjoy the perfect taste combination. Sweet, yet in moderation, healthy.

Grilled squids with lemon-garlic sauce

It's a loooong time since my last post...WOW... unbelievable. This summer was quite different from the previous ones. The major point is, of course, that Hamburg could not really enjoy the summer as there were about 5 really warm days since June in total. And then in a routine you get lost somewhere in the everyday problems between work, gym, home, cleaning, husband's birthday, wedding anniversary etc. And then you only notice - two summer months are gone :(

But nevertheless, I enjoy this season a lot. Summer is always full of fresh and local fruits, berries, meaning - a lot of smoothies, pies, desserts and even more. But today not about that. I will follow up with summer fruit recipes in my next posts. Menawhile I would like to stay in memories back in our vacation. 

Croatia, +45 degrees C, Biograd na Moru. When having such a nice grill near our apartments we could not keep away from it and ended up having grill-dinner everyday. Because it is just amazing - meeting sunset with a nice fresh grilled fish, veggies, local wine and calm atmosphere. This was the evening of squids. My grill-chef-husband was the one to cook them and I'm lucky to share the recipe with you. 

Ingredients:

4 big squids

1/2 lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp origano

1/2 tsp salt

6 garlic cloves

Firstly, the squids have to be prepared. To make it properly I (and my husband) recommend you to follow these steps:

1. Grasp the head, pull it carefully, twisting if necessary. The internal body and tentacles will come with it. 

2. Cut the tentacles from the head. They are situated below the eyes. There is a  beak in the center of the tentacles. Squeeze to remove and discard.

3. Set aside the the tentacles. Discard the head and ink sac.

4. At the top of the body, there is a clear piece of cartilage. Pull it out and discard.

5. If the squid has an outer spotted membrane-type skin, pull it off and discard.

6. Wash the tube an tenticles thoroughfully under cold running water.

Then they will look like you may see on the picture below.

It is time to prepare the sauce. Best combination for squids (and this is how they are usually served in Croatia), is lemon-garlic sauce. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, origano and mashed garlic. Pour part of the sauce as pregrilling marinade. The rest put aside for serving.

The best way is to grill the squids on the open fire grill. They will become firmer and loose their juice. So be prepared :)

As a side dish you may also grill zucchini or other veggies (pepper, mushrooms, tomato etc.)

Of course, you can also use baking oven instead of grill. You might need a bit longer time then.
On the grill you will approximately need 15-20 minutes until readiness, changing sides every 3-5 minutes. To make them really crispy, pour the water out of them as they get ready. You will notice that they are quite juicy :)

Immeadiately after taking squids out from grill, pour them with the sauce from all sides. Being warm helps them to get the most of the flavors from the sauce.

I used 1/4 of avocado to serve. It's up to your taste, what to choose as a side dish. But a good white wine is a must here :) We chose Malvasija this time.

Enjoy the summer.

Because good food is always a good idea.

P.S. Hopefully you also like fish and seafood. Otherwise I seem to be literally attacking you with such recipes during my last posts.