ET Does Valentine's Day
Posted by Steph
My friend Dana has recently begun a cooking get together with some friends. The idea is that each person brings ingredients for one course and preps and cooks it there so everyone can learn how to make a new dish, and together, the dishes comprise a whole meal. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner the theme for last week’s get together was appropriately, “building a romantic meal,” with the main course being Coq au Vin. I was stumped on what to contribute so Dana suggested a bean or carrot dish knowing that I am a true veggie-phile, and it being the middle of winter, Roasted Winter Vegetables seemed most appropriate. I took my recipe from the Barefoot Contessa’s Family Style Cookbook.
The recipe called for carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, winter squash and a little bit of parsley. At the market I was happy to see a selection of colorful vegetables; purple potatoes, yellow carrots, and golden beets. I snagged some rainbow colored carrots to brighten up my recipe (we need all the brightness we can get in the Northwest at this time of year!).
Our host, Angie, made a turkey meatball appetizer that was accompanied on a skewer by fresh slices of pineapple, sweet pepper, and water chestnuts, delish. Christina baked pastries filled with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese -- yum!! She also brought a honking bottle of Reisling which we all enjoyed as we cooked and ate.
The Coq au Vin was the main event and Dana provided plenty of step-by-step instructions, although as we all got to drinking wine and talking about this and that the cooking lesson broke down a bit. I did manage to pick up a few tips from her instruction. First Dana fried up some bacon to create some good fat for the cooking process. Her chicken had a beautiful purple color because she had marinated it in a delicious Shiraz for a day in advance, along with the “holy trio” of vegetables in French cooking: onions, carrots, and celery. She skipped the bay leaf so that we wouldn’t have to hunt around to find and discard it later, and I think this certainly did not hurt the flavor. She served the dinner with the same Shiraz to further complement the meal.
Who can resist bacon? - - Out of the marinade into pot. - - Building flavor.
The holy trio. - Check out these thighs... - Less holy trio? Squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips.
What better to top off the feast than vanilla ice cream topped with dulce de leche (caramel sauce) and finished with a chocolate biscotti, compliments of Nicole. Here’s an interesting tip- boil a can of condensed milk on its side for three hours and you will have perfect caramel sauce. It turned out great! A couple of reminders - fully immerse the can so that the contents heat evenly and open with a cloth wrapped around the can to help avoid a mess.
Making Caramel
With all of this indulgence we did not even make it to Candi’s lemon meringue pie, but I’m sure that Angie’s husband didn’t mind having it leftover in the fridge.
In between eating and drinking, I leafed through a copy of Intercourses, an Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge.
Angie’s friend had leant her the book for the occasion. It had many steamy dinner suggestions, (think lots of oyster recipes).
Next event will be a brunch theme for St Patrick’s day. I’ll look forward to making one of the great recipes from Ree Drummond’s cookbook, my food bible of late. Maybe I’ll make her version of Huevos Rancheros, with green eggs, of course!!
My friend Dana has recently begun a cooking get together with some friends. The idea is that each person brings ingredients for one course and preps and cooks it there so everyone can learn how to make a new dish, and together, the dishes comprise a whole meal. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner the theme for last week’s get together was appropriately, “building a romantic meal,” with the main course being Coq au Vin. I was stumped on what to contribute so Dana suggested a bean or carrot dish knowing that I am a true veggie-phile, and it being the middle of winter, Roasted Winter Vegetables seemed most appropriate. I took my recipe from the Barefoot Contessa’s Family Style Cookbook.
The recipe called for carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, winter squash and a little bit of parsley. At the market I was happy to see a selection of colorful vegetables; purple potatoes, yellow carrots, and golden beets. I snagged some rainbow colored carrots to brighten up my recipe (we need all the brightness we can get in the Northwest at this time of year!).
Our host, Angie, made a turkey meatball appetizer that was accompanied on a skewer by fresh slices of pineapple, sweet pepper, and water chestnuts, delish. Christina baked pastries filled with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese -- yum!! She also brought a honking bottle of Reisling which we all enjoyed as we cooked and ate.
The Coq au Vin was the main event and Dana provided plenty of step-by-step instructions, although as we all got to drinking wine and talking about this and that the cooking lesson broke down a bit. I did manage to pick up a few tips from her instruction. First Dana fried up some bacon to create some good fat for the cooking process. Her chicken had a beautiful purple color because she had marinated it in a delicious Shiraz for a day in advance, along with the “holy trio” of vegetables in French cooking: onions, carrots, and celery. She skipped the bay leaf so that we wouldn’t have to hunt around to find and discard it later, and I think this certainly did not hurt the flavor. She served the dinner with the same Shiraz to further complement the meal.
Who can resist bacon? - - Out of the marinade into pot. - - Building flavor.
The holy trio. - Check out these thighs... - Less holy trio? Squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips.
What better to top off the feast than vanilla ice cream topped with dulce de leche (caramel sauce) and finished with a chocolate biscotti, compliments of Nicole. Here’s an interesting tip- boil a can of condensed milk on its side for three hours and you will have perfect caramel sauce. It turned out great! A couple of reminders - fully immerse the can so that the contents heat evenly and open with a cloth wrapped around the can to help avoid a mess.
Making Caramel
With all of this indulgence we did not even make it to Candi’s lemon meringue pie, but I’m sure that Angie’s husband didn’t mind having it leftover in the fridge.
In between eating and drinking, I leafed through a copy of Intercourses, an Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge.
Angie’s friend had leant her the book for the occasion. It had many steamy dinner suggestions, (think lots of oyster recipes).
Next event will be a brunch theme for St Patrick’s day. I’ll look forward to making one of the great recipes from Ree Drummond’s cookbook, my food bible of late. Maybe I’ll make her version of Huevos Rancheros, with green eggs, of course!!