Coq Au Vin Blanc

Wine Country Chicken
Living as close as we do to The Napa Valley is a very cool thing for those of us who occasionally enjoy a nice sip of wine. Spending time amongst the vines and sunshine is always a great way to enjoy your day even if you’re not wine tasting. (Eating your way through the area isn’t a bad pastime either except, perhaps, for your waistline.)

While the Napa Valley is known for its big Cabernets and oaky Chardonnays, personally I prefer the lighter wines. I admit, I am a Sauvignon Blanc kinda gal. A crisp cold glass while relaxing on my patio after a long day at work sounds like heaven to me but I would not turn down a lovely Rosé either.

I am the same way when cooking with wine. I will almost always substitute a white wine for a red except for those recipes where you just cannot like this Beef Bourguignon https://piedmontgrocery.com/beef-bourguignon/. One exception to that philosophy that I have found is coq au vin.

I love coq au vin any time of the year, although most people think of it as a Fall dish. However, if you use a white wine or even a Rosé, this Coq au Vin Blanc dish lightens up considerably and transforms into a great meal for a warm spring evening. I mean, you really can’t ever go wrong with wine, chicken, and garlic together in any form. And, if you can find fresh morel mushrooms, even better.

I used rosé in the recipe below, but you can always swap it out for your favorite white just be sure to save a little for sipping as you wait.

Coq Au Vin Blanc Recipe
Yields 4 servings
Adapted from NY Times Cooking Read more…

Garlicky Turkish Lamb Shank Stew

Stewing in Comfort
This is the time of year when I have visions of something savory bubbling on the stove or slow cooking in the crockpot ready to warm me up when I walk through the door at the end of the day. I am particularly partial to anything that makes use of dried beans, some variety of meat shank, and has a rich gravy-like broth. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The shank possibilities are endless, from beef to ham. All of them are tasty. Although, if I am thinking beans and shanks, I generally choose lamb shanks. This recipe for Lamb Shanks Osso Bucco is a definite favorite of mine, and I make it regularly.

However, when on a search for something a little different, I came across this recipe for Garlicky Turkish Lamb Shank Stew. I was intrigued by the addition of pepperoncini which should add some nice acid and flavor to what can normally be a rather rich dish. Not to mention the Aleppo pepper for some zip…

Not only does this recipe fall into the weekend project category, but this recipe also makes quite a lot. So, feel free to half it or freeze some for an easy home-cooked meal another night.

If you cannot find Aleppo pepper, you can substitute a blend of two parts sweet paprika with one part cayenne…

Garlicky Turkish Lamb Shank Stew with White Beans
Adapted from Real Stew by Clifford A. Wright
Yields 8 to 10 servings Read more…

Savory Loaded Shortbread Cookies

Short(bread) Debate
Now that Christmas has come and gone and you find yourself with a little extra time, I offer up something to occupy your brain while you stare out the window in a post-holiday stupor. Does a cookie need to be sweet in order to call it a cookie?

There are plenty of examples of so-called cookies that are so borderline in their sweetness—you could call them more of a cracker or biscuit than a cookie. Shortbread is the perfect one. All you need to make shortbread is flour and some sort of fat. Typically, that fat is butter which gives the shortbread most of its flavor. Sure, there is sugar added but the overall taste leans more towards butter than sugar. And yet, most people would still consider it a cookie.

Shortbread gets its name from the crumbly texture. The fat, usually butter, inhibits the formation of long wheat protein (gluten) strands when mixed with flour thus its famous melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.

So, by that reasoning, if all you need to make a crumbly cookie is fat, who is to say you couldn’t do it with, say, bacon fat? You would still have the same occurrence with the lack of gluten development. And, in theory, the same texture. But, does the bacon fat automatically mean the shortbread is now more of a cracker?

These are the kinds of things that run through my head at weird times and have people avoiding me at parties. Or perhaps I have been watching too much Lessons in Chemistry…

Either way, I’m whipping up some of these Savory Loaded Shortbread Cookies if only to start the debate.

Savory Loaded Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from Cookies: The New Classics by Jesse Szewczyk
Yields 24 Cookies

Cheddar cheese, fresh chives, and bacon combine in this savory cookie. It takes full advantage of all the flavors of a stuffed baked potato by swapping a buttery shortbread base for the standard russet.

They make a wonderful appetizer that is infinitely easier to manage than a baked potato. Read more…

Molasses Spice Cookies

Viking Christmas
According to Ancestry.com, I am 84% Scandinavian. This is no great revelation because I grew up amongst of a bunch of very tall, sometimes grumpy, frequently loud, frustratingly stubborn, hard-partying Vikings on both sides of the family.

Holidays with this crowd as a kid were a lot of fun because no one loves barely controlled chaos more than a kid. The adults had different views. I thought it was great.

My grandmother was one of nine kids born to a couple of Danes who found themselves in California at the turn of the 20th century. Though they embraced their new country and refused to speak in their native tongue once they arrived, they did manage to keep a few of their traditions going.

We still have Ebleskiver every Christmas morning, though how my great-grandmother managed to feed that many people with one pan that only makes 7 at a time boggles my mind. (We continue to use her pan but have added a couple more.) And we still enjoy treats with a lot of the traditional warming spices of winter: cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cardamom, and, of course, ginger.

I love a good chewy ginger cookie. But, I really only eat them around Christmas time, so they are, in fact, a treat. In all honesty, these wouldn’t qualify as a traditional Danish cookie except for the spices, though I don’t think Julemandon (Santa Claus) would object to these being left for his midnight snack.

Glӕdelig Jul!

Molasses Spice Cookies Recipe
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
Yields about 22 cookies

These Molasses Spice Cookies have a nice crisp edge and soft interior. The warming spices and molasses flavor make them perfect for your holiday cookie tray. Read more…