Alton Brown's Coq au Vin

Every girl needs some inspiration, a challenge, and a willing audience. This has been true of me since the days that I played dress-up - the inspiration was my grandma's heels, the challenge was modeling, and the willing audience was my immediate family.

Little did he know, my husband (as well as seeing frozen pearl onions at Trader Joe's) inspired a recent challenge:

Inspiration = Karl, onions; Challenge = coq au vin; Audience = Karl

Shortly after we started dating, Karl happened upon the Good Eats chef himself at a local book signing. I whined when he excitedly told me he was planning to get a signed copy for his chef-roommate. I liked to cook, I was supposed to be what he thought of day and night and night and day, why wasn't I also getting a signed copy? So, being his sweet self, Karl got me a copy too. :)

That was two years ago (ish). And I have just now made something from the book...

I used rice underneath instead of glutinous pasta. Notice the greens...in every meal!

Alton's Brown's Coq Au Vin

Some things I learned along the way:

- The recipe calls for two bottles of wine...I thought that was a lot and I only had one in the house...so I used one. Definitely use the two. The sauce did not have as much flavor as I hoped.

- The recipe says to let the chicken sit in its sauce overnight. I had three hours...it needed the extra time to soak up all that great flavor.

Victories:

- I started with a whole chicken, a dull knife, and a knife sharpener we got for Christmas. That ended up being a winning trio. Plus, I used Martha's book for directions on how to cut a raw whole chicken into its proper cooking parts:

- I used rice flour to dredge the chicken instead of wheat...worked perfectly!

- I made a more difficult recipe for dinner! I always have a deep sense of satisfaction after breaking the dinner routine and cooking something more gourmet. Like I said earlier, every girl needs a challenge!

Note: I have scanned that cookbook for other recipes to try...and it is difficult considering our restricted diet. But I did make Alton Brown's cashew butter (after soaking my nuts) and it is delicious! I can't wait to try his variation of satay sauce using the cashews.