"The Zuni Cafe Cookbook" - Coppa (or Salami) & Warm Parslied Potato Salad with Roasted Pepper

 Date I made this recipe:  May 27, 2012

The Zuni Café Cookbook – a compendium of recipes & cooking lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant by Judy Rodgers

Published by:  W. W. Norton

ISBN:  0393020436

Recipe:  Coppa (or Salami) & Warm Parslied Potato Salad with Roasted Peppers – p. 90-91

People, summer isn’t even here yet and here I am “wearing” my summer sloth suit as it has taken me days to get my act together to post this recipe.  I sure don’t have outstanding weather as an excuse as it rained more than it was sunny over Memorial Day weekend.  I don’t know—maybe overall ennui is the cause?  Maybe I’m practicing being listless in the summer heat?  I’m not sure.

At any rate, this didn’t start out to be a Memorial Day recipe post but that’s how it ended up.  In actuality, I looked through this cookbook intending to make something for my 21^st wedding anniversary on May 18^th.  But the 18^th was the day before a major bike ride for my husband and so I made a pasta dish with a beef sauce for him from another cookbook instead so that (hopefully) the protein and carb combination would help with the ride.

Still, The Zuni Café (cookbook) is important to us because when we celebrated our 10^th wedding anniversary in 2001, we went to San Francisco, and as luck would have it, stayed in a hotel next door to The Zuni Café.  At the time, the restaurant hadn’t yet made a name for itself and that was a good thing because I hate it when a place gets popular and turns into a three-ring circus.

I remember two things about the Zuni:  one, that Andy and I have this great photo of us at the bar, raising martini glasses, lit up like Christmas trees after an arduous flight from Minneapolis to SF and two, I had a dish involving sausages and peas (and possibly, or possibly not, seafood). I recall it being divine but sadly, that recipe is not in the cookbook.  No matter as I found many yummy substitutes instead.

Getting back to the flight and subsequent cocktails, we had the unfortunate displeasure to sit in front of a family with maybe three or four little kids, mom and dad and grandma.  One of said children kept kicking my husband’s seats all through the flight.  We finally gave up and moved a few seats over (we were in the dreaded middle row) and were horrified to see the seat being treated like a punching bag after he vacated it.  Little cretin!  And that goes for grandma too, who kept using my seat as a means to get in and out of hers the entire trip.  Let’s say grandma got up quite often and every single time my seat went back and then banged me on the head after she let go of it.  So you can see why a cocktail was in order.

Now, The Zuni Café prides itself on “farm fresh” food and the cookbook includes a lot of homemade recipes for things like (soup) stocks and that is fine if you have the time but I don’t.  I didn’t end up making anything that included those stocks but just so you know they are in there.

What I did make was a non-mayonnaise potato salad that my husband enjoyed; he is not a big fan of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip salads.  (Good thing he didn’t grow up in my house where we used Miracle Whip all the time as Hellman’s was hard for us to find.)  I also loved the fact that it was not all “goopy” with mayonnaise, “goopy” being a term my late friend, Carol, like to toss around when it came to salads or casseroles that were heavy on cheese or mayo.  And in a weird way, this salad tied into our wedding anniversary because when we got married, we went to France and Italy for our honeymoon.  I am also half-Italian.  So you see, don’t you, that this recipe was meant to happen?  Of course you do!

On Sunday (not Monday, Memorial Day), we shopped for the ingredients and then we bought two pre-made onion and gorgonzola burgers from Whole Foods to grill (sticking with the theme!).  All was well when Andy fired up the grill but all was not well when he finished as a major thunderstorm rolled through Minneapolis at warp speed and it was raining cats and dogs by the time he got inside, burgers intact – whew!

So we sat down, had dinner, and just as we were finishing, the power went off and damn it all, it stayed off for hours, causing us to miss Mad Men.  I hate when that happens!  Thankfully, Comcast On Demand had it available when power was restored the next morning! 

On a side note, I told Andy that I am totally enamored with charring peppers on our gas stove top.  Not that I’m going to turn into a pyro, but there is something about watching a pepper almost go up in flames that is fascinating to me!  Oh, and the result is great as well.

So here you go!  This recipe should work well with any number of entrees and is pretty easy to put together. 

PS—This is yet another book I purchased at Arc’s Value Village Thift Store for something like $6.99.

Coppa (or Salami) & Warm Parslied Potato Salad with Roasted Peppers – about 4 servings

Generous 1 pound peeled yellow-fleshed potatoes cut into irregular 1-inch chunks or a little smaller

Salt

About 1 tablespoon tightly packed, coarsely chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley

About 4-5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

About 2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar

Freshly cracked black pepper

About 4 ounces coppa, sliced 1/16 inch thick or salami

1 large or 2 small red or green peppers (about 12 ounces total), roasted or charred, peeled, and cut or torn into wide strips

12 oil-cured meaty black olives, such as Nyons

Ann’s Notes:  Salami was easier to find so I used that instead of coppa.  But know that all salamis are not alike and so if you have the chance to taste test first, go with one that is a little milder in taste so that it doesn’t overpower the rest of the ingredients.  I also used about 1.5 tablespoons of white wine vinegar and came close to almost having a taste that was just a tad too tart on my hands.  I suggest adding 1 tablespoon first and then seeing if it is to your liking.  And I only needed one gargantuan red pepper (do they grow anything smaller?) for this recipe.

Place the potatoes in a 2- to 4-quart saucepan and add cold water to cover.  Salt the water very liberally, stir to dissolve, and taste – the water should taste a little too salty. (The author uses a generous 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt per quart of water.)  Bring to a simmer, uncovered.  Cook at a bare simmer, stirring once or twice, until the potatoes are tender and the edges are starting to soften, usually about 6 minutes.  Drain well.

As soon as they have stopped steaming, transfer the potatoes to a wide bowl.  Using a rubber spatula, fold in the parsley and enough olive oil to coat well.  The edges will break down a little, shedding potato into the oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave for a few minutes so the parsley perfumes the oil and softens.

Fold in the vinegar and black pepper, both to taste.

Arrange the slices of coppa (or salami) and the strips of roasted pepper on plates or a platter, and mound the juicy potatoes and the olives to one side.  (Or, if you are Ann, combine everything into one bowl and serve.  With just me and Andy at home, we are less concerned with presentation and more concerned with eating, already!)

"Pasta" - Pasta with Beef Ragu and Sweet Pepper

Date I made this recipe:  May 18, 2011

Pasta – The history and preparation of one of the world’s most popular foods with nearly 650 classic recipes by Vincenzo Buonassisi

Published by:  Rizzoli

© 1973 (Italy); 1976 U.S.

Recipe:  Pasta with Beef Ragu and Sweet Pepper – p. 274

I am getting lazier by the minute.  I made this recipe on Friday night and yet here it is Sunday and I am (reluctantly, no less) getting around to writing this up.  In my own defense (and as an attorney, I always have one), the weather today is very overcast and very threatening and it’s making me very sleepy!  Very sleepy.

So meanwhile, back at the ranch, the reason I made this dish on Friday night was because my husband, Andy, did a 150K (almost 100 mile) bike ride yesterday (Saturday) in Wisconsin and wanted a dish that combined carbs with protein.  After careful perusal with suggestions from me, he decided on recipe #511 – Pasta with Beef Ragu and Sweet Pepper.

While he liked this recipe a lot and thought it was tasty, I’m wishing we would have gone with a couple others in this book because the flavors just didn’t hit me.  My biggest disappointment was that the wonderful taste of sweet pepper was overwhelmed by the taste of beef and beef broth.  As my Sicilian grandmother would have said, “That’s-a too bad-a!”

And that’s not my only “beef” – hahahaha.  I get supremely annoyed with recipes that leave out things that I consider basic, such as the level of flame to be used – low/simmer, medium, high?  Next, it would have been nice to know if the beef stock was supposed to reduce or not.  One minute, I had almost a beef soup going, the next minute, I almost burned my pan! Also, and perhaps this is just me, but when I see “lean beef” listed as an ingredient, I want to scream.  What kind of lean beef is required – ground beef, stew meat, steak?  This was so unclear!  Finally, a serving size would have been nice.  Perhaps this book declared a serving size at the beginning of the book, but I don’t want to look at the beginning of the book!  I want it to say exactly how much it makes for each recipe.  As it is, we barely ended up with enough for two servings.  As my late friend, Carol, would say “details, I need details!”

Okay, enough with the kvetching already.  The one thing this dish did have going for it was that it was easy and it used only a few ingredients I didn’t have on hand – the meat and the sweet pepper.  Other ragu recipes in this book looked very good and very interesting but required more ingredients than I wanted to buy and/or required very long cooking times (we’re talking 6 hours or so).  I have done long cooking times before but not this time around.  I had to get my man fed and ready to get going for his 4:00 a.m. departure for this race.  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I wish I could say that all’s well that ends well and that this carb/protein combination did the trick, but my guy had a rough ride yesterday.  Who knew that WI had so many big hills?  He said that by the time he got to the last of the hills on the course, his legs were screaming but he soldiered on - barely.  Another guy who stopped at the same place as Andy experienced muscle twitches and cramping, such that he reluctantly had to call it a day and hail the sag wagon.  As for me, maybe there was something about the weather (hot, humid and stormy) because I went for a walk around one of the city lakes and was about done in on the first lap; I usually do two very easily.  Had it not been for a last-minute breeze, I would have said “Screw it” and hobbled to my own “sag wagon” a/k/a my car.  But I made it as well and the two of us shared war stories when he got home.  (For the record, and this is a no-brainer, his 150K ride topped my 3 mile walk.)

By the way, I bought this cookbook for a mere $3.99 at Arc’s Value Village Thrift Store in Richfield, MN.  Sweet!

Pasta with Beef Ragu and Sweet Pepper – serving size not listed

1 lb. pasta

¾ lb. lean beef (I used beef stew meat that I cut up into smaller pieces)

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 large sweet pepper

¾ lb. onions

1 stick celery

1 carrot

Beef stock (I used almost a full container)

Salt and pepper

3 oz. grated parmesan

Roast the pepper over an open flame until brown all over, then moisten your fingers and remove the skin immediately (or used peeled, tinned/canned peppers).  (Ann’s note:  this was probably the most fun I had while making this dish.  It’s like roasting a marshmallow until it practically turns into charcoal!) Chop roughly and remove the seeds and ribs.

Heat the oil and lightly brown the chopped onion, celery and carrot, then add to the coarsely chopped meat.  Let it brown all over, then add the chopped pepper.  Season with salt and pepper, add enough stock to cover and cook until meet is tender – about one hour.  (Okay, big note on my part—I started with my burner on high, then turned it down to medium and then to simmer and yet, as I said above, I almost scorched the thing.  This did not make me happy.  I suggest maybe a half hour or less on high and then the remaining hour on simmer.)

"Rhubarb Renaissance" - Salted Caramel Rhubapple Pie (For Mother's Day)

Date I made this recipe:  May 13, 2012 (Mother’s Day)

Rhubarb Renaissance by Kim Ode

Published by:  Minnesota Historical Society Press

ISBN:  978-0-87351-851-2

Recipe:  Salted Caramel Rhubapple Pie – p. 62-63

Today is Mother’s Day and since my mother is no longer with us, I’m honoring someone else’s mother instead.

Mimi Danicic is the delightful daughter of my friend, Kim Ode.  I’ve mentioned Kim before in this blog but all good things bear repeating:  Kim is an accomplished journalist for the (Minneapolis) StarTribune, author of two cookbooks – Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club and this new one, Rhubarb Renaissance. Kim is also a member of and contributing writer to Facebook’s “Baking 101” group that is filled with very cool people who know their way around baking pans and hot ovens.  Kim is also one very cool bones player (trombone) in my community band, the Calhoun-Isles Community Band.  Kim’s husband, photographer John Danicic, plays trumpet and their daughter, Mimi, has done a few summer stints with the band in the percussion section.  (Mimi also plays a mean string bass!).

When I first met Mimi (and her parents), she was in high school or perhaps just going in to high school and now she has the audacity to being “this close” to graduating from college.  How did that happen?

Mimi apparently inherited her mom’s baking instincts as Kim credits her for coming up with today’s recipe.  This recipe, and Mimi and her very cool parents, rocks!

Now some of you may shy away from rhubarb (for no good reason, if you ask me) but this recipe should get you down off the ledge because the rhubarb is offset by apples and caramel.  Mama Kim did not raise a fool in Mimi as this was one excellent pie!

My mom, Rose Marie, processed a lot of rhubarb back in the day because it was abundant in our garden.  She made and then froze a rhubarb topping for ice cream (talk about delicious what with the tartness of the rhubarb offsetting the sweet taste of ice cream), made rhubarb jam, and rhubarb cookies, cakes and pies.  I think the only reason she didn’t use rhubarb in a savory way was because she didn’t have Kim’s cookbook.  Curses!

Now when it comes to my blog, I tend to err on the side of making a savory dish because typically that constitutes our main dish for Sunday dinner.  But this time around, this pie spoke to me and so I went the opposite route and for once decided to bake something as opposed to roasting something, sautéing something or even crock-potting something.  And this decision was potentially fraught with peril because I am not a baking type of gal.  That role, as well as the title “Pie Guy,” goes to my husband, Andy Martin.

Two things make my Pie Guy giddy these days:  baking a pie and riding a bike.  Neither one has anything to do with the other but so what?  Life is filled with odd couplings.  So for once in my life, I put on my big girl panties and not only decided to bake something but decided to bake a pie (a mile high).

First things first:  buy a frozen pie shell!  Kim’s ingredients list says “pastry for a single-pie crust,” surely intended to enlist all of us in the task of rolling out our own homemade pie dough.  When the Pie Guy is baking, this happens and happens in a good way.  When the Pie Gal is baking, this does not:  this is why my Rainbow grocery store was invented and this was why they had a sale – 2 pie shells for $2.99.  Step one complete!

Step two involved peeling, coring and thickly slicing Granny Smith apples.  “I got this,” I thought because I had an apple corer and slicer tool and how easy would that be?  Except I am sometimes too anal for my own good so I sliced the apples without peeling them first and then – duh – had to peel all the apple slices from the six apples Kim said I should use.  For the record, that is a lot of sliced apples!  But I soldiered on.

I also had to cut the rhubarb so that it yielded 2 cups of 1-inch pieces.  I hate math and I get irritable when I am told to cut things into “x”-size pieces (sorry, Kim) and so I just the pieces all willy-nilly and that worked for me.  (For the record, I can be kind of literal – and anal – about instructions and so oftentimes when it says “1-inch pieces I pull out the measuring tape I keep in my kitchen specifically for those type of instructions. Today was not one of those days.)

And now a word about instant tapioca – am I dreaming or once upon a time was this ingredient pretty inexpensive?  Not so today.  I checked three grocery stores and two of them wanted between $3.59 and $3.79 for the tapioca.  Rainbow came in at a cool $2.99.  You may find this cost-averaging ridiculous but people, the recipe called for a mere ¼ cup and so when I am likely to use up the remaining tapioca?  Besides, three bucks is three bucks but $2.99 is $2.99, right?  (It’s a cooking math thing…)

Okay, so with all my ingredients and instructions, I got to work.  Because I didn’t make the pie crust my counter was devoid of messy flour and whatnot until I got to the streusel and then it looked like a flour bin exploded.  At least I had the good sense to put another pan under the pie tin so my oven wouldn’t look like my countertop.  (And this is why I don’t bake.   Who wants to look like Casper the Ghost after finishing?).

After the required half an hour, I checked my pie and it still looked a little peaked so I left it in for 10 more minutes and then it was perfect.  I drizzled the caramel over the top like the pro I aspire (but fail) to be and proudly served it to my Pie Guy who was so busy inhaling this yummy concoction, he couldn’t come up with a compliment for about five minutes.  But when he did it was glowing and so hooray, we had liftoff!

So thank you Mimi and Kim for coming up with this dish and putting it in the cookbook and making me look like a bona-fide, if not flour-dusted, baker for one, brief moment known as Camelot.  And Happy Mother’s Day everyone! 

Salted Caramel Rhubapple Pie – serves 6 – 8

Pastry for single-crust pie (I bought a frozen pie shell)

½ cup walnut pieces

6 Granny Smith apples (about 2 ¼ pounds), peeled, cored, and thickly sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ cup honey

½ cup packed brown sugar

2 cups rhubarb, cut in 1-inch pieces

¼ cup instant tapioca

½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

For the streusel topping:

½ cup flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut in small cubes

Line a pie plate with the crust and place in refrigerator while you prepare the filling.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spread walnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven about 5 minutes, until there’s a warm, nutty aroma.  Cool, then chop coarsely and set aside. (Ann’s Note:  I like walnuts but I did not like them toasted. My husband isn’t keen on nuts at all so next time around, I think I’d leave them off.).

Toss apples with lemon juice and cinnamon.  Set aside.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter with honey and ½ cup brown sugar in a large heavy saucepan and heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a rolling boil.  Add apples, stirring to coat them with caramel.  Reduce heat and cook uncovered no more than 5 minutes.  Do not overcook them to mushiness.  (I’m happy to report I did NOT overcook them.  Whew!)

Place rhubarb in a bowl.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the hot apples into the bowl with the rhubarb.  Add tapioca and stir to combine.  Let sit for 15 minutes.  In the meantime, add salt to the caramel remaining in the pan and cook, stirring often, a few minutes more to reduce it to a thick syrup.  Do not let it scorch.  Remove from heat and set aside.  (Ann’s Note:  it took more than a few minutes to get this to thicken, probably because I was so afraid about scorching the mixture that I turned the flame down really low.  The result though, was perfect!)

Combine streusel ingredients (flour, sugar and butter), pinching the butter with your fingers until it’s evenly distributed.  Stir in the toasted walnuts. 

Scrape the apple-rhubarb mixture into the chilled pie shell and drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the caramel.  Spread the streusel mixture over pie and bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes.

Just before serving, drizzle remaining caramel (reheating if necessary) over the pie.

"The High Performance Cookbook" - Power Pasta (Whole Wheat Pasta with Ground Turkey Tomato Sauace)

Date I made this recipe:  May 5, 2012

The High Performance Cookbook by Susan M. Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D. and KarenRae Friedman-Kester, M.S., R.D.

Published by:  Macmillan

ISBN:  0-02-860370-2

Recipe:  Power Pasta p. 64

Talk about a case of good timing!  A few weeks ago, I spied this book at the Paperback Exchange bookstore (50^th and Penn) and thought it would be perfect for my husband, Andy.  Andy has become quite the biking enthusiast (he did the RAGBRAI bike ride across Iowa last year) and has been in semi-training mode this spring for several bike rides including tomorrow’s Minnesota Ironman, a 100-mile (a/k/a “century ride”) bike ride through parts of the Twin Cities’ southwest metro.

As I posted on Facebook today, while Andy was out riding 100 miles, I completely overextended myself cleaning my downstairs bathroom.  True story. 

But I am nothing if not supportive so not only did I pick up this cookbook just for him but I also agreed to make this pasta recipe that he selected involving ground turkey.

As previously stated in this blog, I normally don’t have what other friends describe as a “textural problem” with any other meat except ground poultry.  But the very thought of ground or diced poultry just gives me shivers.  Of course, this recipe called for ground dark turkey meat and seriously, I felt ill at the very thought of it.  So poor Andy said that he would make it if I couldn’t bring myself to but I rallied because what kind of wife am I to send my man off on a 100 mile ride after making him prepare his own dinner? (In the end, we bought white meat ground turkey and that has less of an “ick” factor than dark meat.),

So I overcame this new idiosyncrasy and dumped the turkey meat into the pan as directed (and did not do anything with it for oh, quite some time until it practically incinerated itself) and got to it.

Truth be told, this recipe is so easy to make I almost feel guilty posting it.  I mean, come on, when it says to go out and buy a jar of spaghetti sauce and you do and you add garlic powder and pepper and serve, is that really considered cooking?  (Let’s not forget though, that I boiled the pasta!)

But I followed directions and heated the sauce thoroughly, almost over-boiled the whole wheat pasta and it was actually decent.  Actually, more than decent, it was pretty good.  And Andy wrapped up the 100 mile ride in about 6.5 hours so there you go—it worked!

But. I do feel a tad guilty using jarred sauce if only because the sodium content is so high but I didn’t have time to make my own sauce.  So perhaps Andy could have shaved off more time had he not been as bloated as a camel but such is life.

Power Pasta – serves 3

½ pound ground dark-meat turkey

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch white pepper

12 ounces spaghetti sauce

½ pound whole wheat spaghetti

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Brown the meat in a nonstick saucepan over medium heat with the garlic powder and pepper.  The meat should be thoroughly cooked.  Add the sauce and cook until the sauce is heated.

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Poor the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

For those needing to know the calorie-protein, etc. breakout, here you go:

For 2 servings each serving contains

688 Calories

31 g Protein

116 g Carbohydrates

15 g Fat

31 mg Cholesterol

1,147 mg Sodium

For 3 servings each serving contains:

458 Calories

21g Protein

77 g Carbohydrates

10 g Fat

20 mg Cholesterol

765 mg Sodium

"A Treasury of Great Recipes," Ragout of Chicken with Onions, Bacon and Mushrooms

Date I made this recipe:  April 30, 2012

A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price

Published by:  Grosset & Dunlap

© 1965; 1974 edition

Recipe:  Ragout of Chicken with Onions, Bacon and Mushrooms – p. 54

Two weeks ago, actor Jonathan Frid, best known by me and many others as vampire Barnabas Collins on the TV show, Dark Shadows (aired from 1966 to 1971), died at the age of 87.  Movie director Tim Burton is releasing a “remake” of Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp, but this movie looks to be a spoof of the real deal and while I’m sure it will be entertaining, you youngsters out there have no idea what you missed.

And frankly, if it was not for some sneakiness on my part, I wouldn’t know what I missed, either.  My mother forbade me from watching this show but hey, when you’re at a friend’s house and it’s on TV, what can you do?  So I watched and was hooked and then when my mom was out shopping, I turned on the set, practically punched my younger brother into secrecy, and watched it anyway.  As soon as I saw my mom coming down our driveway, I turned off the TV while at the same time pleading “Oh please, oh please” that the white dot, signaling that the TV had been turned off, would disappear before she got in the door. (Back in the day, when you turned off your TV, the picture would fade away until only a white dot was left and then the TV would go all black and the power would go off.)

As you might imagine, by the time she did get in the door, my brother and I were all “lalalalalalala” in the living room acting as if nothing had happened.

So back to the storyline, believe it or don’t, Dark Shadows was a Gothic soap opera, featuring all kinds of werewolves, witches, warlocks and of course, vampires.  The story was set in the town of Collinsworth, Maine, where young orphan, Victoria Winters, resided and tried to unravel her past.  (Does your past include vampires?  I didn’t think so.) At any rate, everything was creepy and spooky (and altogether “ooky”) and mesmerizing.  Unlike my mom’s standard soap opera lineup (As the World Turns, The Secret Storm and The Edge of Night), this one had a creep factor that was just too hard to turn away from.  And so I watched…secretly….sssh…..

Now if I had the Dark Shadows Cookbook (there is one but it costs $180.00 so it’s not in my collection), I would have made something from it in Jonathan’s honor but I don’t so the next best thing was to make a recipe from Mary and Vincent Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes.

In case you need reminding, the late actor, Vincent Price, was the master of horror movies.  He also had a pretty wicked laugh that was included in Michael Jackson’s Thriller recording.  But he and his wife were also world travelers and very good cooks, as evidenced by their two cookbooks, Come Into the Kitchen Cookbook and A Treasury of Great Recipes and as between the two, I decided on “A Treasury.”

While many used copies of Come Into the Kitchen Cookbook abound, it took me forever and a day to locate a copy of A Treasury of Great Recipes and when I finally did, it was in, of all places, a flea market in Chicago.  The year was 2007, many, many years after I started my cookbook collection, and the price was one that made me gulp a bit (I won’t tell you except it was way higher than most), but when you find the Holy Grail, you run with it. (Or, if you are the king in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you “run away, run away” with it!)

So all that was left was to find a recipe and this one did not disappoint:  “Le Poulet En Civet Au Vieux Bourgogne,” otherwise known as “Ragout of Chicken with Onions, Bacon and Mushrooms.”

I have to tell you that although I love drinking red wine with everything, I wasn’t sure I’d like to cook the chicken in a red wine sauce.  Silly me – it was delicious!  And unlike Bouef Bourguignon, which takes hours to make, this took 45 minutes to make.

Mary and Vincent did not recommend a side dish but I felt the need to make mashed potatoes and so I did and then it was really excellent.  You could do noodles or you could do nothing – your choice.

Ragout of Chicken with Onion, Bacon and Mushrooms – serves 4

7-8 strips of bacon

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3-pound chicken, quartered

¼ cup cognac

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups red wine (the recipe suggests Burgundy but I used 2 cups of my “Two-Buck Chuck” Merlot from Trader Joe’s)

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon salt

2 cloves garlic, Minced

6 sprigs parsley

¼ teaspoon thyme

¼ teaspoon peppercorns

1 small bay leaf

8 small onions, peeled

4 large mushrooms

4 slices toast for garlic croutons (optional)

In braising kettle put 3 strips bacon, diced, onion, and carrot.  (Note:  I have never heard of a braising kettle so I used a large saucepan - worked fine.)  Cook over moderate heat until bacon is crisp and vegetables are lightly browned.

Add a 3-pound chicken, quartered, and cook until chicken is lightly browned on both sides.  (Note:  I used four large skin-on chicken breasts.) Then add the ¼ cup cognac, and ignite.  When the flame burns out, sprinkle with 4 tablespoons flour and stir until flour is well mixed with bacon drippings in pan.  (Okay, this part was a mess:  the cognac didn’t ignite so the hell with that and there was not enough in bacon drippings to mix well with the flour so what I got was almost one big ball of flour.  Luckily, this all evened out when I added the liquids.)

Next add 2 cups Burgundy, the chicken stock, salt, garlic, parsley (I used dried parsley), thyme, peppercorns and bay leaf.  Bring the liquid to a boil, cover, and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, sauté 4 strips of bacon until crisp.  Boil 8 small (peeled) onions until tender.  Then sauté 4 large mushrooms in 1 tablespoon butter until lightly browned.  Set aside and keep warm.  Toast 4 slices of bread, spread with garlic butter and cut into triangles to make garlic croutons.  (Note:  I used 4 cipollini onions instead of the small pearly white ones and when I was done cooking them, I sautéed them lightly in the leftover bacon fat.  I also sautéed the mushrooms (I sliced them instead of leaving them whole) in the bacon fat (reuse, recycle).  As to the bacon itself, although I quite enjoy the thicker strips of bacon I buy at Whole Foods, it does not crisp up well.)

When ready to serve, season with salt and pepper (to taste).  Arrange chicken pieces on a warm serving platter and strain the sauce over the chicken.  Garnish the platter with the onions, bacon, mushrooms and garlic croutons.  (Or, if you are me, don’t strain the sauce, and add the onions, bacon, and mushrooms – but not croutons (too much work) – onto the top of the chicken and sauce and mashed potatoes pyramid! Yum!).