This makes a very good weekend meal. There are a lot of steps and ingredients but it is so worth it in the end (like a lot of long-cooking, multi-stepped recipes). It’s very similar to coq au vin, but with beer (duh). Use a good dark beer, Belgian-style if you’ve got it. I used half belgian, half regular dark. Four cups is about 2.5 bottles of beer, so you’ll have half a beer to drink while you start cooking. So, bonus points there.

Let’s see, what else? We had this with crusty bread but you could also add polenta or noodles to serve it over. I added garlic to this and subbed pancetta for the bacon but that’s about it. Oh yeah, I didn’t have leek leaves. Skipped that and added some rosemary sprigs to my bouquet garni instead.

This recipe is from the awesome cookbook, “French Farmhouse Cookbook,” and is the same cookbook with the walnut chicken recipe. That is pretty much my most favorite chicken recipe ever.

From the Aix-lea-Orchies villiage in France, right near the Belgian border. Hence the beer. Speaking of, a good dark beer works for well for drinking with this meal. We cracked open some Chimay Bleue.

Chicken Braised in Beer (Coq à la Bière)
Ever-so-slightly adapted from the French Farm House Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis
2 tbsp olive oil, more as needed
1 large chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds; 1 3/4 to 2 kg), cut into 8 pieces (or buy an already cut-up chicken — 2 breast pieces, 2 wings with portion of breast attached, 2 legs, 2 thighs), excess fat removed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, cut in half, then in very thin crosswise slices
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
4 cups dark beer
1 bouquet garni (5 parsley stems, 3 imported bay leaves, 2 green leek leaves, 12 sprigs fresh thyme, tied together, in cheesecloth if desired) — I skipped the leek leaves, added rosemary

For the garnishes:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
40 pearl onions, peeled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (250 ml) chicken or roasted vegetable stock
1/2 lb bacon or pancetta
1 lb button mushrooms, brushed clean and cut into quarters
1/2 cup (loosely packed) curly parsley leaves, for garnish (optional)
Thyme sprigs for garnish

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add the chicken pieces, season them with salt and pepper, and cook on one side until the skin turns an even golden brown, about 5 minutes. (Do not crowd the pan; brown the chicken in several batches if necessary.)

Carefully regulate the heat to avoid scorching the skin. Then turn the pieces, season again with salt and pepper, and brown on that side, 5 minutes.

Remove the chicken pieces from the skillet, reduce the heat to medium, and add the sliced onions and garlic (adding more oil if needed to keep them from sticking). Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent, about 8 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring, until the flour has absorbed much of the cooking juices and has a chance to cook, at least 2 minutes.

Then return the chicken to the skillet, add the beer and the bouquet garni, stir, and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and cook, partially covered, at a lively simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 50 minutes. Remove the chicken from the sauce and return the sauce to a boil. Reduce it by half, until it has thickened to the consistency of thin gravy, 5 to 8 minutes.

Return the chicken to the sauce, and remove the skillet from the heat; set it aside. (The chicken can be prepared up to this point a day ahead. Refrigerate it, covered. The following day, skim off any fat that has congealed on the surface, if desired. Reheat, covered, over medium-low heat.)

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the garnish: Melt the butter in a medium-size heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pearl onions, season lightly with salt and pepper, and sauté until golden, about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, reduce the heat to medium, and cook at a lively simmer, shaking the pan occasionally so the onions cook evenly, until they are tender through and the stock has neatly evaporated, about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and keep warm.

Cut the bacon or pancetta into small cubes. Brown it in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon or spatula and set it aside on a plate.

Drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until they begin to give up their liquid, are slightly golden, and are nearly tender through, about 5 minutes. Season generously with pepper, and remove from the heat.

Add mushrooms, the bacon, and the pearl onions, along with any juices to the chicken, and gently mix them in. Either transfer to a large warmed serving platter (one with edges, so the juice won’t run off) or serve directly from the cooking pot.

Garnish with the parsley, if desired, and serve immediately.

So, on the fish, it’s not really a cream sauce per se. I was intrigued/concerned with the idea of baking mayonnaise in a sauce, but, this worked well. I used some fancy-pants mayonnaise made with olive oil. La de da!

Okay, so I also found the fabled horseradish mustard called for in the recipe at Whole Foods, Stonewall Kitchens brand. I got it, mainly because I love me some fancy mustards. You could also just use a plain Dijon mustard and add some horseradish to that, maybe start with 1/2 teaspoon and taste from there. For some reason the idea of using a mustard with horseradish already in it was causing posters at epicurious.com to kind of collectively lose their … shiny marbles. Whatever. If you have some use it, if you don’t, add horseradish to the mustard-mayo blend.

Aside from the olive oil mayonnaise and the $6 mustard, this is totally an unfancy meal. But, we thought it was super delicious. And the super fresh, lovely rock cod they usually have at the Whole Foods by work was excellent here!

The orange and olive salad is also quite tasty. It may sound weird but it completely works, and it looks quite nice too.

Baked Cod & Potatoes with Horseradish Cream
Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I decreased this from the original 1/2 cup)
3 tbsp Dijon mustard with horseradish
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2/3 pound unpeeled red-skinned potatoes, thinly sliced
2 6-8 ounce cod fillets (I used about 1 pound total rock cod, 2 big fillets, 2 smaller ones, hooray! leftover fish!)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I forgot this…)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil; coat generously with nonstick spray. Mix mayonnaise, mustard, (horseradish), thyme, and lemon juice in medium bowl to blend. Season mustard mixture with pepper.

Toss potatoes in mustard mixture. Gently shake excess mustard mixture from potatoes before spreading potatoes in single layer on a prepared baking sheet.

Bake in the top third of the oven, until potatoes are beginning to brown, about 13 minutes.

Prepare another baking sheet in the same way you did for the potatoes (foil, non-stick spray). Coat fish with remaining mustard mixture. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper.

Place fish on the new baking sheet and place alongside the potatoes. Bake until fish is opaque in center and potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes longer. Divide potatoes between 2 plates.

Top potatoes with fish, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve. I put the fish to the side, as my potatoes looked all golden and pretty.

On to the Orange and Olive Salad. Okay, while it is all baking, you should have time to do this. You can also start this first and just have it hang out while you do the fish and potatoes.

Orange and Olive Salad
From Food Day in the Oregonian, (also in the New York Times), adapted from a recipe by La Zucca Magica, by way of Mark Bittman
1/2 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted
1/2 teaspoon fresh (or 1/4 tsp dried) thyme leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + more as needed
2 navel oranges, peeled, sliced into rounds
fennel seeds (optional, to scatter as a garnish)

In a food processor, combine olives and thyme, if using, with a bit of olive oil. Pulse machine once or twice, then turn it on and add remaining olive oil rather quickly; you want this purée on the rough side. Thin with more olive oil if necessary. (You can refrigerate this for up to a month.)

Layer orange slices on a small platter and top with spoonfuls of the olive puree. Hit it all with a little drizzle of the olive oil and scatter some more thyme on top if you want. Personally, I wasn’t crazy about the scattered fennel seeds on top (and I love fennel seeds!), but ymmv.

I don’t know what it was but last weekend I was totally into baking things in cake pans. I made a quiche (well, that was in a pie pan) but then also this cake. Oh! I remember why now, I have this new ginger apple hair conditioner that I have been using that smells so good. It totally made me want to bake something apple-y. Then I found the recipe for this cake and there you go.

Okay, originally, the topping recipe called for white sugar. I decided to do it with brown sugar for fun. Oh, it was fun. I also added walnuts and at the advice of many posters at the Food Network site, I increased the oven time a little bit.

The original recipe said to use “baking apples” — I opted for a mix of apples. I also found that 3 apples was quite enough, once sliced up. Speaking of which, slice the apples thinly, into wedges, like you were making an apple tart. They will bake up really nicely stacked up — you will “ooohhhh” and “ahhhhhh” once you cut into the cake!

Tasty French Apple Cake
Adapted from the Apple Lady Apple Cake in the Paris Cookbok by Patricia Wells
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup 1% or 2% milk
3 - 4 large apples, cored,peeled,and cut into thin wedges — I used 2 gala and 1 Pacific Rose apple

The Topping
1/3 packed brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and set it aside. A regular 9-inch cake pan worked for me. I buttered and floured well (actually, I used Pam for baking!) and I had no problem getting the cake out. You’ll just need to flip upside-down onto a plate and then flip again onto another plate to get the right side up. More on that later…

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir to blend. Add the vanilla extract, eggs, oil, and milk, and stir until well blended.

Add the apples and stir to thoroughly coat them with the batter. Your bowl will contain mostly apples, covered with a bit of batter.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until fairly firm and golden, about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping: In a small bowl, combine the sugar, egg, and melted butter, and stir to blend. Set it aside.

Remove the cake from the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Pour the topping mixture over the cake and sprinkle with the walnuts.

Return the cake to the oven and bake until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 15 minutes. After 10 minutes take a peek and make sure the brown sugar is not burning.

Mine was fine, but I was a little worried. Also, make sure you are baking the cake in the lower-middle of the oven and not a rack near the very top of the oven. Transfer the cake pan to a rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Then run a knife around the sides of the pan, and release and remove the springform side, leaving the cake on the pan base. Or, after running the knife along the edges, put a plate over the top of the cake and flip onto the plate. The cake will be upside down. Take another plate and put that on top of the cake and flip again. The cake should now be right-side up on the 2nd plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into thin wedges. Very good with a little vanilla frozen yogurt on top while still warm!

This is an awesome, flavorful, pretty quick-to-make dinner. It works really well with defrosted, chicken breasts.

I’ve started buying the big bag of frozen chicken breasts at Trader Joe’s lately because they seem so much cheaper than the package of fresh breasts. I don’t use them for all my chicken needs but they are great to use here. I just put a couple of breasts in the fridge to defrost the day before I made this dinner.

I made a full sauce version (what’s listed below) with only two breasts. We have some leftover sauce but I’m sure I will find a use for it! Right now I’m thinking it’ll be a lunch this week with some grilled tuna and fennel. Mmmmm! (Another great use of frozen fish there).

Chicken Provençal w/ Olives & Tomatoes
Adapted from The CIA — Culinary Institute of America
4 (6- to 8-ounce) skinless boneless chicken breasts, tenders reserved for another use
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried lavender
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion, diced (I used the rest of a red onion I had in the fridge)
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 flat anchovy fillet, mashed to a paste or 1 tsp anchovy paste from a tube
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 strip of orange zest
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, I actually used a small can, not the big double-wide can, of San Marzano whole tomatoes)
12 pitted olives, chopped roughly (I used a combination of 3 oil cured black, 5 kalamata and 4 green Castelvetrano olives — hooray for the olive bar!)
1 tbsp finely shredded basil

Mix flour and dried herbs together and put on a plate. Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with some salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then cook chicken, turning once, until golden and just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. Transfer to a platter and keep warm, covered. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken. Check the temp with a meat thermometer to be sure (165 degrees F).

Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, until soft, about 5-6 minutes.

Add the anchovy paste and cook about 30 seconds. Add wine and bring to a boil, scraping up brown bits. Stir in tomatoes, stock, and olives and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened a bit, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the chicken and any accumulated juices back into the sauce pan and simmer until just heated through, about a minute or two. Serve sprinkled with basil and serve.

This goes great over some egg noodles. Garnish with feta if you have any because that’s really good!

Whew! Right in under the 10/31 deadline! Confessions of an Apron Queen is hosting this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Fall Vegetables. This is a great theme as far as I am concerned as I do love the Fall vegetables. This recipe is from the Williams Sonoma cookbook, Autumn. I believe I’ve drawn inspiration from it before for WCC.

This Coq au Vin does indeed have Fall vegetables — carrots, rutabaga, purple potatoes, and parsnips. It was also supposed to have a turnip but I was trying to hurry and get dinner ready (hungry!) and I didn’t feel like prepping that one. So sad. However, I think Mr. Turnip will show up in a soup shortly.

This recipe has many parts, many bowls, lots of steps (a lot of ins and outs) but only 1 pot. It’s a good Sunday night meal. Probably not a realistic Tuesday night meal.

I followed the directions from the book mostly, except that I added a diced onion and about 10 chopped cremini mushrooms. Oh and some rosemary. And more thyme. I also roasted my veggies because I like roasted veggies. And I used less chicken stock. And…Well, hell, it’s kind of based on the recipe, I guess.

Coq au Vin with Autumn Vegetables
2 tbsp olive oil
8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2 slices bacon, cut into small dice
8-10 boneless chicken thighs
1 bottle of red wine (Cotes du Rhone, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc…)
3 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic minced
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig rosemary
2 parsnips peeled, and cut into 1″ lengths
2 carrots peeled, and cut into 1″ lengths
2 purple potatoes (or small red skinned potatoes) cut into small wedges
1 rutabaga peeled, and cut into smaller wedges than the other vegetables
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the onion and mushrooms and saute until soft and just starting to color — about 6-7 minutes. Remove and set aside in a large bowl. Return the pan to the heat and add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate.

Sprinkle all sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium-high and, working in batches, add the chicken pieces to the pot. Cook, turning as necessary, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. I didn’t work in batches because I was hungry, so my chicken didn’t brown as well as it should have. So, work in batches people!

When all of the chicken is golden, return the all chicken pieces to the pot along. Raise the heat to high and add the wine, broth, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, and the leaves from the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer 20-25 minutes.

Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a large shallow dish and keep warm.

Meanwhile, right after you get the wine into the pot, toss your diced up fall veggies with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes (while the chicken is braising), until almost done. You could also just skip this step and cook the veggies in the wine-broth completely. If you do this, give them about 25-30 minutes.

Next, add the almost cooked parsnips, carrots, rutabaga and potato to the wine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are completely tender, about 8-10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to the dish holding the chicken. And pour the wine sauce into the bowl holding the sauteed mushrooms and onions.

Melt the butter in your pot and add the flour. Cook for about a minute and then add the hot wine-mushrooms-onions mix back into the pot. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid lightly coats a spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. Mine didn’t seem to thicken all that much but it was still mighty tasty!

To serve, pour the slightly thickened sauce over the bowl holding the chicken and vegetables. Garnish with thyme or rosemary sprigs. Recipe yields (at least) 6 servings. We had this with a big bowl of goat cheese polenta drizzled with a little fancy olive oil. Oh and the crusty bread. You must have crusty bread.

Thanks again to Confessions of an Apron Queen for hosting this month!