Coq au vin, Milinciani a Canazzu and Lamb Stew

No matter what you call it or what you use in it, stew is the perfect comfort food for those short cold days, the perfect foil for tough cuts of meat and just the thing to make you smile and sigh at the end of the day.

Any culture that's had a tough bird to deal with has a version of chicken stew. One of my favorites is found in the Gourmet cookbook that came out about 10 or so years ago. Not for the diet-conscious, it contains a good amount of cream but is worth the splurge on a special occasion.

A more traditional version, Coq au vin (rooster in wine) comes to us from France and provides all the comfort one needs as well as all the praise the cook will get for serving this to guests.

Coq au Vin

1 chicken, cut up into pieces
4 ounces bacon
1/2 cup pearl onions
4 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Bouquet garni
4 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons brandy
2 cups red wine
Kneaded butter

Saute the bacon and onions in butter until browned. Add chicken, garlic, bouquet garni, and mushrooms and saute until golden with the lid on stirring occasionally.
Pour in 2 tablespoons of the brandy and flame.
Add the wine and simmer lively for 15 or 20 minutes.
Remove chicken and thicken sauce with the kneaded butter.
Add remaining brandy, heat through and serve over chicken.

1 chicken, cut up into pieces
4 ounces bacon
1/2 cup pearl onions
4 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Bouquet garni
4 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons brandy
2 cups red wine
Kneaded butter

Saute the bacon and onions in butter until browned. Add chicken, garlic, bouquet garni, and mushrooms and saute until golden with the lid on stirring occasionally.
Pour in 2 tablespoons of the brandy and flame.
Add the wine and simmer lively for 15 or 20 minutes.
Remove chicken and thicken sauce with the kneaded butter.
Add remaining brandy, heat through and serve over chicken.

1 chicken, cut up into pieces
4 ounces bacon
1/2 cup pearl onions
4 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Bouquet garni
4 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons brandy
2 cups red wine
Kneaded butter

Saute the bacon and onions in butter until browned. Add chicken, garlic, bouquet garni, and mushrooms and saute until golden with the lid on stirring occasionally.
Pour in 2 tablespoons of the brandy and flame.
Add the wine and simmer lively for 15 or 20 minutes.
Remove chicken and thicken sauce with the kneaded butter.
Add remaining brandy, heat through and serve over chicken.

6 tablespoon butter
1 cup flour

Blend together to make a smooth paste

I've often told the story of our first visit to Sicily. A long flight from San Francisco with layovers, it can take around 24 hours (or more) to get to Palermo where you haven't really experienced the proper welcome until you're luggage has been lost. We got the proper welcome. In addition to that, we were dropped off at a place out in the middle of nowhere by a man we had only just met. While waiting for him to come back to get us, we decided to do a little exploring in the countryside which, in no time, left us with mud up to our ankles. Using an outside pump, we washed our socks and shoes and prayed for them to dry before he returned which he did at about the same time we were pulling on still-damp socks and shoes.

Exhausted, cold, wet and famished, he staggered into his office to talk about looking at property, a subject that my battered mind couldn't get itself around at that time. When we finally stood up, stretched and said, "Well, boys, let's go and get a bite to eat," I was pulling my coat on when he pointed to a door which did not lead outside. It led to a darkened descending stairway which I though would be the last sight I would ever see. (Yes, a tired mind is susceptible...) What we found at the bottom of the stairs was a kitchen and a long table at which we were seated and poured out glasses of homemade wine.

As he walked to the stove, the real estate man, Franco, started talking about everyday things and pulled out vegetables, homemade passata, olive oil pressed from his father's olives and dried Calabrian chilies, an ingredient I haven't been without since. In no time he was dishing up a wonderful stew and passing a big bowl of dried pecorino to sprinkle over it. This welcome made me forget about wet feet and lost luggage. This was a warmth to transcend!

It was also a recipe to keep. I had purposely brought a note pad to jot down recipes I might find and was put to work sooner than I thought. Just a note about the peppers, I have found that looking for sweet peppers that are halfway between green and red provides a very different and delicious flavor to any dish where peppers are called for. If you can't locate them, go with regular red, or yellow, or orange...

Milinciani a Canazzu

(Eggplant stew)

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large sweet red bell pepper, chopped
1 eggplant
1 Calbrian dried chili or dried chili flakes to taste
1 28-ounce can tomatoes, chopped
2 or 3 medium potatoes, sliced thick
Salt to taste
Pecorino
Saute onion, garlic, pepper, eggplant and chili in olive oil until vegetables are soft.
Add tomatoes and cook stirring for a few minutes.
Add potatoes and water if necessary cooking until potatoes are tender.
Season with salt and serve with grated pecorino.

Lamb stew is another of those concoctions that every culture has come up with. My most memorable is not made with a tough cut of lamb but with a milk-fed lamb that has not been allowed to mature beyond the age of one month assuring the diner with a tender succulence he won't find in any other lamb stew. Served only at Easter, this Roman preparation is so popular in the Eternal City that it is wise to pre-order your lamb or go very early in the morning on the Saturday before Easter (as I did) to assure your lamb is fresh and available. For the rest of us and the rest of the year, I offer a recipe from the old now-out-of-print Settlement Cookbook.

You should experiment with this by adding some thyme and additional vegetables of choice. I am offering the recipe as given in the book along with the one for baking powder dumplings, a must pairing!

Lamb Stew with Baking Powder Dumplings

1 pound lamb stew pieces
1 medium onion, chopped and divided into to portions
Oil
Salt and pepper
1 large potato, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
Baking Powder Dumplings (Recipe below)

Season lamb pieces with salt and pepper and brown well in the oil along with half the chopped onion.
Add boiling water to cover and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
Add the rest of the vegetables and simmer,covered, for 1 additional hour adding dumplings and simmering another 15 minutes covered.

Baking Powder Dumplings

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 scant cup milk

Mix dry ingredients. Add milk and stir just to mix. Drop by spoonfuls into simmer stew. Cover and let cook for 15 minutes.