whine & dine

I finally picked up a Le Creuset cast iron pot about a week or two ago, and I’ve been in heaven ever since. The reason why I never owned one before this is really just because they’re so bloody expensive, and also there’s a bit of a space issue going on in my kitchen right now. But free vouchers solved one of the problems so I’m glad to announce that I’m now the proud owner of an awesome deep-frying, stewing, risotto-making machine. Or, well, vessel, rather. And it’s yellow. :)

The first thing I did when I got back with it, apart from taking it out of the box to ooh and ahh a little more, was dig up some stew recipes I’d been wanting to try. I love stews, first because they taste so damn good, and second because they’re generally hassle free: you have about 15-20 minutes of active time prepping your food, then you ignore it for a good 30 minutes (or more) and all of a sudden dinner’s ready! Unfortunately, stews generally happen in larger portions than even bunny and I can finish, so I had to ring up a friend and bribe her into popping by for dinner. With dinner.

The first dish I cooked was a delightful chicken stew, which is sort of a play on Coq au Vin (i.e. Chicken in Red Wine), only I used a hen and cooked it in a white wine (namely, riesling here). I also decided to thicken the gravy a little by enriching it with cream before I reduced it into a luscious sauce, and all that was missing was a crusty loaf of bread to mop up all the sauce with.

Now, although most of us generally use cheap/crappy wines when we’re cooking with it (especially in such copious amounts), I would advise you to not just go out and get the cheapest bottle you can get your hands on. As with all ingredients, your quality of your final dish is always limited by the quality of the ingredients that you put into it, so while I wouldn’t waste a $800 bottle of wine in a dish where I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the subtle nuances of the wine, go pick up a decent bottle – which you should easily be able to within S$35 at your local supermarket.

Poulet au Riesling

2 tbsp olive oil
20g butter
150g streaky bacon, cut into lardons
1 large chicken (about 2kg in weight), chopped into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 medium white onions, peeled and quartered
6 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
1 bottle of Riesling
400ml whipping cream
200g baby button mushrooms
Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped

In a large, heavy bottomed pan, melt the butter with the olive oil on medium heat. When melted, add in the bacon and cook for a few minutes until lightly browned. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon, and set aside in a bowl. Turn the heat up, then brown the chicken (in a few batches, if necessary – to prevent overcrowding). Remove the chicken from the pan, then lower the heat, and slowly cook the carrots, onions and garlic until the onion is softened but not coloured (about 5-8 minutes). Return the chicken and bacon to the pan, turn up the heat, and add all the wine.

Quickly bring the liquid to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer partially covered for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces from the stew, add in all the cream and boil to reduce the liquid until your desired consistency. It should have thickened enough to form a smooth sauce (somewhere around the consistency of whipping cream). While it is reducing, add in the mushrooms, stir through most of the parsley (reserving some for garnishing) and season with salt and black pepper. When ready to serve, add the chicken pieces back in and warm through.

Yield: Serves 4