CHICKEN IN PORT WINE

When people think French, “Coq au Vin” probably would be the first thing that pops up in their head. However, come to think of it, everything is “au vin” in France! Coq au vin requires rather intensive time and labor. Besides, it is not easy to find a rooster in our supermarkets. If you made the dish with a chicken then your dish would be “Poulet au vin”, not “Coq au vin”. What’s the difference? The rooster holds up better in a stew than a chicken. Few years back, my sister Tam, who is living in France, showed me another chicken “au vin” dish, “Poulet au Porto”(Chicken cooked in Port wine). This dish is quick and a lot simpler to make than the classic “Coq au Vin”. First, you season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dredge them in flour and fry in a mixture of oil and butter to crisp both sides. Remove the chicken and set aside. You might want to remove some of the fat also. Add some chopped onions and garlic to the pan, sauté briefly then add a teaspoon of flour to make a roux(a thick paste of flour and butter). Deglaze the pan with a cup of port wine and some chicken stock. Stir until the roux is all dissolved. The result would be a lightly thick sauce. If the sauce turned out too thick, feel free to add more wine or some chicken stock. Add back the chicken into the pan, add some mushrooms (sliced, cut in half or left whole, up to your preference). Turn the heat down to low, cover the pan with lid and simmer the chicken until tender, about 20 minutes. If you found the sauce a little thin when you put the chicken back into the pan, this simmering process would thicken up the sauce. Check the seasoning before serving.
You can serve this dish with rice or some baguette.

DUCK THREE WAYS

Where I live, the grocery stores only sell ducks during the holiday season, around October through December. As a reason, every year around that time, I bought 6 to 8 of them and  stored them in a freezer. That would give us a good supply of ducks to eat throughout the year. I always cut a duck into three parts: legs&thighs, breasts, back bones&wings. I froze some of the ducks cut up and some whole. I used legs for confit, a l'orange, or grilling with p some kind of a sweet and sour sauce on top i.e. cherry, mango, peach etc...I basically used the breasts the same way as I used the legs, except confit, for the reason that you would not stew duck breasts, as much as you would not stew fillet mignon You just simply ruined a good and expensive piece of meat . Finally, the bones were obviously for soup. When I had duck bones, the first dish that came to my mind was "Mì Vịt Tiềm Thuốc Bắc"( Duck Stewed in Chinese Medicine). Do not let the name scares you. First of all, most Chinese medicines come from herbs anyway, secondly, the best way to create the flavor for this dish is to buy the bouillon mixed that are made for this soup. If you never tried to make curry powder from scratch, then I wouldn't bother with this soup either.  This is a Chinese noodle soup dish with a rather complex flavor. However, thanks to the soup mix, the process of cooking this dish is rather simple which is not much different from any other noodle soups. Besides the soup mix, I also throw in some shiitake mushrooms, lotus seeds, Chinese dried prune, onions, garlic and soy sauce to taste. I am a fan of pressure cookers.I stew everything in it, including "Phở ". If you used a pressure cooker to cook this dish, you wouldn't   need to presoak the dried lotus seeds and dried prunes. Usually, the bones would give you enough scrapped meat, but you can also add pieces of  Chines BBQ  duck breasts or legs or thigh to make this bowl of noodle soup more wholesome. Before serving, make sure to check for seasoning, soy sauce can be added if necessary, and sesame oil is optional.
This week, after the duck was thawed out, I cut off the two legs and thighs to use for duck confit. The backbone and the wings were used for Chinese Noodle Duck Soup, and the breasts were for Chinese BBQ Duck.
There is a difference between Chinese BBQ and Chinese Roast. Roast are generally cooked in the oven and bbqs are cooked on a pit. Chicken, pork or duck can be cooked either way. Roasts are marinated with five spice powder, soy sauce, garlic onions, some sugar or honey. The roasts usually have a bright yellow color when they come out of the oven. The main ingredient for Chinese BBQ is hoisin sauce. I found the best way to do Chinese BBQ is to use premixed powder or paste. After marinating the meat according to instruction of the package, I hung the chicken or duck inside a Brinkman type smoker. When cooked, a Chinese BBQ duck, chicken or pork would have a distintive bright red color