Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Quite an endeavor. I made a double batch for a dinner party tomorrow night. A few days of prep work to marinate the chicken in the wine overnight (David Leite's suggestion), make brown stock, peel 40 small white onions (oh what a pain that was), and otherwise set up my mise en place. It smells really good though. Trying to decide whether or not to attempt to make a baguette tomorrow...
I'm a bit tired
Nancy

It sounds exhausting, but wonderful. If you don't feel like making a baguette, how about a couple of loaves of Cuban Bread? Much easier and faster even if not French, will take sauce just fine.

Nancy,

A true labor of love, but oh so worth it.

I wish Ron Popeil would come up with a pearl onion peeler.

Amy

P.S. if you decide to make baguettes, I have a good direct method recipe. (Most recipes call for a starter of some kind, so you would need to start that the day before, i.e., now.)

Great work, Nancy - you, and who ever you are fixing that for will love it! Last time I made that was back in the 90's - haven't found anyone that would appreciate it since then (or that I would peel all those onions for! LOL).

Too bad we don't live close to each other - I have 2 pre-ferments going right now, and will have about 8 baguettes from them (flour experiments), and would gladly trade most of them, for just a taste of that wonderful dish! Whatever bread you make will be good with it - it's as much the aroma of the bread baking, as anything, as noted in that article Jim posted a while back.

Dave,

You're right about making it for people who would appreciate it. What's happened to people's palates?

Amy

Dinty Moore & Pillsbury...

If you have a good French bakery, buy the bread. That's what French women do. Julia's recipe for French bread is long but the ingredients are simple and what you probably have on hand. We've had very good results with it and our French neighbor used it all the time.

fitzie

Frozen pearl onions wouldn't do?

Wino...I hope that's the last time I ever hear those words uttered from your lips, er...fingers.

And I agree, French women would buy a baguette, but there is something intoxicating about the aroma of freshly baked bread in the house.

Pete, frozen will do in a pinch, but just aren't the same...

Amy

I've made Coq au Vin quite a few times, and might have killed for frozen pearl onions ( though I am not sure what the texture difference would be), but have never seen them here, despite looking in every grocery store I've gone to. I think it is one of those suffer things. The "X", blanch, squeeze thing helps some, though it seems to vary by batch or perhaps my blanching is somewhat variable.