Coq Au Can
Faithful readers will recall the last time I posted on cooking Beer Can Chicken. Well, it’s the weekend, and I need to drinkcook so I decided to see how far I can modify this technique. So tonight we’re having the classic dish Coq au Vin except I’m cooking it on a can on the grill.
I hope.
Anyhow, as a delightful prelude let’s set some butter out to soften.
And then I’m off to Daughter’s basketball game while it room temperaturizes.
Okay, now that it’s all mush-like let’s complete the process with half a teaspoon each of thyme and marjoram.
Cover that and put in the fridge for later.
Now in a large bowl put some wine, a couple cloves of chopped garlic, and some tarragon
Add the whole buzzard and drench with whatever is left in the bottle
Cover with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for a few hours to marinate.
a few hours…what to drink to occupy the time…
Well, since the weather is getting warmer methinks it’s time to have some caipirinhas, no?
Since we last looked at these beauties I’ve both redone my kitchen (thanks be to Baby Jeebus) and gotten some pointers from some Brazilian friends on how to improve the recipe.
I’ve also gotten a decent wooden smasherooskie
Here’s the new method: slice off the lime skin, as it adds bitterness
Lime nekkid!
One lime per highball, cut into eighths. Add 2 heapin’ spoons of sugar
Gently yet firmly mash into an oozing pulp
add cachaça in roughly an equal volume
and then some ice and sip away!
Hmmm, interesting tasting cachaça, this brand “PiraPora”.
Goodness, is my drink gone already? Maybe I’ll have another using a different brand…
mashmashmash
smells a little better
Tastes a little better too; a tad more smokey/sweet. Yum!
Now it’s time to get the Bossa Nova going on the ipod.
I love killing time while the buzzard marinates!
Speaking of which, an hour or so has gone by, so time to flip.
Oh damn. Running low again.
Time to make another for my Bride…
Let’s start preppin’ those handsome sweet potatos
damndamndamn
Better switch to wine; another caipirinha and I might jump on the grill myself
Let’s see how this is
This is quite tasty; very soft tannins and lots of full, forward fruit. And only $13!
Meanwhile, back at the Yammityville Horror…
wash, skin and chop up the yams
No, it’s yam not lamb
and put them in a big pot of water
they’ll take at least 45 minutes to cook; you don’t need to start them yet, however
Now roughly chop an onion
it goes in the base tin under le buzzard.
Trim a large shallot for the neck opening
Place the onions in the base around the can holder.
Now I must most sincerely apologize for the choice in cans. with all my soul I intended to use a beer can, but the only can I had was a can of Coors, and when I emptied it (into moi, of course) I noticed it had a lining on the inside of it. The can claimed this was to keep the beer even ‘fresher’, but it looked to me like some sort of plastic lining, which is not something that I wanted to cook on a grill with, so I substituted a can from Daughter’s most recent Shirley temple.
Anyhow, fill the can 2/3 of the way with a nice red wine and add a few cloves of garlic and some marjoram. This will boil up nicely while the buzzard cooks.
And now place Tweety on the holder
time to get it and rub the outside of Tweety with it
place the big shallot in the neck opening and place a big glog of herbed butter on top of that
fill the base of the tin with the wine and garlic from the marinade
but don’t fill it as full as I did. I have no idea how I managed to carry this outside to the grill without spilling wine all over the place…
have the grill at around 350º; this will cook Tweety in around two hours without burning
Find some way to occupy the first hour and 15 minutes or so
then start the sweet spuds a boilin’
after another 45 minute…why is that a thermometer in your chest or are you happy to see me?
Nurse Jones…scalpel!
Dump the spuds into a colander and add a stick of butter and some cinnamon to the pan
dump on the drained yamsters and mash away, mash away home
Slices look mighty yum
Now I did buy some broccoli to steam and have with this…but I was having too much fun drinking and never got around to making it. bah, who needs it!
It was quite tasty and very juicy. The can method is a fantastic way to cook chicken.
Swill Food and Grog | Mr. Bingley | 
March 10, 2007 10:24 pm
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Show off.
I have a 1 gig card in my camera and I ain’t afraid to use it!
Wonderful spread of pix, but what you really need is a plate of Texas Chili to go with the Birdie!
Hehe, some of that chili has quite a kick, Mike.
Nice job on the chicken and great photos! Where did you get that round bottle of cachaca in NYC? I haven’t seen it yet. Still I’m willing to challenge you to see which cachaca tastes better; the brands you used versus my Cachaca Fazenda Mae De Ouro. Just say when and where 😉
-Dave
LOL it actually cracks me up that the dead center of that bottle says “Cachaca Brazilian Spirit” larger than anything else. Sort of like seeing on a bottle “Vodka Russian Spirit” dead center, larger than any brand name. I guess they must be banking on people just buying it because it’s labled cachaca!
A friend brought me the ‘brazilian spirit’ one; I think I’ve seen it in the duty free shops at the airport in sao paulo. The other bottle I got in eatontown, nj, where there’s a large brazilian population.
I haven’t had mae de ouro yet; I’ll pick up a bottle next time i see it.
Then I’ll have a blind taste test…I think I have 4 or 5 different cachaças lying about. That could be a fun post.
A blind taste test would be awesome! The best price I have seen for Mae De Ouro in NJ is at a place called:
Bayway World of Liquor
639 Bayway Ave
Elizabeth, NJ 07202
908-353-6300
They got a case in and I think it hit the shelf at $22 a bottle, it’s $28-32 in NYC, and about $26 in Brooklyn. Shoot me your address so I can send you an unvarnished muddler in the mail, the one you have works but eventually it’ll start to deposit bits off paint into your caipirinha. (I’m also on a crusade against varnished muddlers)
-Dave
My goodness, I would hate to lose the varnish off of my muddler…