Coq au Vin

This weekend Tim's lovely parents came over to install some loft insulation for us (wild isnt it? this blog) To thank them for all the effort I tried to break out the big guns and made a lovely Coq au Vin that I am proud enough of to share with you here.

You will find during the course of my ramblings on Wishone that I am an enthusiastic cook! Nothing is better to me than really being able to focus on something in the kitchen. Copious praise from eaters is also a factor, I don't mind admitting!

For this meal I wanted something warming and tasty for a cold January day of, for the guys at least, hard work up in the attic. Tim received Valentine Warner's book 'The Good Table' for christmas, a great book full of very hearty looking dishes with great gritty photography. Although I had made Coq au Vin before with reasonable success, I never felt that I was getting it quite right and wanted to do it by the book so to speak.

Warner's trick is to individually and thoroughly brown all of the ingredients separately and remove to a bowl each time. I felt that this makes for a much deeper and richer sauce and I have to admit it was a vast improvement on previous efforts. I didn't mind the addition of a whole bottle of red and a cup of brandy either!