🍳 Today’s Culinary Picks:
🍗 Coq au Vin — French Rooster in Wine
A classic of French country cooking, once made with an old rooster simmered for hours in red wine. Today, chicken does the job—tender meat in a deep, rich sauce with mushrooms, bacon, and pearl onions. The perfect dish for an evening meal with crusty bread.
Ingredients:
• Chicken thighs and drumsticks — 1.2 kg
• Red wine (Burgundy or Pinot Noir) — 750 ml
• Bacon (pancetta or smoked) — 150 g
• Mushrooms — 250 g
• Pearl onions — 15–20 (or 1 large onion)
• Carrots — 2
• Garlic — 3 cloves
• Tomato paste — 1 tablespoon
• Flour — 2 tablespoons
• Olive oil and butter — 2 tablespoons each
• Bay leaves — 2
• Thyme (dried or fresh) — 1 teaspoon
• Sugar — 1 teaspoon (to balance the wine’s acidity)
• Salt, black pepper
Instructions:
💡 Fun Fact: Coq au Vin is so old it traces back to Julius Caesar: legend says the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix sent Caesar a scrawny rooster as a gift, symbolizing that the Gauls would fight to the last. Caesar cooked it in wine—and invited the Gallic leaders to the feast.
🐟 Münchner Steckerlfisch — Munich-Style Grilled Fish
The famous Bavarian Oktoberfest fast food—a whole fish, marinated and grilled over coals on a long skewer. In Munich’s beer gardens, it’s eaten by hand, washed down with cold wheat beer. At home, it works perfectly in the oven or on the grill.
Ingredients:
• Whole fish (trout, mackerel, or sea bass) — 2–3 (~300 g each)
• Vegetable oil — 4 tablespoons
• Lemon — 1
• Garlic — 3 cloves
• Sweet paprika — 2 teaspoons
• Smoked paprika — 1 teaspoon
• Cumin (ground) — 1 teaspoon
• Fresh dill — small bunch
• Salt, black pepper
• Wooden skewers or metal skewers
Instructions:
💡 Fun Fact: Steckerlfisch has been sold at Oktoberfest since the 1880s and is the festival’s second most popular dish after grilled chicken. Bavarians eat it by hand, starting with the head—it’s believed the first bite should be the cheek, the tenderest part.