You may remember from an earlier post that Judy and Nancy gave me a certificate on my birthday for a dinner of Coq au Vin that they would prepare using the recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Tomorrow's the day. The menu has been selected. The guests have been invited (Cantrell Maryott and her beloved David), and the countdown has begun.
Judy bought flowers at the Saturday growers' market this morning, and the search is on for a four-ounce chunk of lean bacon. The only bacon we've ever seen is shrink-wrapped in neat little strips, not chunks. I suggested they pile up a bunch of strips and call it a chunk, but these are purists. If Julia says "chunk," by god it'll be a chunk.
The part of the recipe that has me fairly bounding off the walls with anticipation (and no little anxiety), is when a quarter cup of cognac is to be poured over the chicken stew. "Averting your face," Julia writes, "ignite the cognac with a lighted match. Shake the casserole back and forth for several seconds until the flames subside."
Nancy says she's going to film the event and put it on YouTube so I can then link it to this blog. Don't hold your breath. If Nancy is filming, that means Judy will be the one who has to set the stew ablaze, while averting her face, and shake that 30-pound French enamal casserole in the process. Lord have mercy.
More to come.
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