There is an obvious van joke in there! But I will let it go although I see them a lot on the M4.

Instead I will tell you about my friend who mentioned she'd just been to Marseille on a work trip. I told her (I'm a bit excited about my French food week), that Marseille is where Bouillabaisse is from!!! My friend who is not very much into food or cooking asked "Who's Bouillabaisse?"

So there, that's French cuisine neatly back in it's corner.

Anyway I am loving my French week, and I love Bouillabaisse. Another classic French recipe that I have wanted to try for a long time and therefore added on my French meal plan is Coq au Vin. Anything with half a bottle of red wine in it can't be bad.


It's surprisingly easy and fuss free to make. Unless you use a whole unplucked cockerel I suppose. Luckily Morrisons didn't have any of those, so I opted for some organic drumsticks and thighs. It fills the house with a beautiful red winey and meaty smell. And of course tastes fantastic. I made it the previous evening and let it sit in the fridge overnight and it was pretty awesome when I heated it for dinner the next day. Or you could marinade the chicken pieces in wine overnight. You don't have to do either, but like the wine it mainly consists of it improves with time.

I substituted the bacon with smoked turkey rashers, because we don't really eat pork. Be sure not to fry them too long or they will become really dry and hard and really quite nasty. How do I know this? Call it my infallible cookery instinct.

Husband thought all the extra bits were unnecessary frou-frou (button onions, button mushrooms and maybe particularly the weird hard pieces of turkey bacon) but approved of the chicken.

Coq au Vin recipe (serves 2)

75g turkey bacon
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 garlic cloves
12 button onions
100g button mushrooms
500g of chicken pieces with bones in
1 tbsp of plain flour
2 tbsp cognac
1/2 bottle of French red wine
1 cup of chicken stock
a few sprigs of thyme
2 bay  leaves

Chop the turkey rashers. Heat some oil in a large pan or Dutch oven on medium heat. Fry the turkey rashers quickly. Remove to a plate.

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add to the pan and fry until nicely browned. Remove to a plate.

Turn the heat down. Chop the onion, carrot, celery and peel the button onions, add to the Dutch oven and fry on low heat until softened, Mince the garlic and add to pan. Continue frying for a few minutes.

Fry the mushrooms in a separate pan with some salt and pepper until brown.

Add chicken and turkey back to the dutch oven. Add the flour and cook for a minute. Add the mushrooms and cognac scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the wine, stock and herbs. Cover and simmer for 50 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the size of your chicken pieces. You want them to be melt in the mouth soft but you don't want them to fall apart in the pan.

Once your chicken is done you are likely to be left with a little bit too much liquid. To reduce, remove your chicken pieces onto a plate. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the sauce has reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon. Return the chicken to the pot and make sure it's hot through. Check and adjust seasoning.

Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with roast, boiled or mashed potatoes or plain rice.