Toast to Soccer and France: Coq Au Vin

With the French team eliminated from the world cup it does not seem a nice time to develope a craving for French food. Does it?

Speaking of world cup, I haven't heard big talk about that little event going on in South Africa, in the foodie community! And I was under the impression that soccer and food were like brothers in arms! Anyways, I a big big soccer fan. And I am not going to tell anyone which teams I am rooting for-- I don't want any enemies here and I know from experience soccer support can get pretty volatile :)

So while, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Ghana, USA and the likes of these team fight for the big prize, it seems fair to me that I can still crave food from a few countries, who have been legends in the game, although this particular world cup has been a bit topsy turvy for them :) After all, the loveliness of French and Italian food is difficult to bypass simply because of soccer :)

I mentioned a few weeks ago about having themed dinner night every week. I have had Turkish, Hungarian, Italian, Malaysian. Soccer or no soccer, tonight had to be a French dinner. Because today's French dinner was not inspired by soccer, but by a wonderful blogger who posted a mouthwatering french recipe.  Sasha of for the love of food. The blog features some of the simplest and most flavorful, easy to execute, recipes of Jacques Pepin . If you haven't checked it out yet, you absolutely must! You will crave french food, whoever you are, whichever team you are rooting for, or for that matter if you are not into sports at all! That's the best part of Jacques's blog and French food :)

So here is today's French dinner-- my very first one too--Coq au vin (a form of seared and poached rooster) with wild herb rice, baguette and a glass of good red. A foot note about how I made this one. Its about soccer and food, so substitutions were in order :) :) I increased the poultry seasoning (made from thyme, sage, rosemary and oregano), reduced the amount of red wine by half, substituted vodka for cognac ( you see I love vodka and hate cognac, so I had the former),  did not have the mushrooms and so increased the amount of carrots. I fear, I may have taken off some of the frenchness of the recipe. But then food is about taste and enjoyment...right? The dish tasted heavenly.

To great nations who have entertained us for the longest period in soccer and food history and here's wishing them better luck next time, in the former :) 

Happy eating and healthy living!