First, turn to Page 12, or Coq au Vin

Scott has never been one to do things in order. As his friends (and his wife) will tell you, orderly is not a word you'd normally associate with him. So rather than start on page 2 (Beggar's Chicken), he turns to Page 12 (Coq au Vin) to begin his exploration of the Cooking Class Cookbook.

The dish is, however perfect for a cold Sunday night in winter and has the advantage of being able to be refrigerated and served again for lunches and mid-week dinners. At heart, Coq au Vin is a chicken casserole that is built around bacon, shallots (or small onions), mushrooms, garlic, chicken and a sauce made with lots of butter, thickened with flour and chicken stock and flavoured with wine, brandy and herbs (thyme, bay leaves, etc).

Things were a bit touch and go for Scott as he cooked the Coq au Vin with the thickening of the sauce going a bit crazy and ending up needing to be remade. This was because out of deference to his wife's fructan intolerance, he used gluten-free flour instead of wheaten flour and the sauce went gummy and goopy, more like some sort of advanced polymer than a browned butter sauce thickened with flour and water. So the original sauce went in the bin, to be replaced by a sauce remade using cornflour (made from maize) which turned out relatively normal. Even so, it was still too thick and needed to be thinned out with more chicken stock.

Scott made the Coq au Vin early in the afternoon, which allowed him to go and do a couple of hours of work on the windows in the second bedroom before putting it in the oven. He served it on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes with steamed broccoli and carrots on the side.

There was enough time for Scott and his wife to enjoy dinner in front of the TV watching MasterChef and complain about how almost none of the contestants know how to do 'home style cooking'.

Delicious meal and not bad for the first effort. Scott asks you to stay tuned for the next installment.