Southern Fried French

Champagne 101

The title of this post doesn't refer to the sparkly spirit. No, it's a beginner's guide to the region where said boisson is made. We'd heard Champagne was pretty, but it was not high on our travel list until our friends Kent and Heather (French canal boat voyagers of the Unexcused Absenses blog) called us to say they were docked near Épernay, and we should come on up. Never ones to turn down a chance to visit with good friends in a great wine region, we hopped in the car and were off. And now, I'd like to recommend you move the Champagne region higher up on your French travel list as well.  Photo above:  the Hotel de Ville in Épernay. Below, the church on the main Place.

It turns out Épernay is the town of choice for exploring the region. I was shocked at how beautiful and sophisticated it was. Think of a very fancy Paris neighborhood, but more intimate.  

Épernay is the seat of most of the big Champagne houses. And most of these are located on the Avenue de Champagne, which might also be called Château Row.  The 'houses' are grand old ladies of a certain age, each more beautiful than the next. Add to that the fact that the town must spend at least half of their budget on flowers and parks, and you've got charm to spare.

Now about that Champagne: the historic Champagne houses there are actually working houses; the wine is made and stored there. There are underground tunnels running all through the town and beyond, and they are so long you can take a small train through the tunnels, to tour them. 

Tasting wine everywhere in France is generally free, but not in Champagne. Tasting at the big houses can be pricey.  Kent and Heather had discovered something fun, however.  Each afternoon at the tourist office, there is a free tasting from a local vintner, often smaller producers. We tasted there and had a long chat with a young vigneron and his wife who were full of passion for their their wine. It was a great Champagne moment.  Photo below: Heather, sipping a rosé Champagne at the tourisme.

 

If you go:  The Champagne region is just over an hour and a half from Paris, so it's a great add-on for your next trip there. We ate at a restaurant we loved, called La Grillades Gourmande. Delicious, great service, and the 3 course menus started at 24 euros. We stayed in Les Berceaux, which I wouldn't call memorable but it was well located and perfectly nice, and reasonably priced. Keith and Heather also recommend a stop in the nearby town of Châlons-en-Champagne, known as the "sparkling Venice".

More posts coming up on the Champagne region, so stay tuned!

 

 

Photo below: a park in the center of town.

 

 

Kent and Ron are both tall, but no worries, this door on the Avenue de Champagne will work for them.

 

A Champagne House on the Avenue de Champagne.

 

Another house on the Avenue de Champagne.  And the tractor?  Someone has to take care of all those flowers!

 

And more flowers: on a round-about in Épernay.

 

In the COMMENTS: RE the post on "Caprese Plus", as Suzanne calls it, we have great recipe ideas from Paula and Martin, and from Steve on Facebook. Mary James, those balsamic pearls sound pretty wild, never heard of them!

Favorite Reads:  My friend Ellen told me about Delicious!, a novel by Ruth Reichl (she's a famous food writer who was the editor of Gourmet), and I'm reading it now. Fun book for foodies!

 

Reconsidering the Caprese Salad

In the heat of summer, if I ask Ron what he’d like for dinner, I already know his answer: Caprese salad! That lovely Italian mix of lush summer tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh picked basil is his favorite. And I’m happy because it’s a vegetarian meal (not to mention, dead easy to fix.).

But after so many Caprese salads, I start looking for ways to up my game. Happily, there are many.

Caprese salad lives and dies by the perfect ingredients. Great summer tomatoes, of course, and basil from the garden. Mozzarella from the Italian couple at our Saturday Cluny market, though I don’t mind the grocery store version. It’s best to nap it with a balsamic reduction, nice and thick so it doesn’t just flood the plate. I used to make my own (just reduce balsamic by simmering it until it thickens), but now one can buy thickened versions. And of course, a tasty olive oil.

So after you’ve gathered your basic ingredients, it’s time to play. One way is to use the newly trendy burrata. If you haven’t encountered it, burrata is  mozzarella with cream. It  it comes in a ball, in the thinnest of sacs. When you break it open it collapses into a creamy ooze that you can eat with a spoon.

Next we shall consider the architecture of the salad. You can arrange your tomatoes in a circle with your burrata in the center, or you can overlap your slices of tomato and mozzarella in the traditional way, and shower it all with basil. You could serve it on a bed of romaine or arugula, or make it into a chopped salad. Or you could stack it into a tall tower and drizzle it with pesto.

Make your Caprese with a tumble of grape tomatoes, or a mix of heirloom varieties. Go wild and make it with fried green tomatoes.  You can put it all on a pizza crust, and bake it. I once ordered a vegetarian burger at a French restaurant (the one and only time I’ve seen one on a menu here), and this is what arrived: a beautiful homemade sesame seed hamburger bun, stuffed to the brim with caprese salad. Not exactly a burger, but Miam miam!

Consider slipping some other ingredients on to your arranged salad plate. Here are some possibilities:

avocado slices
red onion slices
roasted peppers (yellow or orange ones make a pretty contrast)
very thinly sliced raw zucchini or yellow squash
thinly sliced scallions
sliced radishes
olives or capers
cucumbers
additional fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, tarragon, chives

Then there is the question of a dressing. I don’t like to veer too far from the traditional here. But sometimes, instead of the traditional balsamic and olive oil, I nap it with lemony French Dressing #1.

I encountered a very simple but assertive dressing recipe in the New York Times recently, in a recipe by a Parisian chef for a composed chicken salad. I tweaked it a bit and it’s now my new favorite Caprese dressing, as it happens to fit that classic salad perfectly.

Now my dear readers, how do you like your Caprese salad?

 Photos: top, a traditional Caprese with the addition of avocados and chopped parsley. Center, a restaurant version from Nice, in the round. Left, a friend's Not-quite-Caprese, made with feta, cucumbers, red onions, and capers.

 

 

RECIPE: Caprese Salad with Balsamic Shallot Dressing

Make your salad in any of the above ways. For the dressing I used a combo of balsamics here, but regular balsamic works fine if that’s what you have on hand.

1/3 cup chopped shallots
1 tablespoon reduced balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and fresh ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Place the shallots in a bowl. Add the vinegars and lemon juice and allow to soften for about 10 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, and whisk in the olive oil. Stir in the parsley, and you’re ready to drizzle.

 

In the COMMENTS:  Clyde, a full outdoor kitchen would be pretty steamy in Charleston, too. Julie, I've never heard of a basement summer kitchen, how interesting. June, my neigbor and I figured out that that picture (from last year's party) includes potato salad, melon with jambon cru, tiny grey shrimp with a homemade mayonnaise, and we can't figure out the tart--some kind of pizza, I think. Natalia, I like that "spirited conversation under the stars". Exactly!

 

Favorite Reads:  If you, like me, need to (eternally!) brush up on your French, our reader Herm has a recommendation: a free on-line program call Duolingo.  He's well and happily into it, and at his grandson's high school, they use it in language classes.  Merci for the tip, Herm.