December ...Month For Champagne And The Kir Royal

December is the month for celebrations not only with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,  Boxing Day, and New Year's Eve but also birthdays and name days in my family.



For example Maria's birthday is December 3, a Sagittarius (goes very well with Leo...me). December 4th, our Barbara's name day, Santa Barbara or La Sainte Barbe in French speaking countries. So there are many occasions to drink champagne. When I talk of champagne I mean  a sparkling wine which comes from Reims in the Region of Champagne in France. The best champagnes are usually Brut meaning dry.  Sparkling white wines such as Italy's Spumante is not a champagne. There are good champagnes such as Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and Cordon Rouge but there are very good champagnes such as Bollinger, Taittinger, Pommery, and last but not least, Dom Pérignon which is the prestigious champagne of the House of Moët & Chandon which also is co-owner of Louis Vuitton MHLV (Moët-Hennessy - Louis Vuitton).


Bollinger Champagne Courtesy Of Wikipedia On Google

Every one of these champagnes is capable of standing up to a good Kir Royal. In two words a Kir Royal is Crème de Cassis topped with Champagne. It is an apéritif, or apéro in colloquial  French, is a before dinner drink. The better the champagne the better the Kir Royal.  The reason I am calling it Kir Royal is because there is the simple Kir which is made with a good white Burgundy wine, a Meursault for example which is also a before dinner drink. 
To cut a long story short when there are ladies in company, offer a Kir Royal made as follows: There should be a good balance between the Brut of the champagne and the sweetness of the Crème de Cassis because the latter is a liqueur and is sweet.
Directions:
- Prepare the "flute" champagne glass or whatever champagne glass you are using.
- Pour ½ measure of Crème de Cassis (quantity of Crème de Cassis depends on individual taste).
- Open a fresh bottle of Brut champagne and top.
-  Have the special champagne stopper ready to keep the champagne from going flat (losing its bubbles).
-  Refrigerate for future use. Best not to keep an opened bottle of champagne for more than two days.



Special Stopper

Crème De Cassis Photo Courtesy Of Wikipedia On Google
Enjoy Ladies!!
Stelio


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - ...
Read more

First Post (after a long time) January14th 2020 Pommes Dauphinoise

Image
A  most delicious common side dish for the Christmas Holidays, where fresh cream may be consumed without too much worry, is baked dish of sliced cream potatoes or culinarily the French would call  Pommes Dauphinoise. Please bear with me as it has been over 3 years I haven't blogged or used this program. Ingredient: - 1.4 kg of potatoes. - 500 ml full cream 35% - 500 ml full fat milk. - 2 cloves of garlic very finely cut. - some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Procedure: - Buy the potatoes as clean as possible. Peel and slice without washing into half inch slices. -  Mix sliced potatoes into a pan which can withstand the fire of the hob,all the milk and all the cream. Mix well. - Add the garlic. - Season with salt. pepper and nutmeg to taste. - Boil the potato mix till the potatoes are nearly soft. - At this point scatter a few pieces of butter around the pan and immediately transfer the pan into the oven till a nice color is obtained. 40 to 60 minut...
Read more

Mistake recovery

My dear readers I have to announce my first mess up in this wonderful blog of mine. The dish I so elaborately wrote about regarding oven scalloped potatoes is called. Gratin Dauphinois and not Pommes Dauphines. Thanks
Read more