What happens when you give champagne to a writer who doesn’t drink?
She sticks it in a saute pan (and then blogs about it).
My husband and I went away for our anniversary recently and our hotel, very generously, had a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates waiting for us when we got to our room. It was very lovely, and the chocolates were excellent. The champagne, on the other hand…well, neither of us knows to judge. We both think it all tastes like vinegar (gasp, shock, horror).
We did have some, and I can add an additional weeny glass to the List of Drinks I Have Drunk, but after that, well, we had a giant open bottle of champagne fizzing on our counter and nothing to do with it.
I now have three things to do with it, which you can try even if you love it, and just have leftovers after New Year’s Eve or some such.
Scallops in Champagne Sauce
A bit of digging online and numerous eye-rolling comments saying “What should you do with leftover champagne? Drink it!” finally led me to
7 Ways to Use Leftover Champagne.
I consider it nothing short of miraculous that I actually had all the ingredients for this, notwithstanding a couple substitutions, considering a ‘dash to the store’ for me is presently two hours drive on an unreliable road.
Dry mustard instead of Dijon, no tarragon (I forget if I subbed it), and heavy cream instead of sour cream. And we had no scallops so I used shrimp instead. Regardless, it was freaking fantastic. Simple, but very vivid flavour. It’s rich, sharp, and just terribly unique. I imagine this must be what other people taste when they drink champagne…without the mustard of course. In the future, I would serve it with a veggie or starch or something, but it didn’t occur to us to make something else until the sauce was ready and waiting. I also think it would go nicely with a touch of dill…but who knows?
You can find the full recipe
here.
Here’s how mine turned out. Apologies if you’re the sort who hates amateur photos of other people’s food.
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| Shrimp in Champagne Sauce |
Champagne Shrimp and Pasta
If something can be incorporated with pasta, in my opinion, it becomes three times better (five times if it can be incorporated with chocolate). The same is true for champagne. Plus, this recipe spent its conception all in one saute pan, which I love! For this one, I added garlic, because garlic is awesome.
The pasta has a lot of the same ingredients as the previous dish, so the flavours were quite similar, but cooking shrimp straight in champagne…oh man, now that is a kick! It smelled marvelous, and I grew impatient, so our sauce wasn’t quite thickened enough, but honestly it didn’t matter. The original recipe serves four, and there were no leftovers between the two of us.
It’s a terribly easy dish that looks and tastes fancy enough for an anniversary meal.
And here’s how mine turned out. I think it’s better with linguine than the original angel hair.
Champagne Vinegar
So this one’s still cooking…sitting…brewing? I don’t know what the term is. At any rate, we had about a cup of champagne left in the bottle when we wrapped up our anniversary celebrations, and I wanted to get back to cooking different flavours, so the rest of it is turning to vinegar. Naturally, I think this is a hilarious concept, as it already tasted like vinegar to me when had straight from the bottle…at least once the after-taste kicked in.
The procedure is simple. Pour leftover champagne into open jars, or just leave the bottle open at room temperature. This goes on for a few weeks. I’m actually not sure how I’ll know when it’s vinegar and not champagne-that-smells-like-vinegar, but I’m assuming for now that I’ll know.
After that, we’ll try this champagne vinaigrette, photo and recipe both courtesy Your Friend and Mine,
Martha Stewart.
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| It’s a good thing |
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, combine mustard and vinegar; whisk together. While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
My conclusions:
I will buy champagne regularly now. These dishes are going into our rotation.
I think I might start a merry adventure cooking with all the different types of booze I cannot condition myself to enjoying.
Why on earth does anyone drink champagne when you could turn it into a cream sauce instead!
Champagne’s best friend is apparently Dijon mustard. Who knew?
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So funny to see recipes on your blog, Hayley :)
Love the champagne and scallop recipe and will try since scallops are plentiful in this neck of the woods. The shrimp one, too, since – well, plentiful again. And I love pasta (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE). Not going with the champagne vinegar, though, as I would rather drink it than make it into vinegar!
Speaking of which – fabulous drink idea which would have been perfect for Canada Day: 1/2oz Canadian Whisky, 1/2oz Maple Syrup in a champagne flute, top with champagne. Yummy!
I have to admit I don't enjoy the taste of champagne either. If I ever end up with a bottle I know where to come for ideas. The food looks delicious and I love making my own vinigrettes!
We don't often have champagne around here, except maybe at New Years. But these recipes look so good I may just have to buy a bottle just to try them out!
Jana
Yum! Those all look delicious! My dad made a dish when I was a kid called Champagne Chicken. It was my favorite. I’ll have to send him the link to this so he can try out some more recipes.