Inovation !!!

Bonjour !!! Hi every body tout le monde !!

Cooking is an activity that permits express yourself, you can be patient and cook during 3 or 4 hours, until all the flavors of your dish combine to make only one, perfect.. Or perhaps you are a hurry person who loves doing everything very fast and love explosion of tastes in the mouth with ingredients and spices from different horizons and who bring the exoticto your dish..

And sometimes you can be a mix between the two !

That's what I did yesterday, a kind of experimentation between a recipe and my imagination !

First, 3 hours before I did a duck breast marinated with orange, ginger and oyster sauce.. that's the recipe !!!

And later, just before cook over high heat the duck, I did a stir-fried with all ingredients that go through my mind.. Peppers, onions, garlic, sweet soy sauce, mushrooms, ginger, coriander, bean sprouts, sliced ​​bamboo, a little beat of hot sauce and other spices...

To serve with rice... and ...

A fresh Sauternes !!! I opened a Château Rieussec with that meal, it is a quite expensive bottle but.. it is a wine of great quality, great finesse and fits perfectly with the spicy meals.. Indeed, the sweetness of this wine soothes the spiciness of the dish..

You can choose a Sauternes wine, but in South-western France there are several others wines that can be paired with this kind of dish, like Montbazillac, Jurançon or sweet white wines from Bordeaux..

This wine and food-pairing is well adapted to the season, it is not very bold, and the freshness of the

wine is pleasant at the end of the meal!

I recommend !



Hi dear gluttons !!!

Sorry for my long silence ! I was working hard organizing visits and tasting at the Château Phélan Ségur (cf previous articles), but I have not forgotten you !!!

Last week I went in a Thaï restaurant and I tasted a beef Bo Bun, what a surprise !!!
This dish is a kind of broth with noodles and beef cooked with garlic green onions and soya sauce.
It is served in a bowl with some bean sprouts, lettuce and cucumber..

For people who love beef, asion food and who do not want to gain weight, it is the perfect meal, a lot of vegetables and a little bit of beef ! And for them who don't care about the diet, I recommand to drink a Petit Chablis, a white wine from Burgundy. Its minerality and freshness stimulate the senses and pair wonderfully with a spicy BoBun !! A real pleasure for the palate !!

(Petit Chablis AOC Cave des Vignerons de Chablis Blanc 2010)

Hope you will have the occasion to taste this Wine&Food pairing , that's all for today, I'll try to give you more ideas in the coming weeks.
Summer comes running and it is the better moment to share meals and wines with your friends !

See you !!

Château Phélan Ségur...

Hi my dear wine lovers !!!

Today we are going to talk about how to pair a wine from Saint-Estèphe with food.

But first a little presentation of this prestigious property !

Since 1985, when the vineyard was purchased from the Delon family, Xavier Gardinier has been happily running it, aided by his sons Thierry, Stéphane and Laurent. Enormous restoration work has been carried out to return tje property to its former glory. The buildings, totally renovated in the spirit of their founders, house wine-making equipment which has been chosen to enable the terroir to express itself in all its complexity. However, despite the undeniable attraction of the equipment therein, they are only the necessary backdrop tu the remarkable alchemy that produces each year's vintage.

If you want to reveal all the elegance of Phélan Ségur, you can choose to make a "lamb cooked seven hours". It is a traditional dish from Bordeaux region. Recipes are available on the website http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Seven-Hour-Leg-of-Lamb or directly on Château Phélan Ségur website http://www.phelansegur.com/ .

Thank you for reading ! Hope you will have the occasion to taste it !!

Beaujolais & food pairing !

Wine, Food and History...

Have you ever visited Bordeaux ?

There are different districts in Bordeaux, and they have all their own story. We never told it, but our team of Thirsty Gluttons was born in Bordeaux in the Bacalan district. 

And I hear you say "Bacalan ? What does it mean ?"

Some people say that it comes from the name of the Bacalan family, from Sauveterre de Guyenne, which in the seventeenth century, was a Protestant family which counted among its members a large number of parliamenters from Bordeaux...

This story can be interesting but for us, Thirsty Gluttons that we are, it have not a great interest.. 

Not as the story (true or not..) which tell that the origin of the name of this district come from cod ! Actually, the portuguese word to say cod is "bacalhau", and there were a lot of cod trade in this port district in the past ! 

Bacalan here we are !

Cod... A lot of people say that it's hard to cook cod, but it will be easier for them after reading this article !

What are you making for dinner tonight ? Cod !

These thick cuts of cod are marinated in orange juice and fennel seeds before roasting. You can serve with sweet corn salad with green beans and hazelnuts.

This kind of dish needs to be balanced acidity. That's why we decided to taste a Chenin Blanc from South Africa 

and a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand..

That's all folks ! See you guys !!!

Dessert wines are waiting for you

Bonsoir, and good evening, everybody, here we come---Thirsty Glutton! I ate so much ice-cream these days although it’s really cold outside. Maybe you think I’m crazy, maybe……it’s real! OK, just a joke. Let’s return to our subject. Today, I’d like to introduce you the “sweetness”. What’s that? Oh, come on, my dear, I think you will love them------the sweet wine.

First of all, we need to have a little class of dessert wine.

-What determines the sweetness of the wine?

Wine can be dry, medium dry, medium and sweet. In fact, it’s the residual sugar that determines the sweetness. 

-What is dessert wine?

Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to most fortified wines such as Fino and Madeila. But some of the less strong fortified like Pedro Ximénez Sherry and Muscat de Beaume-De-Venise are regarded as dessert wines.

However, in the United States, by contrast, a dessert wine is legally defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines - and is taxed more highly as a result. But this classification is outdated. And some modern way is trying to replace them. 

-Types of sweet wine

Natural sweetness: “leave it to nature” is currently out of fashion   Constantia

Chaptalization: sugar is added to boost the alcohol levels of flabby Languedoc

Süssreserve: “The reserve sweetness” is added to the wine after the fermentation  

Fortification: some fortified wine like sweet sherry that is less strong Fortified

Raisin wine: made from air-dried grapes Passum

Ice wine: made from the grapes free zed with the temperature below at most -7℃  Eiswein

Noble rot wine: made from mouldy grapes, but not just any mould    Sauternes

Here, what can we do for the pairing?

Sweet Wines and Food

There are no hard and fast rules when pairing food with wines. However, a few guidelines can help.

• Salty foods contrast nicely with sweetness.
• When trying to match a sweet or dessert wine with dessert, it's best to match a sweet wine with a dessert that downplays the sugar. For example, try a honeyed Muscat Canelli together with an apple tart.
• Pair rich wines with rich foods. 

      

Intriguing Treats

Be ready to try a sweet wine/food pairing? Try the following:

• Fie Gras with Sauternes
• Stilton and Port
• Chocolate and ice wine
• Macon Almonds and Sherry