It's that time of year when bright glistening lights bling at your eyeballs and glitter and sappy Christmas music plays unavoidably on loud speakers in the center of town. Yup Christmas season is about to start and that means a mean Christmas market in the Champagne region!! Ok, so actually the mayhem starts after Thanksgiving but that time is almost upon us!
A little video so you can see what it's like. Sorry, it's in french.
It's pretty cool to walk around, sample a bunch of local food and buy some presents for home. My tip is to get a glass of mulled alcoholic wine to 1) warm you up a little and 2) get u a bit typsy and thus ready to sing along to "It's a beautiful Christmas" in the background as you do a bit of mild Christmas shopping :) After walking around for an hour definitely end the excursion with a hot chocolate nutella crepe. The market is a great excuse to taste a little of the gout en champagne :)
I'll be adding this little market to Champagne trips the next month. So if your out in France and want to taste some private local bubbly with small producers in their living room and then tour around a traditional Chritmas market and buy some local products to bring home email me :)
The market is the Reims Christmas Market and it has over 120 small gastronomic, artisanal and festive products on display. It runs through the 24th of Nov to 24th of December.
You should definitely try and squeeze it in to your next trip to France!
ZACHARY'S OAKLAND
5801 College Ave.
Oakland CA 94618
Phone: (510) 655-6385
HOURS
Sunday-Thursday 11AM-10PM
Friday-Saturday 11AM-10:30PM
Map & more - Zachary's Oakland
Here is the recipe if you want to try and recreate at home. I can't wait to give this one a try!! Recipe courtious of Epicurious
ZACHARY'S DEEP DISH INCREDIBLE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
16 oz. flour
8 oz. warm water
1.5 teaspoons instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 16-oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 large basil leaves, finely chopped
1 clove minced fresh garlic
1/4 teaspoon yellow cornmeal
Ground sweet Italian sausage
1 fresh bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 sweet onion, sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
Sliced provolone cheese
Shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
Grated fresh Parmesan
MAKING THE DOUGH
- Dissolve sugar and salt in the water. Add water mixture into a planetary mixer (Kitchen Aid, etc.). Add oil to the bowl and mix well. Add flour and yeast. Mix on low speed 3-5 minutes, until dough has formed into a ball around the dough hook. (If the dough is very sticky to the touch, you may need to reduce the amount of water in the mixture. If the dough is extremely dry and did not form into a ball, increase the water amount. Unfortunately, all flour is a bit different, and the perfect dough is usually a result of trial and error!)
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a dish towel. Allow dough to rise until doubled in size. Once dough has risen, divide the dough into two pieces: One piece should be larger than the other (roughly 2/3 of the dough can be formed into one dough ball, and 1/3 formed into another). Place dough balls in covered containers and refrigerate overnight (remember to use large enough containers to allow for the dough to double in volume!).
Remove dough from the refrigerator and allow to warm for an hour or so.
MAKING THE SAUCE-
Combine the crushed tomatoes, garlic and herbs in a bowl and mix well. (To thicken sauce, feel free to add tomato paste or whole canned Italian tomatoes, drained and chopped.)
PIZZA ASSEMBLY
Pre-heat your oven with a pizza stone inside on the middle shelf to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
Using a roller pin, roll the larger of the two dough balls into a circle until the dough is about 1/8" in thickness. (You may need to use a little flour on the rolling surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking.) For a 10" pizza, you will need to roll the dough at least 14" in diameter.
Coat your deep-dish pizza pan with a thin layer of butter or margarine. Sprinkle a small amount of yellow cornmeal into the pan ... just a light dusting. Tuck the rolled-out pizza dough so it lines the pan. Excess dough can hang over the edge of the pan for now.
It is time for the toppings!
Spread the Italian sausage in a thin layer on the pizza crust in the pan.
Cover the sausage with the provolone. Press the provolone down to flatten the sausage further.
Add vegetables to your liking.
Cover the vegetables with the mozzarella until the pan is about 1/2 full.
Roll the second dough ball very thin, until the sheet is almost translucent. You may need to stretch the dough with your hands to make it as thin as possible. The adventurous can try their hand at pizza tossing to thin out the dough. Be careful not to tear the dough when stretching!
Place the thin sheet of dough over the cheese and toppings over the pizza pan. Poke several holes into the thin layer of dough, each about the size of a penny. Tuck the sides of the top layer of dough into the bottom layer of dough, pinching the dough together in the bottom corner of the pan, then pressing the layers of dough together on the sides of the inside of the pan. The pizza should now look something like an unbaked pie. Once the top layer of dough has been tucked properly, trim the dough 1/8" below the inside rim of the pan with a pizza cutter. Top with enough pizza sauce to cover. Dust the top of the pizza with grated Parmesan. Bake on the pizza stone until golden brown (25-30 minutes).
Carefully remove pizza from pan by sliding a long, flexible metal spatula between the pizza and the pan, lifting the pizza out onto a cutting board. Cut the pizza using a large knife or large pizza wheel. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2008/03/secrets-of-zach.html#ixzz15IyCDK2N
Check out this 1980ish Youtube video
2) There’s persistently the issue of language. Some places are “English Speaking” but how well your owner speaks English can definitely vary. English in large towns like Paris is easy to find and most of the time if you actually try and do your best to speak French they’ll probably respond in English. Yet, in small country towns good English is still far and few between. IE casual visiting is fine with a few "this is good...yummm" but any complicated questions about processes probably won’t fly.
3) Trips to Farms and taking Cooking Classes are add on options in the region if you’re interested in learning to cook the regional food or if you want to stumble into a litte goat cheese producer and have yourself a quick pan et fromage snack beore your next house.
4) Short Weekends visits are definitely do-able from Paris and a must in my book. I mean a 45 minute train ride and back in Paris before 9pm isn’t bad at all when you have the chance to see 1,000 year old Champagne caves, winding beautiful roads of vines and purchase secret Champagne bottles for a 1000% less than the regular price (a measly 13 euro) to bring back home.
5) Ok, so if you want the trip just planned for you what should you do? This is an easy one, two. 1) Email me at sydneykrueger@gmail.com 2) I'll plan it for you.
I've had so many people contact my blog and ask me to arrange trips for them that now I am doing it as a little business. Basically I'll arrange to take all the stress and hassle out of the adventure. I plan for you to leave Paris early in the morning (we provide you with a light yummy Parisian breakfast from one of the top boulangeries in town-flaky croissants and melt in your mouth pain au chocolate) and you’re brought to the region by private car or high speed train (fee is included).
With your private driver you can have as much bubbly as you desire without worrying about 1) your french and 2) driving into the side of a chateau. We will drive through small towns and rolling hills of Champagne (like Rilly La Montagne, Verzy, Chatillon, etc) drink various cuvees at each house, stop into the Cathedral in Reims where the Kings of France were crowned, hang with lots of local producers and devour the gastronomy of the region through snacks along the way and at a fabulous planned gourmet lunch or pre packed picnic basket. ** There is also the option to stop into local farms, eat some fresh goat cheese, take a cooking class, hit a round of golf balls at a local beautiful old Chateau or do more cultural side activities as well. ** Yet, you also can just plan to taste at as many small producers as we can fit in if that is what you prefer.
Email me at sydneykrueger@gmail.com if you want me to organize for you.
Ingredients:
- 3 cup of Japanese Rice ( can buy at the local Reims Chinese market)
- Eggs (5-6)
- 1 tea spoon of starch (or gravy thickener)
- Seaweed (nori)
Sushi materials
- Shrimp
- Green peas
- Salmon
You can put whatever you want such as…
- Dried shiitake mushroom
- Avocado
- Cucumber
- Fish (eel, tuna)
Make it colorful!!
- Sushi vinegar
1/2 cup of vinegar (white or rice wine)
3 table spoon of sugar
2 tea spoon of salt
Instructions
If you serve them to guests, decorate sushi materials, seaweed and egg over the rice well first. Then, just before you serve them on each dish, mix all togetherJ
* If you do not have a steam cooker, you can cook rice with a pan.
Turn heat off and wait 10min for steam (Don’t open the lid!)
Here is Varun from Delhi's Authentic Indian Curry Recipe
Ingredients
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
• 1 medium onion - Chopped and then placed in food processor
• 4 cloves garlic - peeled, sliced
• 1.5 inch piece root ginger - peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 mild fleshy green chillies - de-seeded and chopped
• half teaspoon turmeric powder (Varun added 2 Teaspoons but it was smoking hot!)
• half teaspoon ground cumin seed
• half teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 5 tablespoons plain passata (this is the smooth, thick, sieved tomatoes or puree that you can make my hand with a handfull of tomatoes in the food processor) or you can use 1 tablespoon concentrated tomato purée (US = paste) mixed with 4 tablespoons water
Method
1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan then add the chopped onion-tomato-garlic mixture which you previously ground up into a liquid mixture in the food processor and stir for a few minutes with the heat on high.
2. Add the ginger, garlic and green chili. Stir for a minute and now turn the heat to low
3. Cook for 20 mins stirring every so often
4. Add the spices: turmeric, cumin and coriander and and simmer over gentil heat for few minutes longer.
5. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool. Blend entire mixture in batches in the blender for a super smooth consistency if desired.
6. Place puréed mixture back into the pan and cook for another 30 minutes over super low heat stirring occasionally.
