Many countries around the globe have culinary traditions designed to bring good luck in the New Year. In Spain, revelers consume one grape for every stroke of the clock at midnight; in Italy it’s customary to eat sausages and green lentils after midnight; in Cuba, roast pork is said to bring good fortune, and in the Southern United States black-eyed peas are believed to bring good luck especially in the form of Hoppin’ John, a West-African inspired stew of black eyed peas and rice flavored with pork. The beans are said to represent coins while the pork is a symbol of optimism since pigs forage forward through the earth in search of food and never look back!
Since we’re pretty big fans of Southern cuisine at Chez Miskew we decided to make Hoppin’ John. Steve took the lead and found and prepared this fabulous recipe from Chef Stephen Stryjewski published in Garden & Gun Magazine (gotta love a man in the kitchen!). Stryjewski is a CIA graduate who’s been a driving force behind the reawakening of the New Orlean’s food scene. In 2011 he received the James Beard Foundation’s award for “Best Chef: South” and is presently Chef and co-owner (along with partner and Executive Chef Donald Link) of New Orleans’ award-winning restaurant Cochon. In 2014 Stryjewski’s achieved another culinary coup, his latest endeavor Pêche Seafood Grill won the James Beard Foundation’s coveted “Best New Restaurant” designation, the first New Orleans establishment ever to receive this honor.
Despite Stryjewski’s lofty pedigree this recipe is pretty down to earth and easy to make and the results are definitely worth every ounce of effort! The tasty black-eyes peas soften as they absorb the delicious flavor of the Tasso ham, vegetables, and herbs. Tasso is a spicy and flavorful smoked ham seasoned with cayenne pepper, garlic, sugar, salt and paprika that’s a specialty of Louisiana cuisine. In the event you can’t find Tasso ham, you can purchase it through D’Artagnan by clicking here or ham hocks or shanks will also work nicely.
The end result is a hearty dish of earthy, savory peas and long grain rice studded with salty bits of ham and bacon. It’s perfect for bringing good luck in the New Year or as a hearty, delicious meal any other day this Winter. As for wine, an earthy Pinot Noir from either Burgundy or the New World will pair nicely with this dish (to view a selection of these wines from The Wine Atelier, please click here).
I hope you enjoy this delicious Hoppin’ John as much as we did! What’s your favorite New Year’s dish? Please let me know in the comment section below – I read all comments and would love to hear from you!
Happy New Year,
“Hoppin’ John”
From Dec 2011/Jan 2012 Garden & Gun Magazine
INGREDIENTS (Stage 1)
1 lb. dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and picked over
¾ lb. Tasso ham, diced
1 onion, halved
3 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
PREPARATION
In a large Dutch oven or kettle, combine ingredients with 6
cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until beans are tender but not mushy, 2 to
2 ½ hours. Drain the black-eyed peas and ham, saving cooking liquid separately. Remove and discard the onion pieces,
garlic, and bay leaves.
INGREDIENTS (Stage 2)
½ lb. bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
½ tsp. fresh thyme
1 cup Cajun Grain rice (or a good-quality long grain rice)
6 green onions, sliced
½ bunch parsley, chopped
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
PREPARATION
Wipe out the pot and return to stove over moderately high heat. Add bacon and render until golden (8 to 10 minutes), then add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and jalapeño. Using a wooden spoon, stir occasion-ally, cooking until onions look translucent (8 to 12 minutes). Add the thyme and 2 ½ cups water, and bring to a boil. Lower heat, stir in the rice, cover, and simmer until the
rice is tender, about 17
to 22 minutes.
Stir in the green onions, parsley, and black-eyed peas and ham, season with salt and pepper, and adjust the consistency with the reserved cooking liquid. The Hoppin’ John should be lushly moist but not soupy. Serves 6.
With your New Year’s Eve hangover in the rear view mirror and the long, winding road of 2014 laid out before you, here are 5 wine-related resolutions to help you embrace and explore the world of wine in the New Year.
1.) Mix It Up: Because the world of wine is so vast and often confusing it’s easy to just stick with the same wine, day in and day out. To break out of your wine rut, why not vow to sample a different wine every week or learn more about a specific wine making region? Find a reputable retailer who can guide you towards selections you might like or subscribe to a publication and/or website where you can learn more about a variety of wine regions around the world. Here on the blog we plan on offering an array of wine coverage in the New Year and our Explorateur Wine Club is a wonderful way to explore a different wine region every month!
2.) Start a Wine Collection: If you’ve been drinking wine long enough to have a favorite wine region and/or producer it’s probably a good time to start collecting. Collecting wine does not mean you have to commission a custom built 15,000 bottle capacity cellar – far from it! All it takes to start a collection is a small wine fridge and a few age-worthy bottles to put in it (for some age-worthy wine recs, please click here). The wine fridge is an important piece of equipment for the beginning collector. Please don’t forgo this purchase and make the mistake of storing your wines in a spare closet or on the kitchen counter. The varying temperatures and humidity levels in any home (kitchens are the worst!) are the arch-enemies of wine so be sure to protect your investment with this useful piece of equipment. Also, wine lovers invariably have a way of outgrowing wine storage units so, if your budget allows, purchase a fridge with a little room to grow.
3.) Drink more white wines that are NOT Pinot Grigio: Much like Rodney Dangerfield, white wine often “gets no respect”. I conduct many tastings where people want to skip right over the white wine and go straight to the red. Sometimes it’s personal preference but, more often than not, I think people are under the impression that red wines are somehow superior to whites, which couldn’t be farther from the truth! People are also under the mistaken impression that all white wine tastes like the bland, mass-produced Pinot Grigios we often encounter which doesn’t help white wine’s reputation. It’s rewarding to see someone’s face light up after taking a sip of White Burgundy or Alsatian Gewürztraminer and marvel at their flavor and complexity. So whether it’s Gewürztraminer, Viognier, Arneis or Chenin Blanc embrace the world of white wine but, whatever you do, stay away from the Pinot Grigio! For a selection of delicious whites from The Wine Atelier, please click here.
4.) Drink more sparkling wines: Unfortunately sparkling wines are most often associated with special occasions and New Year’s Eve celebrations, leaving the majority of the year unbearably bubbly-free. While Champagne’s price may limit it to more of a special occasion selection, there are many sparkling wines from around the globe whose price point makes them a perfect candidate for an everyday wine. Wines like Prosecco, Cava and Crémant retail for under $20 (for some examples, please click here) making them perfect for enjoying on a Tuesday night after work or when a friend stops by to visit. As an added bonus, sparkling wines have less calories and alcohol than a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. Affordable, delicious and figure-friendly – what’s not to love about that?
5.) Wine-related Travel: Next time you’re booking a Spring or Summer getaway why not head to your favorite wine region? Nothing will give you an appreciation for what’s in your glass more than standing in the vineyard where the grapes are grown and talking to the people who make the wine. Whether you’ve collected for some time or are new to enjoying wine, traveling to different regions can be a lot of fun and facilitate your passion for the subject. Start with a region you’re interested in and plan from there. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the wineries directly, they’re usually very happy to hear from you. Of course here at The Glamorous Gourmet we’re always happy to assist you with wine and food related travel so please don’t hesitate to reach out. Here’s a link to some of our travel-related articles.
I hope these suggestions help you make it through 2014 with a renewed passion for all things vinous! If you have any other wine-related resolutions we’d love to hear about them, please tell us in the comment section below.
Cheers,
Happy New Year, my fellow food and wine lovers! I hope your 2014 is off to a great start and that you rang in the New Year surrounded by loved ones as well as delicious food and wine. While the presence of Champagne at an event is usually enough to indicate a celebration is at hand, there’s a way to even kick it up another notch: the art of sabrage.
Believed to have been invented by Napoleon during the French Revolution, sabrage is the technique of opening a bottle of Champagne using a saber. Legend has it, as Napoleon and his troops returned home victorious from battle, the townspeople handed them bottles of Champagne to show their appreciation and gratitude. Because they were mounted on horseback, it was too difficult to put down the reins to pop the cork, so they used their sabers and voila, the art of sabrage was born! In another version of the story, the widow (Veuve) Clicquot was involved, giving Napoleon’s officers Champagne in return for protecting her land during this time of political unrest.
Contrary to popular belief, sabrage is not actually “chopping” the top of the Champagne bottle off. In fact, not much “muscle” is required at all to actually behead the bottle. The technique essentially utilizes the pressure present in the bottle (approximately 6 atmospheres) combined with a quick whack from the saber to effectively “pop” the seam of the bottle at its weakest point, where it comes together at the neck. Although there are “Champagne sabers” made especially for this process, Laguiole makes a very nice one (see above photo), you don’t have to use one to perform this technique. The back of a Chef’s knife works just as well. Just be sure not to use the sharp end of the knife as you can damage the blade.
While sabrage is a pretty easy skill to learn, there are a few very important things to keep in mind in order to do it safely:
1.) Be sure the bottle of bubbly is VERY cold: If the bottle hasn’t been in the refrigerator since at least the night before, you may want to rethink using it. Without a properly chilled bottle, you run the risk of the bottle exploding during the process and nothing puts a damper on a party like an exploded bottle of Champagne.
2.) Find the seam on the bottle: Most Champagne bottles have a seam that runs vertically from the neck to the bottom where the two halves of the bottle are joined together. You can easily find it by running your finger around the circumference of the bottle until you find the ridge. This seam is the guide your saber will follow along the bottle, making contact with the neck exactly where it intersects with the seam.
3.) Adjust the wire cage and remove paper/foil from the neck of the bottle: In order to clear the runway for your saber or knife, you’ll need to adjust the cage, the wire which surrounds the cork, up one notch so the blade of the saber hits the neck of the bottle, not the wire of the cage. Simply untwist the wire, slide the cage up one notch to expose the neck, and twist to refasten it around the cork. Be very careful, however, because once the wire cage is loosened, the cork can unexpectedly pop out at any time. You could remove the cage altogether but I find keeping the cage on not only makes the cork easier to find in an outdoors setting, but also make a nicer presentation. At this point, also remove any foil or paper around the neck so your saber has an unobstructed path to follow.
4.) Hold the bottle properly: There are two ways to hold your bottle of bubbly for performing sabrage: either with your thumb in the “punt” (the indentation in the bottom of the bottle) and your fingers supporting the bottle from underneath, or by simply grasping the bottle around the base. Experiment with each and go with whichever one feels more natural and secure.
5.) Point the bottle away from friends, family and windows: Ideally sabrage is performed outside but when that isn’t possible, be sure the bottle is aimed away from friends, family or anything breakable. In the video below, I didn’t use as much force as I normally would because I didn’t want to take out any ornaments on the Christmas tree, not to mention any of the windows.
6.) Let ‘er rip: When you’re ready to go, hold the Champagne bottle away from you pointed upwards at a 45 degree angle to the ground and run the blade along the seam, taking a few practice strokes. Then, briskly slide the blade along the seam with an “up and out” motion and pop the top right off that bottle!
7.) Wipe off the neck of the bottle and serve: Once the deed is done and the applause has quieted, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Luckily, the pressure inside the bottle ensures no glass gets into it, however, it’s always smart to wipe off the top of the bottle with a kitchen towel just to be sure there’s no glass fragments remaining. Then, you’re free to serve your guests but no matter what you do, don’t ever attempt to drink from a freshly sabered Champagne bottle! The edges are extremely sharp and this gaff will take you from hero to zero in seconds flat.
In case you’re wondering what the process looks like, below is a video of me sabering a bottle of Taittinger Brut Rosé for our first guests on New Year’s Eve. As I mentioned previously, I didn’t use as much force as I normally would in order to spare the windows and Christmas tree ornaments. I hope you have fun experimenting with the art of sabrage and remember the immortal words of Napoleon, “In victory you deserve Champagne, and in defeat, you need it.”
Cheers,
An official Happy New Year to everyone and I hope your 2013 is off to a fabulous start! I’ve been hard at work on my new website which I am very happy to introduce to you right now. I hope you find it useful in enhancing your adventures in food and wine in 2013 and beyond.
In keeping with the spirit of the New Year, January is all about starting fresh and setting goals for the year ahead. If one of your goals for 2013 is to explore the world of food and wine, you’re in luck – The Glamorous Gourmet and The Wine Atelier have you covered! A couple features of the new website include:
1.) Weekly Wine Picks: as the name implies each week I’ll be featuring a selection of wines based on a common theme. Whether it’s a specific region, season or featured producer the focus will first and foremost be on learning about what’s in your glass, where it’s from, who made it and how it got there!
2.) The Wine Atelier Wine Club: Explore the world of wine from the comfort of your own home with The Wine Atelier Wine Club! Every month, two personally hand-selected bottles will show up on your doorstep with detailed information on the wine region, producer, grape variety and suggested food and wine pairings. All you need is your corkscrew, glass and a sense of adventure!
3.) Weekly Wine Facts: Do vinous terms like “Sommelier,” “Vendages Tardive,” and “Pouilly-Fuissé” get you tongue tied? Well, not for long, my fellow wine lovers! Each week I’ll feature a new wine term complete with proper pronunciation and definition to further demystify the world of wine and keep you one step ahead of those pesky wine snobs.
4.) Food & Wine Pairings: For those of you who enjoy pairing food and wine, I’ll be featuring recipes and pairing suggestions to help you create than magical synergy of 1 + 1 = 3. Whether it’s “Fast & Fabulous” recipes for everyday enjoyment or “Menus for Entertaining” there’s wine pairings at every price point to suit your budget as well as your occasion.
5.) Special Events: Do you enjoy socializing with other wine lovers? Whether it’s “The Art of Wine and Food” at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, the upcoming Boca Bacchanal or The 2nd Annual Country Club Chef Showdown I’ve got lots of fun wine loving events on my calendar for 2013. Check back often for updates!
Cheers,
Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more …
© 2024 The Wine Atelier
