What goes with Champagne? A New Year!

It's been an absolutely ridiculous year. I abandoned my aspirations to be the female incarnation of James Bond and replaced it with a more liquid aspiration (of sorts!). I left Washington D.C. for New York, and very shortly after was re-routed an extra three thousand miles west. Since getting to California I have met so many supportive and wonderful people, I definitely have started on the right foot (whether its a three month or more permanent one!). Maybe it was the almond I got in my porridge on Christmas...ha!

ANYHOW. To ring in the new year of two thousand fifteen I combed through my Provence cookbooks for lots of little small dishes. I feel like New Years is such a marathon that an assortment of "mis en bouche" over the course of the whole evening is a better layout than a sit down dinner. Also...I don't want to miss a second of Kathy Griffin harassing Anderson Cooper live on CNN because I'm sitting at the dinner table............that's just me. I also may or may not have dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with my brother..........#Rafaelforlife

I did air on the "funkier" side with my assortment of hors d'oeuvres. Lots of anchovies, sardines, capers, olives. In the end, a pairing with a red wine would probably have been ideal (I'm horribly afraid my MS instructors will read this and harass me for questionable food and wine pairing) but....CHAMPAGNE GOES WITH EVERYTHING, OKAY?!

I made three tarts, and few extras with some leftovers from Christmas. Everything was low stress, easy to make, with accessible ingredients. The menu ended up being as follows:

1. Caramelized Onion, Olive and Anchovy Tart

For this I caramelized onions in a fair amount of butter and white wine, stirring in some anchovies and capers halfway through, and whole black olives right at the end. I filled the tart crust (pre-baked) with the mixture and laid extra anchovy filets over the top. It was like a sweet tapenade style start...soo yummy and actually fantastic with the champagne.....I don't care what the MS's say!

2. Tomato, Blue D'Auvergne and Herb Tart

This is a classic, almost a take on pizza. I prefer to use rocquefort but blue d'auvergne works too. It is STINKY though. Not for the cheesy faint of heart. Place thinly sliced fresh tomatoes on an oiled tart dough (pre or partially pre-baked) and sprinkle with blue cheese and herbs. The whole thing does not have to be covered, just a good even sprinkle.

3. Spicy Tomato and Smoked Sardine Tart

For this dish, I simply made a spicy tomato sauce and filled the tart. I laid the smoked sardines over the top (in a circular fashion for presentation) and voila! Easy.

4. Caper and Anchovy Pastries

This was largely a use for leftover puff pastry, anchovies and capers. I cut small rectangles out of the remaining dough, and brushed with a blended mixture of olive oil, capers, and anchovies. They were a little salty, I think next time I would dilute the mixture with lemon juice for balance.

5. Caviar and Smoked Salmon Blinis

The classic. Blini, creme freche, caviar, lemon juice, done.

6. Olive Tapenade

Some people like their tapenade different than others. I like to use black olives, good amount of lemon and garlic, capers, a couple anchovy filets, and GOOD olive oil. All in a food processor and voila. Served it with a little rustic baguette.

7. Caprese

Basic, easy, delicious. Mozzarella, Thinly slices heirloom tomato, rock salt, basil, GOOD olive oil. I'll do a post on my favorite oils at some point......

8. Goat Cheese Stuffed Cherry Peppers

Two words, palate cleaner. The hot cherry peppers have that sweet, spicy acidity to clean the palate in between the relatively pungent dishes on the table.

That's about it! The caramelized onion tart was my favorite, but the sardine tart seemed to be everyone else's. I used my cookbook from Provence for inspiration. Great recipes, and the whole fun is in translating it from french! 

We had an assortment of bubbly over the course of the night...trying different things. I love the Sparkling Pointe Seduction Reserve with all its toasty and leathery bits. Taittinger is also my go to Brut Champagne. Anything above ten grams dosage flirts a little too much with off dry for me. 

Anyhow, I'm off to the vineyard! I'm sure I'll be posting soon with all of my tales from my first field trip :)

Until next time, Happy New Year!!!

(I know it's a little late but shhhhhhh)