Grow-your-own Shiitake Mushrooms

I picked up a grow-your-own mushroom starter and have been quite pleased with the results so far. The inoculated “log” or “starter” material is gross, but the process has been more appealing than finding a way to grow shiitake mushrooms out of logs. The work there involves these steps: find a way to soak wood (I’ve been told old tubs work well, but where to find them?), drill holes in the wood, inoculate the holes with shiitake spores, and then wait. This is perfect for those living in small spaces.

This version had me mist the starter with water once per day. Store it out of direct sunlight and to keep it in a cool place.

Check it, looks disgusting, but interesting:



After about a month of lightly misting with water, voilà:


Then three days later:

Champagne

To escape the dead of winter, we decided to visit another place that looks more fabulous in the dead of winter: the Champagne-Ardenne in northern France. It’s nearby and easily accessible for a quick weekend getaway from Brussels to Reims (and is also a quick getaway from Paris). We chose Reims since it contains the big-name Champagne houses, but it also has a pleasing city center with the historic Reims Notre Dame Cathedral, affordable accommodations, and good restaurants. Accessing the wine routes is easy from Reims, as they are only a short drive away from the city.

During our visit the temperatures hovered at or below freezing. Since Reims is mostly walkable (when you’re bundled up well), we checked out the city center and cathedral, and then headed south to the Les Crayères neighborhood to check out the Champagne Houses. We booked tours at G.H. Martel and Champagne Pommery. During the high season, it is recommended that you call at least 2 weeks in advance since most places fill up. They tours are offered in many languages with French and English the most common. The next day we headed out on a wine drive through Champagne.

Now some quick and dirty history:  Reims was occupied by the Romans during the Gallo-Roman era. They dug through the limestone to build massive subterranean chambers some 30 meters underground. These crayères or chalk pits became the ideal storage conditions for champagne storage. During the 17th century, Champagne houses were built on top of the chambers. There are more than a dozen kilometers of underground tunnels that are used for Champagne. These tunnels and caves were also used as a place to hide during World War 1.

Champagne does not improve with aging the way that wine may improve. Champagne should be consumed within 1 year of purchase (as one tour guide joked if you could wait that long), and only wines grown from this region can be called Champagne. The grapes grown for producing Champagnes include Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and Pinot meunier. Chardonnay grapes are light-skinned grapes with white juice, and Pinot noir and meunier are dark-skinned grapes with white (clear) juice. I learned that many champagne producers will add a “shot” of color to produce a uniform rosé color, because if they rely only on the Pinot noir (a black-skinned grape with white juice) the colors will be closer to auburn or a more orange-y tint. Many champagnes will be a mixture or blend of several years non-vintages (sometimes 60/40) of Chardonnay and Pinot noir and/or Pinot meunier. During times of exceptional harvest, the head champagne maker will call a year a vintage. Champagne bottles with the year written on them are vintages years.

I am not a champagne expert, but I enjoyed the drier (brut) champagnes because of their mineral-y bright finishes. I noticed that the flavors became more pronounced as the champagne warmed, and the carbonation makes you want to drink more. At G.H. Martel we had an exceptional tour guide, and since it was only Karl and me, we got a private tour.  After the tour, we sampled 3 champagnes. The first was a Chateau de Bligny Blanc de Blanc (e.g. the blanc de blanc means that the champagne was made from the white grape juice from Chardonnay grapes). It tasted like a bright summer day, or perhaps reminded me of warm weather. It had a mineral-y bright finish, and tasted of lemons. The second was called Vieilli France Rose from Champagne Charles de Cazanove. This tasted of green apples. We lucked out with our third tasting since earlier that day, there were some wine VIP’s that were visiting. They had opened a 1999 vintage Victoire Fût de Chêne (1999 was supposed to be a great year for Champagne wines) and we got to sample some! This was a really pleasurable champagne to taste. The bubbles were noticeably finer, the aroma seemed much deeper, almost like a lambic beer, and instead of fresh fruit, the flavors were sharper and more concentrated, and it reminded me of dried plums or figs. Our tour guide was incredible. At the end of our tasting, he gave us some recommendations on eating and what to see on the wine routes. Since he saw how much fun we were having, he let us try another rosé before we headed to our next visit.



Champagne Pommery is an enormous champagne house, and in contrast to the quaint small G.H. Martel, Pommery is run like a huge business/museum. We booked a 30-minute tour and got to head down into the network of caves below the Champagne House. There was a modern art display interspersed throughout the tour, which gave the visit a unique feel. Since we had such an intimate tour at our previous location, I had more fun taking pictures since the set up was remarkable and beautiful. There are 18 km of chalk cellars below Pommery, and it houses ~20 million bottles of champagne. It was huge. The tour ended with 2 tastings, and since it was run quickly, we got our samples at the same time and took a seat just in time before the next tour group finished.







Reims is a nice starting point for two of the champagne drives (there are a total of four drives, with the other two starting in Epernay). The two from Reims are the Massif de St-Thierry (70 km) which is northwest of Reims, and the Montagne de Reims (70 km) which is south of Reims. The wine routes are well marked with signs, weave through the countryside with vineyards as far as the eye can see, and take you through many small villages where smaller champagne houses are located.  We drove the Montagne de Reims and stopped often to take pictures and marvel at the sights. 
I checked out two tour books, Lonely Planet's Discover France and Eyewitness Travel's Backroads France, from the library to help us with other details such as figuring out a reasonable time frame for our visit. I am often frustrated with the lack of practical information available, as English translations on official tourism websites are often not complete, and most wine tourism sites exist to sell you information.

Garden Fridays: Feb 11

No big garden updates. My lettuce seedlings from last week have sprouted regardless of being the object of a lazing kitty’s affection:

Pizza Time

There are no right or wrong pizzas. The method is extremely lazy, but delicious.

Home cooked pizzas remind me of my wonderful friends back home, as pizza and beer nights were we-have-nothing-to-do-so-let’s-eat-drink traditions. We would have beer tastings, would watch bad TV, have badminton evenings, and combined our pizza nights with another music-sharing event that is unfortunately dead (is Music Parlour gone?). The best ones were where everyone brought something (pizza stone, toppings, dough, beer, and good gossip).  It is not ironic that our going away party was a pizza party!

They can be made quickly and can be so much healthier than ordering take out pizza.  Grocery stores sell ready made dough, but preparing dough from scratch can be pretty easy if you split up the tasks. Karl preps the dough, I prep the toppings and we work quickly to assemble everything. A pizza stone is essential because it absorbs heat and works to develop a crispy chewy crust, and it increases the oven temperature so your home oven can reach higher temps. You can top a pizza with whatever you desire. I prefer less cheese, and more vegetable toppings.  

Now, some ideas:

Garlic base, topped with portobello mushrooms, brown (cremini) mushrooms, truffle salt, red onions, mozzarella and goat cheese. Topped with arugula once out of oven.


Onions, zucchini, red peppers, mushroom and gouda cheese.


Potato, leeks and goat cheese.


Olive oil and garlic base, topped with cherry and yellow tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil, summer squash, Italian cheese blend and feta, with a little salt and pepper.


Garlic base, topped with cherry tomatoes, spinach, oyster mushrooms, red onions, young gouda (similar to a mild cheddar), mozzarella and roquefort cheeses, and basil. 


For the dough: you can buy dough (either from a pizzeria or a grocery store), estimate one dough per pizza; home-made dough can be ready in about an hour. You need all purpose flour, yeast, water, salt, and patience.

For cheese: I like to use any cheese that melts well and tastes delicious. I find a little goes a long way. Once it melts, you can hardly tell the difference (some would argue, but it’s healthier this way). Any Italian-style shredded cheese blends will do. I like fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, feta, Gorgonzola, gouda, ricotta, or really anything that melts and tastes good.

For toppings: I like fresh veggies, herbs, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and peppery greens including arugula and basil. Lightly saute veggies like peppers, mushrooms, squash, or eggplant so they won’t give off too much water. This can cause you to have a wet crust.

For sauce/base: I like to omit this step because I’m lazy. Pesto and tomato sauce do make delicious bases (Sara, care to share your signature pizza?), but so does a light coating of chopped garlic.



Pizza Time!
Yield: For two roundish 8” pizzas; serves 4
Pizza dough:
¾ cup warm water
1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1 tsp yeast
½ tsp salt


Directions:
Mix the water and yeast together. Add in salt and stir in flour. Knead together until smooth (about 10 minutes). Set in an a clean oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm location for 1 hour or until doubled in size. When ready to use, split dough evenly into two balls. Place dough balls on lightly floured surface (such as your counter) and cover with a damp towel until ready to use. If you leave them uncovered the tops dry out so make sure you cover them.
Roll out the dough lightly into an 8” circle. This gives a nice thin crust. You can also lightly push it out with your hands. This will leave more air pockets and give you a fuller crust (Nick, Sara, agree?)

Preheat oven and stone at the hottest setting in your oven.
Toppings:
2 cups mixed veggies (such as bell pepper strips, chopped onions, squash coins, halved cherry tomatoes, mushroom slices, small broccoli florets, spinach, etc)
1-2 cups cheese (we like mozzarella, gorgonzola, goat cheese, etc).
3 cloves garlic, chopped
herbs to top (chopped basil, etc)
olives
tomato sauce or pesto if using
Directions/method: 
First, turn the heat down to 425º F. Roll out the dough and place it on a hot pizza stone (pull out the stone when the dough is ready to be placed on it). Start adding your toppings to the dough. Start with your base, then toppings, then cheese.  Items like goat cheese can be added 4 minutes before the pizza is done. Fresh herbs or greens can be added as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven. Pizzas should take between 8-12 minutes, or until golden on top.

Garden Fridays: Jan 28 and Feb 4

Since I missed my garden work day last week (interview!) I made up for it this week. I composted the beds and put a layer of leaves on top. I needed to start the snow peas and lettuce seedlings so I prepped them and put them into flats. Everything is looking nice and clean. I like having the schedule as it makes the small tasks enjoyable and I get some sunlight.

The interview went well enough although I think they had the definition of a nutritionist as more a food technologist with some nutritional background. It was good experience and it gave me some insight as to how things are done over here. I took advantage of getting a rental car, and Karl and I drove south through the Ardennes and into the Champagne-Ardennes region for some Champagne touring. I’ll put up my summary of it soon.