New Page 1
Cooking With Champagne: 5 Delicious Recipes
Champagne is a great drink for celebrating, but did you know it’s also a key ingredient in many tasty recipes? From cheesy fondue to delicate desserts, champagne adds sparkle to every course on your menu.
Brut champagne works best for savory dishes, while sweeter varieties go great in dessert dishes. Champagne recipes are a great way to use up leftover champagne, too – as long as the bubbly isn’t more than a week old.
Here are five fabulous recipes that feature champagne:
Appetizer: Three-Cheese Champagne Fondue
What You’ll Need:
4 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 1/4 cups Brut champagne
1 shallot, chopped
7 oz Gruyère cheese, coarsely grated
5 oz Emmenthal cheese, coarsely grated
3 oz Brie or Camembert cheese, rindless
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground white pepper
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine fresh lemon juice and corn starch. Stir briskly until starch is dissolved. Add champagne and shallot to a fondue pot over medium heat. You can use a small sauce pan if you do not have a fondue pot. Allow mixture to simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Add all cheese to the pot and stir until blended. Pour in the lemon/corn starch mixture and place the pot back on the heat source. Stir until smooth and bubbling. Sprinkle nutmeg and pepper on top and stir well. Remove from heat and serve with cubed French bread.
Main Course: Champagne Shrimp & Pasta
What You’ll Need:
8 oz angel hair pasta or thin spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 pound shrimp, peeled
1 ½ cups champagne
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp shallots, minced
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan cheese
Sprinkle a dash of salt into a large pot of water. Bring the water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, then drain. Add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms. Stir until mushrooms are cooked and tender. Remove mushrooms from pan. Place shrimp, champagne and salt in skillet and increase heat to high. Cook just until shrimp begins to boil, then remove shrimp from heat. Place tomatoes and shallots in the champagne and cook at a boil until liquid is reduced to ½ cup. Stir in cream and boil until mixture thickens slightly. Add shrimp and mushrooms and heat the entire mixture until warm. Toss warmed pasta with parsley and remaining cream. Spoon champagne sauce over pasta and season with parmesan cheese.
Main Course: Champagne Chicken
What You’ll Need:
4 chicken breast halves, skinless/boneless
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup champagne
Directions:
In a shallow bowl, mix flour, salt and black pepper. Dredge chicken breast halves in flour, salt and pepper mixture. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Lightly brown chicken breasts in oil until they are a nice, golden color. When breasts are browned on both sides, add champagne and sliced mushrooms. Cook over medium heat, bringing champagne to a slow boil. Then reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to a serving plate. Add cream to frying pan and simmer until slightly thick. Pour
sauce over chicken breasts, serve and enjoy!
Side Dish: Champagne Risotto
4 slices prosciutto, thin
3 cups chicken broth, low sodium
12 asparagus spears, cut diagonally into 1-inch segments
2 tbsp butter, divided
1 shallot, finely chopped
3/4 cup medium-grain white rice
3/4 cup champagne
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Place prosciutto slices on baking sheet and cook until crisp. These will serve as garnish. In a medium sauce pan, boil chicken broth. Reduce to a simmer and blanch asparagus in broth for two minutes. Remove asparagus and continue to simmer broth over low heat. In another sauce pan, melt one tbsp of the butter. Add rice and stir until coated with butter. Do this for about three minutes, then add champagne and simmer for approximately three minutes more. Add ½ cup of the broth and stir until it is mostly absorbed by the rice. Continue adding ½ cup of broth and allowing it to absorb before adding the next ½ cup. Do this for about twenty minutes, until the broth is gone. The rice mixture should be firm but creamy. Remove from heat and add asparagus, butter, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Garnish with crumbled prosciutto and serve while hot.
The Finishing Touch: Sweet Champagne Cake
What You’ll Need:
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1 ½ cups white sugar
3/4 cup sweet champagne (Moscato or Asti)
6 egg whites
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 10” round cake pan. In a large mixing bowl, blend butter and sugar until very fluffy. Sift together the baking powder and salt, and blend into the sugar mixture. Alternate between adding the powder and adding the champagne. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff and peaked. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into cake batter. Stir well, then add remaining egg whites. Pour into buttered cake pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
