Every Saturday and Sunday, Vanessa Zhâ and Marion Sauveur make us discover some nuggets of French heritage.
Today, we take the cognac route, for a waltz of the senses.
Next Friday is World Cognac Day. It's a good pretext for a walk in the Charentes, in Cognac of course. Drunk mode, Vanessa?
Yes, but an intoxication that has nothing to do with the effects of cognac, to be consumed in moderation.
Here, it is rather an intoxication of the senses at La Fondation d'entreprise Martell, even if this place may have been used for bottling between 1929 and 2005. Today, it is a house of contemporary arts. and no contemporary art.
Nathalie Viot, the director, is keen on it.
You will understand why by discovering the programming of the moment.
“This weekend, we have the Metamusiques festival, but also two exhibitions to see right now. You can take a yoga class on Tuesday evening. Also on Tuesday, you can come and collect products from local producers at the Beehive who says yes. We are a kind of cultural center, a bit like André Malraux had thought, but we 4.0! "
A 4.0 house!
We stayed at 2.0.
Pierre, that gives us a little youthful touch!
And in Cognac too.
It has been a bit of the city's new cultural heart for five years.
It has become a place of life (you heard Nathalie), particularly thanks to the interactive exhibits.
Do not miss a visit to a large immersive house covering 800 m2: each designer has created his room (the kitchen, the bathroom, the dancefloor ...).
In the bedroom, you can even take off your shoes and slide into bed.
Also see the
Beauty
exhibition
by Stefan Sagmeister: 61 perceptions of beauty.
It's up to you to find out which one is yours, like by testing your chromophobia.
The concept: an ultra colorful piece, special clothes, and a switch between two lights, one with yellow sodium which will make you see life in gray and a white lead which will bring out the colors.
This is just one example, but each time you come out confused and at the same time amazed.
"A waltz of the senses"! What if we want to extend this walk?
I advise you to get on a bike to put yourself in slow mode.
For that, you take the Flow Vélo, which saw the light of day a little less than a year ago.
It links the Dordogne to the Charentes in its entirety.
It therefore follows the Charente, and offers you ten stages between Cognac and Saintes.
Once you arrive in Saintes, another festival of the senses awaits you at the Abbaye aux Dames.
It has existed since the 11th century, but it was transformed a few years ago into a musical city.
I love this place.
You embark on quite original sound journeys, including the youngest: the Caroussel.
Small horses have been replaced by instruments.
You will be able to play yourself in an orchestra, it's magic.
Of course, meet in July, like every year, for the baroque music festival.
And places to sleep?
Two addresses for two types of budgets.
Le Chais Monnet, a stone's throw from the Martell Luxe Foundation.
It's very nice with a rooftop, a spa, and a starred restaurant (Les Foudres).
Or if not, more affordable, the Yeuse hotel.
There, graffiti artists have redesigned the decor of each room.
So the hotel also becomes an art gallery.
And the other plus is the garden in which activities such as "pizza in the garden" are organized.
Everyone picks their aromatics for the pizza maker to make your pizza.
Marion Sauveur, we continue this walk. We stop in the cognac cellars with you.
We are taking a few days ahead of World Cognac Day, next Friday, to celebrate this eau-de-vie with a pretty amber color and exclusively produced in the region around Cognac.
It was the Dutch who began to distill it in order to transport Charente wine without damaging it. This will give “brandewijn”, burnt wine: what is now called brandy. We are in the Renaissance. It was not until the 17th century that the Cognacais began to distill this wine twice, to make it more refined. Cognac, as we know it today, was born!
Cognac is made from white wine and mainly from the Ugni Blanc grape. After the harvest, the wine is left to ferment, before distilling it twice. This is when it turns into brandy. And this brandy is then aged in oak barrels. This is an important step since it is at this moment that the cognac takes all its aromas before being assembled. This gives a “liqueur des Dieux” as Victor Hugo called it, with a large aromatic palette. This is what explains Vanessa de Jarnac, head of public experiences for Maison Martell.
“On young eaux-de-vie, we will tend to have aromas of fresh fruit, and on old eaux-de-vie, we will have more aromas of candied fruit or dried fruit.
The aromas of old eaux-de-vie are extremely interesting.
In addition, we have a natural evacuation of the alcohol in the barrel, so the less we will have this alcoholic taste, the more we will have the aromas that will be highlighted.
Everything is very subtle: aging will also impact the aromas.
When you make a barrel, you burn the inside.
This toasting reveals the aromas of vanillin and then, in our eaux-de-vie, we will find aromas of vanilla, caramel, coconut ... "
And this cognac, are we going to use it in cooking?
Yes, Cognac people are already used to using it in certain recipes such as the Charentaise galette, a very soft cake with a touch of cognac.
But the most interesting thing is to use this cognac as an ingredient in its own right with its aromatic palette.
A young cognac (VS) is often characterized by aromas of fresh fruit, white flowers, vanilla and toasted notes.
A VSOP (4 years minimum age) is characterized by aromas of candied fruit, sweet spices, roasting.
An XO (over 10 years old) has aromas of dried fruits (dates, figs), dried flowers (pot pourri), precious wood (sandalwood, mahogany).
One can imagine a skewer of prawns flambéed with cognac, with a young cognac, to bring fruity flavors.
And on these skewers, vanilla apricots to recall the aromas of cognac.
Skewer of prawns, apricots in cognac
Ingredients:
8 Large prawns
20 cl of VS cognac
5 cl olive oil
6 apricots
100g sugar
2 glasses of water
1 vanilla pod
Salt
Pepper
Production :
1. Start by making a syrup with the water and sugar, and add a whole scraped vanilla pod and its grains.
Mix and bring to a boil.
2. As soon as the syrup is ready, put the apricots cut into quarters in the syrup and cook over low heat for a dozen minutes, turning them regularly.
The fruits will confuse slightly.
Take them out of the pan and set aside.
3. Remove the black casing from the shellfish (while keeping the shell), opening the back of the prawns lengthwise.
In an oiled pan, place the prawns flat and brown for 4 min over high heat.
4. Meanwhile, heat the cognac over medium heat in a saucepan.
Baste the prawns and flambé… you must turn off the hood before setting the pan on fire.
5. Remove the prawns, thread them onto the skewers, alternating with quarters of apricots.
Optional: mark with a cast iron grill or barbecue.
6. Deglaze the juice with the crème fraîche.
A more original recipe?
A gravlax of fish with old cognac, always on the same principle with the aromatic components of cognac.
You will have more autumnal flavors with an XO cognac for example.
Fish gravlax with old cognac
Ingredients
500 g boneless, skinless salmon fillet
50 g brown sugar
50 g of salt
5 g of dried mushrooms
1 slice of bread
1 vanilla pod
3 cl of old cognac
Production :
1. Mix the mushrooms and the bread, before mixing them with the sugar, salt and the seeds of the vanilla bean.
Add the cognac.
2. Arrange half of the mixture in the bottom of a dish.
Place on top of the salmon fillet.
Cover with the rest of the marinade.
Leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
Let the salmon dry, before slicing it thinly and serving (if you are using a younger cognac, such as VSOP, compose your gravlax of ground almonds, coffee and mixed candied fruit).
Finally, you can also serve a glass of frosted cognac (the bottle placed in the freezer - glass of 5 cl), with a fish tartare.
By dipping the lips in the cognac, before taking a fork of tartare and recommencing the operation.
The cognac will open the taste buds.
If we want to put our feet under the table?
Ribaudière beach in Ronce-les-Bains.
-> You can enjoy an oyster soup with cognac.
On June 9, you will be able to return to La Ribaudière in Bourg-Charente, where chef Thierry Verrat dissects the aromas of cognac to use them in dishes, such as his foie gras marinated in cognac: a terrine of foie gras cooked by the cognac accompanied by a dried fruit chutney (figs, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, prunes, raisins, with spices), to rediscover the flavors of cognac. Or his lobster carpaccio, drunk with cognac, which is served with a jelly made from the lobster carcass. And it also offers a “full pearing” menu (food and cognac pairings) in five steps.