Recipes from "A Week on the Water": Mustard and White Wine Onion Soup

Founder of Boutique Hotel Barges and "A Week on the Water" author, Hazel Young, is a graduate of the French National Cooking School in Beaune. She has run numerous cooking seminars and culinary cruises aboard her former barge Fandango, and planned the boutique barge's extraordinary menus for over two decades.

Dijon mustard originated in 1856, when Jean Naigeon of Dijon substituted verjuice, (the acidic juice of under-ripe grapes) for vinegar in the traditional mustard recipe.  Although still produced in France, French Dijon mustard is now made from seed and wine imported from North America.

Mustard and White Wine Onion Soup

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon grape seed oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 potato chopped
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig of parsley
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 white of leek, sliced and washed
• 4 oz slice of smoked bacon
• 300 ml (2 cups) white wine
• 800 ml (41/2 cups) water
• 1 tablespoon Dijon grainy mustard
• 1 tablespoon Dijon smooth mustard
• 1 teaspoon vegetable stock paste
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup liquid cream
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

Heat oil and butter in saucepan.

Add onion and leek, and gently fry until translucent.

Add other vegetables, cook for three minutes stirring occasionally then add water and white wine, mustards, stock paste. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf and parsley sprig, blend and adjust seasoning.

Stir in cream and pour into individual bowls, decorate with chopped parsley.

Highlights of Burgundy: A Trip to the Dijon Market

Even on a grey day at the end of the barging season in late October, a trip to Dijon's fabulous Les Halles market is a guaranteed pleasure for anyone with a love for food. The covered market occupies an expansive 19th-century structure, designed and built by Eiffel Tower architect, Gustave Eiffel.

On market days, the shopping begins before you even enter the market. Vendors line the street, featuring everything from seasonal produce to tee shirts. On our fall trip there were tables heaped with late-season crops, the stars of which were les champions — the mushrooms.

Inside, Les Halles hums with activity, filled with stalls offering shoppers every sort of wonderful food imaginable. Fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, cheese, eggs, dairy products, sausages, snails, pate, bread and pastries, endless varieties of jams and jellies, wines and liqueur de cassis — all as much a delight for the eyes as for the taste buds.

A stop at the fromage counter finds the amicable vendors eager to offer samples and make recommendations for new and enticing types of French cheese to try. Our purchases on this visit included some Saint Marcellin, Fourme d'Ambert and and a particularly decadent and creamy Pont l'Evêque, later enjoyed back at the barge with a loaf of crusty bread and a bottle of sparkling Crement.

The biggest market days are Tuesday and Friday. Thursday the market is only inside Les Halles. It's always best to go early in the day. You will be done with shopping in time for lunch in one of the many small cafés and bistros within walking distance of the market.

Learn more about barge cruises that include a visit to Dijon at Boutique Hotel Barges.

Recipes from "A Week on the Water": Bourride

Founder of Boutique Hotel Barges and "A Week on the Water" author, Hazel Young, is a graduate of the French National Cooking School in Beaune. She has run numerous cooking seminars and culinary cruises aboard her former barge Fandango, and planned the boutique barge's extraordinary menus for over two decades.

Bourride is a stew of vegetables, fish and fruites de mer that has its origins in the Landguedoc and Provence regions of Southern France. The name is derived from the Occitan bourrido, meaning 'something boiled'. Less well known than bouillabaisse, but equally delicious, the major difference between the two dishes comes from the garlic-rich aioli added to the bourride at the end of cooking, giving it a creaminess and wonderful aroma.

Bourride

Monk fish and mussels in a spicy aioli stew.

• 1kg (2.2 lbs) monkfish, filleted and cut into small pieces
• 1kg (2.2 lbs) mussels, cleaned
• 2 leeks washed and finely sliced
• 2 carrots peeled and finely sliced
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon paella spice
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red hot peppers or cayenne
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 L (7 cups) water
• liquid from mussels after steaming
• 1 cup homemade tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock paste
• 2 cups homemade mayonnaise aioli*

Heat olive oil and gently fry leeks until translucent. Add carrots and potatoes, and stir over a low flame until coated in oil.Meanwhile steam mussels for 5 minutes in separate saucepan with a lid on, no extra water needed, to obtain liquid.

Drain mussels and add stock to vegetables along with white wine, water, tomato sauce, stock paste and seasonings. Let simmer for 20 minutes then add zucchini and simmer another ten minutes.

Remove half of the mussels from their shells then set all mussels aside to add at the last minute. When ready to serve, add monkfish and simmer for only two or three minutes, adding mussels.

Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup of aioli.

Put into individual bowls, decorate with two or three mussels in their shells on the top. Serve extra aioli in small individual sauce dishes.

Aïoli mayonnaise*

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

All ingredients should be at room temperature to ensure success.

In a deep bowl, whisk mustard with egg yolk, then drizzle in the vegetable oil whisking vigorously, hold back the oil and beat more if it isn’t thickening fast enough. If ever it separates, put a tablespoon of boiling hot water into a new bowl and whisk the mixture once again until it thickens. Resume adding the rest of the oil, beat in vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

To make aioli, add two cloves of peeled and crushed garlic.

Do You Speak French Wine?

You'll want to brush up on your French wine label reading skills before your barge cruise.  Here are some key terms.

• Appellation contrôlée - Designated growing area
• Appellation d'Origine Protegée - AOP, highest grade of French wine
• Blanc - white
• Château or Domaine - wine estate
• Clos - "an enclosure," usually an enclosed vineyard
• Crémant - sparkling wine produced outside the Champagne region
• Cru - a vineyard or group of vineyards, of recognized quality
• Cuvée - usually denotes a special blend or selected vats of higher quality, but an unregulated term
• Grand cru - Regionally graded wine, not technically a classification of wine quality, it indicates the potential of the vineyard or terroir
• Indication Géographique Protégée - IGP, Regional French wines, middle-grade French wines
• Millésime or Récolte - vintage or harvest date
• Mis en bouteille au domaine - bottled at the estate
• Réserve - implies a higher quality, but an unregulated term
• Rouge - red
• Vielles Vignes - old vines
• Vin de France - French table wines, lower grade of French wine

Resources:

Visit Rocket Languages for a list of French words about wine with audio, so you can hear the correct French pronunciation for each.

An incredible listing with ratings for wines of Burgundy and Languedoc Roussillon is available on winemag.com

Learn more about French barge cruises that feature visits to vineyards, winetasting, and special wine-harvest cruises at Boutique Hotel Barges.

Featured Barge for August: Athos du Midi

Barge Athos du Midi offers private charter cruises for 8 to 10 guests, as well as individual cabin bookings, cruising the Canal du Midi.

The Athos is designed for outdoor enjoyment of the Canal du Midi with a spacious deck and top quality bicycles. Having five cabins makes the Athos the perfect barge for family or friends reunions or the possibility of workshops for painting or writing for instance . Every land visit from Carcassonne to the Mediterranean port of Marseillian is exceptionally well organized and informative.

Danielle and Julian Farrant run a tight ship. Captain Julian entertains guests as a raconteur telling 20 years of anecdotes gleaned while cruising the canal, complete with all the accents. Guests love it. Danielle oversees every aspect of the day to day operations from staff to kitchen to staterooms to maintain their high standard of service.

Athos' chef knows that sublime food and wine is a principle reason to come to France. Each meal aboard the Athos is special, inspired both by the tradition of rich, French cuisine and fresh Mediterranean ingredients. Chef takes passengers on a journey through the very best of the Southern French culinary tradition.

What Makes Athos Special

• Best choice for family gatherings or groups of friends wanting to travel together.
• Excellent for individual cabin bookings as more guests offer more social choices where a party atmosphere quickly evolves.
• Every evening the two hostesses set a very elegant, candlelit table enhancing the delicious gourmet French cuisine and wines.

Learn more about cruising on Barge Athos du Midi, or book your trip at Boutique Hotel Barges.

Discover Barge Cruising

Join us to discover the world of luxury barging on the canals of France.  In the weeks to come we will share the secrets of this wonderful method of travel.  We'll give you the inside scoop on cuisine, wines, can't miss visits, and how to plan your own French canal cruise.  Learn more about luxury barge cruises available in Burgundy and on the Canal du Midi at Boutique Hotel Barges.