Siddity in the City

Mmmmmmmm. Mm. Mmmm.

Say it with me, now: zabaglione. (Need a little help? Okay. Zah-ball-yoh-neh.) An egg based, custard-y creme plopped over fresh fruit.

Easiest “it-tastes-impossibly-expensive-and-fancy-but-I-swear-I-made-it-myself” dessert ever. And it’s quick and inexpensive to make. I made some just this afternoon, in about 20 minutes. I used the recipe in Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks as a guideline.

Your turn. Come on, get out of your ice cream rut.

Ingredients
4 egg yolks
1/2 c. sweet wine
1/4 c. sugar
Fruit of choice in quantity of your choosing

The original recipe called for about 2 cups of berries and sliced peaches, and marsala wine, but I used a single diced apple and a super-fruity, sweet Gewurztraminer instead. You know I can’t follow directions.

If necessary, wash, dry, dice, slice or chop your fruit of choice, and drop fruit into 2 bowls or 4 small cups. Set aside.

If you’ve got a dutch oven, or double boiler, use it. Alternatively, do what we dorks without them do: get a small saucepan and fill the saucepan halfway with water . Ensure you’ve got a rounded-bottom stainless steel or copper mixing bowl that will rest comfortably over the saucepan without the bottom of the bowl touching the water. Bring water to a simmering boil.

In the mixing bowl you will use, whisk egg yolks with a balloon whisk until the eggs are a frothy light yellow, then whisk in sugar, and then wine.

Settle bowl over simmering saucepan and whisk constantly until thickened to a cake batter/custard texture. (If the mixture starts to scramble, take the bowl off the saucepan, and keep whisking until it is smooth again. Turn down heat on saucepan and return to lowered heat until done.)

Remove from heat when done and pour over fruit. Eat right away or chill.

I had mine over Granny Smith apple (I’d choose a different fruit next time–this was too tart and crisp), sprinkled with cocoa and drizzled with a cactus pear reduction.

(Not fancy. Juice of three cactus pears, 2 tbs. sugar, drop of vanilla extract, splash of Gewurztraminer, boiled then simmered until reduced to a syrup, about 15-20 minutes. Made 1/2 cup of syrup which was very sweet and mild, but smelled like the best light, sweet perfume. In fact, the whole dessert smelled light and sweet and, believe it or not, like a baby.I’ve always suspected babies would be delicious…

Making the cactus pear juice was the hardest part of the whole dish–fruits had to be peeled, broken into bits, pulverized in a blender, and then strained over a sieve to separate juice from the bajillions of seeds. Don’t bother with the syrup. Or make it from berries or something easier to process. And if you do make it with cactus pears, be sure to wear rubber gloves when you clean and peel ‘em. They have tiny spines that irritate you like shit and have to be plucked out–if you can even see them.)

Yum. So good. I just made a second batch for tomorrow, this time with a drop of vanilla and lemon extract added to the wine before adding that to the egg. Lemonilicious.