You’ve got to give it to the French. They love their deserts and will let nothing stand in their way of whipping one up even in the face of serious ingredient shortages.
“I am craving ze dezert. What do we have?”
“Noszing Pierre. We have but eggz, booze, and a pinch of shugare.”
“Perfect! Give me ten minitez and we shall have somezing so delishish you would gladly leek it frum ze hind end of ze Jeff Gannon!”
Well perhaps a bit overstated, but the simplicity and tastiness of a good sabayon is hard to beat. It makes a great canvas for practically any fresh fruit. Of course it’s good on cakes or pastries or, well, most things. You can make them savory as well for seafood and caviar and whatnot, but that’s not what I was drooling over last night so I’ll skip that crap for now.
Since it’s juicy, juicy, peach season and my moms was thoughtful enough to pick up a fresh sack full for me and the little lady, peach sabayon it was. The July issue of Gourmet just happened to have a scrumptious looking twist on the idea with balsamic peaches and boy was it good.
It’s easy. Slice up some peaches. Mix together three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar with one tablespoon of sugar and toss in the peaches. Let them soak up the goodness for about half and hour.
Now start drinking a glass of dry white wine or champagne. Enjoy it. Have another. Good, good. Now take four egg yolks, three tablespoons of sugar, and a third of a cup of your friendly wine and put it all in a metal bowl. Oh, add a little more booze – three tablespoons or so of peach brandy or kirsch or more wine or whatever other flavor you want.
Put the bowl on a simmering pot of water and whisk, whisk, whisk. You could use a hand mixer, but you know you sat on your ass all day and a little exertion won’t kill you. Keep at it for about seven minutes. This stuff will really fluff up and that’s what you want. Take it off the heat and whisk for a few more minutes. There, you’re done. Spoon it into whatever serving thingies you want and top it off with the succulent peaches. Yes. Oh God yes.
Enjoy folks!
L. Pants
