Serves 6
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 5-8 minutes
Total time: About 38 minutes

Ingredients

Caramelised pistachios

• 50 g sugar
• 50 g shelled unsalted pistachios

Strawberry coulis

• 100 g strawberries, hulled
• 20 ml water
• 30 g sugar

Soft-centered chocolate cake

• 150 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 150 g butter
• 3 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 150 g icing sugar
• 45 g plain flour
• 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder, plus extra for the moulds

Decoration

• Icing sugar
• 125 g strawberries, hulled and cut into two

Method

Caramelised pistachios

Place the sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Do not stir. Once a golden caramel colour is obtained, remove from heat. Using a toothpick, dip the pistachios and coat lightly in caramel. Set aside to dry on parchment paper removing the toothpick (being careful not to touch the hot caramel).

Strawberry coulis

In a food processor or with a hand blender, purée the strawberries, water and sugar, and then strain through a fine china-cap sieve. Refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Soft-centred chocolate cake

Line moulds with parchment paper. Place a disc of parchment paper the size of the moulds in the bottom of each one and a double-thick band of paper to stand 3 cm above the rim of the moulds. Dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Melt the chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water (bain-marie). Remove from heat, add butter and mix well. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks and strain through a fine china-cap sieve into the chocolate mixture, stir to combine. Sift the sugar, flour and unsweetened cocoa powder into the chocolate mixture, stir to combine. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip and fill the prepared moulds. Bake in the oven until the tops are set and coming away from the sides, about 5–8 minutes.

To serve

Unmould the warm cakes and carefully remove the papers. Arrange in the centre of a plate, dust with icing sugar and top with caramelised pistachios. Decorate with strawberry halves and strawberry coulis.

We walk through the vineyards around Riquewihr in this exceptionally sunny January, and I try to imagine what this magnificent garden of nature might look like in spring, summer and autumn.

When valleys and hills are covered in a light green, airy silk. When the ripening vines shine golden yellow in the sunset until they are finally harvested, generously spreading their beguiling perfume everywhere.

Here you drink Riesling, Sylvaner, Gentil, Edelzwicker (an assemblage of various white grape varieties from Alsace) and of course Gewürztraminer.

The Edelzwicker are generally light yellow in colour with a fruity, harmonious bouquet. On the palate, they are balanced and smooth.

The Gentil has become “fashionable” again in recent years, a pretty wine!
This blend must be at least 50% Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and/or Gewürztraminer, with the rest being Sylvaner, Chasselas and/or Pinot Blanc.

For me, clearly a vin de soif in the best sense.

The Sylvaner d’Alsace has a fruity, fresh, citric bouquet. It is like freshly cut grass, a discreet, fine wine that goes well with fish. I really like it.

The Gewürztraminer has caught my heart with its oriental tones.
Colourful like a painting by Renoir, mysterious like the stories of Scheherazade from 1001 Nights.
A wine that invites you to linger with its precious scents. Its bouquet is powerful and complex, like an explosion of exotic fruits (lychee, passion fruit, pineapple, mango and many others), flowers (especially rose), citrus fruits and spices.

And of course the Riesling, of what else could it be.

Its classy bouquet exudes a lot of finesse and subtle fruit aromas (lemon, lemongrass, grapefruit, peach, pear, stewed fruit…) as well as floral notes (white flowers, lime blossom, white nettle…) or even notes of anise, cumin, liquorice and fennel seeds.

Alsace Riesling can be cellared for a very long time and prefers cool nights.

The Queen’s Pâté Alsatian Style

Why Alsatian style? Well, for on the one hand, a wonderful Sylvaner from Riquewihr is used, and on the other hand, there are indications that the Queen’s Pâté could be the invention of an Alsatian patissier.

His name is Nicolas Stohrer, born in 1706 into a modest family in northern Alsace.
After training as a patissier, he found a job serving the Polish king Stanislas Leszczynska, who was temporarily in exile in Wissembourg at the time. The king in turn has a beautiful daughter who marries the French King Louis XV.
Thus the patissier Nicolas becomes an employee of the French Queen Marie, what a nice twist to the story.
According to legend, one morning the queen was in the mood for an extravagant gourmandise, whereupon the clever patissier is said to have created this pâté on the fly. Not quite as ingenious as Bach’s Musical Sacrifice, but at least as enduring.

There is another very adventurous version about the decoration of the dish.
It is said to have included cockscombs and testicles because the queen, jealous of her rival Madame de Pompadour, wanted to serve her husband a dish with an aphrodisiac effect.
What could be more “frivolous” than to serve the male attributes of the cock (which is also a symbol of France) in this delicacy?

By the way, there is still a competition in Strasbourg for the best Bouchée de Reine. I’ll let you know as soon as I know when and where it’s taking place, or maybe I’ll just skip it and go there without you knowing.

The mirabelle has something in common with the plum, but is quite different, the dark yellow colour is promising, a handful of almond slivers emphasises the incredibly fruity and extraordinarily sweet aroma.

A recipe from my father comes to mind: Puff pastry, mirabelles, mirabelles jam, a little butter, breadcrumbs. A tart like something out of a fairy tale.

Preparation time: 1h

Ingredients:

1 KG mirabelles
One puff pastry from the freezer, good quality
Breadcrumbs
½ pack of flaked almonds
3-4 tiny knobs of butter

Preparation:

Pit the mirabelles. Place 2-3 handfuls in a saucepan and bring to boil with a dash of water. Reduce to a low heat for about 10 minutes. Blend with a hand blender to a nice jam.

Sprinkle the puff pastry with breadcrumbs to prevent the mirabelles from “souping through”. Lay out the mirabelles generously and evenly, dividing each into 2 halves beforehand with a sharp knife. Now spread the prepared mirabelle jam over the tart and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Finally, spread a few knobs of butter over the top.
Bake in the oven at 180°C convection oven until the puff pastry is nice and golden brown.
Leave to cool and enjoy with freshly whipped cream.