Julie & Julia and Sabayon on Fresh Peaches

I LOVED THIS MOVIE. 

Big surprise, right? Moi? Loving a movie about cooking? Go figure.

Seriously, this is one good movie. Meryl Streep plays Julia Child dead on. She does a beautiful job without parody (which is easy to do of Child). Of course Amy Adams is just cute. AND she has tantrums in the kitchen... who among us hasn't done that?? 

The Best Husband In The World even liked the movie (but he is a foodie at heart.. or is that stomach?)

Anyway, I was inspired to come home and cook. A lot. All week. We'll see what churns out of the kitchen, but for the moment I had to make a sabayon which is not French at all, but Italian. But I know Julia Child would not mind as she is the original foodie. 

A client of mine wants to have sabayon for dessert at an upcoming dinner party that I am preparing. I haven't made sabayon since cooking school so I decided I better whip some up just to test the ingredients and old whisking skills. 

Traditionally, sabayon is made with sweet wine but I wanted to test a liquor - Cointreau to be exact. I was looking for an orange scent to compliment peaches - which are in season right now and I just happened to pick some up at a roadside stand yesterday.

All I can say is Viva la Sabayon avec Cointreau. 

Cointreau Scented Sabayon with Fresh Peaches: Serves 6-8

4 egg yolks 

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of your fruit)

1/2 cup Contreau or other orange flavored liquor

1/4 cup whipping cream

mint sprigs for garnish

You will need two bowls. A small bowl that will fit inside a large bowl filled with ice. 

In a medium sauce pan, place egg yolks, sugar and Contreau. Place over extremely low heat and begin whisking. Continue whisking and cooking over very low heat until eggs are pale yellow and volume is doubled. Mixture will begin to thicken. DO NOT OVER HEAT. Every now and then, remove from heat and whisk off heat. Return to stove and continue whisking and cooking... until thick. This will hurt your arm and test your patience but it is worth it. 

When thick, pale and barely warm (body temperature) remove from pan and strain into your small bowl to remove the chalazae (kuh-Lay-zee) that is the thick, cord like white "umbilical" from the yolk, you know what I mean. This will insure an absolutely satiny, smooth sauce. 

Place the small bowl in the large bowl filled with ice and continue beating the eggs. At this point you can switch to a hand mixer. When the eggs begin to feel cold, add the heavy cream and continue to whip until very thick, cold and pale. 

You can make this sabayon two days in advance. 

To serve:

Wash your fresh peaches (or strawberries or whatever you want). 

Slice peaches in half, remove pit. Slice peach halves into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. 

Spoon a small pool of sabayon onto dessert plate. Arrange a 1/2 of peach worth of slices in a spiral near the base of your sabayon pool. Drizzle a little more sabayon onto the slices, garnish with mint sprigs. 

BON APPETITE!