- 4 medium egg yolks
- 200g caster sugar
- 300ml champagne*
- 450g strawberries (you can use lower grade ones here)
- 1 vanilla pod or 1tsp vanilla bean paste
- you WILL need a thermometer for this, accurate to 1 Celsius.
- Preheat the oven to 180°. (fan assisted.) Heat a saucepan and add 250ml champagne (seems like sacrilege, I know.) Flame it if you're feel like cheffing, just turn your extractor off else the flames could get sucked into it and they burn really, really well unless recently cleaned. If you have cleaned it recently, a) why not just spend that time cooking? and b) just don't take the risk. You want to reduce the champagne slightly until you've got 200ml left. If you over-reduce then add more to make it up.
- Wash, hull and slice your strawberries into about thirds. Arrange them either in ovenproof serving bowls or a shallow dish. Toss through about 50ml champagne, vanilla (either infuse champagne with half a pod or use vanilla paste) and cover with tin foil. Put in the oven for 10-12 minutes, but keep an eye on the strawberries. When they look burnished, glazed and are tender to the handle of a fork, take them out and remove the tinfoil.
- Set up a bain marie with a bowl that's bigger than you think you need. Whisk together the yolks and sugar over a bare simmer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes pale and fluffy.
- Whilst whisking, slowly add the 200ml of reduced fizz and whisk constantly. Keep the liquid temperature at the bottom of the bowl of 66-70 Celsius. After 10 minutes, it should be light, fluid and airy.
- Arrange strawberries in serving dish, spoon over zabaglione and salamander to glaze them.
- if you want a thicker zabaglione, strain it into an iSi Siphon, bain marie it below 60° and serve. Glaze as normal.
~ all credit for the master sabayon recipe goes to Hervé This and his book Molecular Gastronomy.
* brut bubbly works as well. In the name of excellence, I persevere with champagne.