STRAWBERRIES ROMANOFF

SOURCE: CRAIG CLAIBORNE AND PIERRE FRANEY. CLASSIC FRENCH COOKING.

When Auguste Escoffier macerated his strawberries in orange liqueur and served them with a topping of whipped cream during his tenure at the Carlton Hotel in London, he named his creation as Fraises á l’Americaine or “Strawberries in the American style”. Little did the legendary French chef foresee and know that it would take a Lithuanian con man and restaurateur with an actual criminal history of fraud to repackage the dessert and his restaurant into an affiliate of Russian royalty, an alias surname he had also adopted. Having an impostor rebrand an original French dish as a “Russian immigrant in America” must have been the perfect culinary scam of the previous century, but Hollywood personalities and press of the 1940s cluelessly swallowed the strawberries with delight and humor.

Ingredients

1.5-2 pounds/680-900 grams ripe strawberries

1/2 cup/120 mL orange liqueur, preferably Grand Marnier, Curaçao, OR Cointreau

1/2 cup/120 mL orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed and strained

1 cup/240 mL heavy cream, chilled

2 tablespoons/16 grams powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon/2.5 mL pure vanilla extract OR vanilla bean paste

OPTIONAL: Fresh sprigs of mint OR crystallized violets for garnish

Specific Equipment

Paring knife

Deep bowl

Metal bowl

Wire whisk OR rotary beater

OPTIONAL: Pastry bag with decorative pastry tip OR spatula

Serves 4 to 6

Instructions

1. Wash the strawberries under cold running water. Drain and dry gently with paper towels. Remove the stems and hulls from the strawberries with a paring knife.

2. Place the strawberries in the deep bowl and pour orange juice and orange liqueur over them. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours to allow maceration, gently turning them over from time to time.

3. Just before serving time, pour heavy cream into the metal bowl and start whipping the heavy cream with a wire whisk or rotary beater until thick. Add the powdered sugar and pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste and continue whipping until soft peaks form.

4. Transfer the macerated strawberries and all their juices into a glass serving bowl or individual glass serving cups. Pipe the cream over the strawberries using a pastry bag with a decorative pastry tip, or spoon the cream over and create decorative swirls or peaks with a spatula, if desired.

5. Garnish the top with fresh mint sprigs or crystallized violets, if desired.