Exotic Fruited Cream

[ruthcooks]

Exotic Fruited Cream

Serves 8 as Dessert.

Talk about non-traditional…this jewel of a holiday recipe came from a magazine in the 70s, and was attributed to Alice Peterson, of the New York Daily News. The unusual combination of ingredients is just heavenly.

Instead of the marrons glaces I use chestnuts packed in syrup, well drained, because they were more accessible to me back when I started making it. Those are available at Zingermans.

You may puree the frozen strawberries, if serving frozen strawberries constitutes a faux pas for you, but please don’t substitute fresh strawberries. They just don’t work. Crème fraîche might work instead of sour cream, but no low fat sour cream, or I’ll have to come and get you.

• 4 c sour cream
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom seeds
  
• 1 c light brown sugar, packed
  
• 1 7 oz. package marrons glaces, coarsely chopped
  
• 1 10 oz. pkg. frozen sweetened strawberries, partially thawed
  
• 2 T Grand Marnier
  
• 1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted
  

The day before: place the sour cream in a sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth or (easier) dampened paper towels. Place sieve over bowl, cover the cream with plastic wrap or the ends of the cheesecloth, if used, and refrigerate over night.

Next day, discard the liquids in the bowl and remove sour cream to another bowl. Add the cardamom, brown sugar, and marrons to the cream, cover, and refrigerate until serving time.

Before serving, allow strawberries to partially thaw and stir in Grand Marnier.

To serve, place approximately a half cup portion of the cream mixture in each serving dish, preferable a stemmed champagne sauce. (If you dish out all 8 servings at once, before adding the strawberries and almonds you can even out the servings.) Top each with a spoon or two of strawberries and sprinkle over some toasted almonds.

Keywords: Dessert, Christmas

( RG1448 )