Recommendations
Chocolate mousse with Niepoort The Junior Ruby Port
On the plate is an airy mousse of dark chocolate, cold from the fridge and barely sweetened. The ruby port counters it with dark fruit and residual sugar, which soften the bitterness of the cocoa.
From the shelf
The bottle
The Junior is the ruby port of the Niepoort house from the Douro, made from red Douro grapes. Within the classification of the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, ruby is the youngest red style: the wine matures for up to about three years in cask and so keeps its deep colour and its aromas of red and dark fruit. Port comes about because the fermentation of the must is stopped with wine spirit, which leaves residual sugar in the wine, and the alcohol content, according to the institute, usually comes out between 19 and 22 percent. We have not been able to verify an exact alcohol percentage for this bottling in a statement from the house itself, so we leave it out here. For ruby port the institute gives a serving temperature of 12 to 16 degrees.
The combination
Why this works together
Dark chocolate is bitter, and in a mousse of seventy percent cocoa that bitterness is the first thing you notice. The 2010 taste study by Green and colleagues identifies sweet as the strongest suppressor of bitter in a taste mixture, and the residual sugar of a ruby does exactly that here: the cocoa comes in rounder and the mousse seems more fully sweetened than it is. In addition, the tannin from the young port binds to proteins; Zanchi and colleagues describe how tannin clings to proline-rich salivary proteins and so gives the dry feeling. In a mousse of cream and egg there is enough fat and protein to catch that tannin, so that the wine stays soft rather than meagre. The dark fruit of the ruby and the cocoa also lie close together, so that the plate and the glass point in the same direction.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 30 minutes, plus 1 to 2 hours cooling
- Type dessert
What you need
- 120 g dark chocolate with 70 percent cocoa, in pieces
- 3 eggs
- 40 g fine granulated sugar
- 120 ml whipping cream
- 30 ml amaretto
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, plus a little for dusting
- a pinch of sea salt
How to make it
- Melt the chocolate with a pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water; the bowl must not touch the water. Stir occasionally until everything has melted, then take the bowl off the pan.
- Separate the eggs into two bowls. Whisk the yolks with the sugar until smooth and light.
- Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks.
- Whip the cream in a third bowl until it just thickens but is not yet stiff.
- Stir the amaretto and the cocoa powder into the egg yolks, then fold in the whipped cream and then the melted chocolate.
- Fold the egg whites through in three goes with a figure-of-eight motion, until no white streaks can be seen any more.
- Divide the mousse over four glasses or small bowls and leave it to set in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. Dust with cocoa powder just before serving.
In the glass
Serving
Serve the ruby between 12 and 16 degrees, the band the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto recommends for the ruby styles; in a warm room that means half an hour in the fridge. A small tulip-shaped glass, filled to a third, keeps the fruit together. Decanting is not necessary, because a young ruby has matured only briefly in cask and throws hardly any sediment. Once opened, ruby keeps for eight to ten days according to the same institute; keep the bottle closed and cool.
Everything about Niepoort The Junior Ruby PortBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18