Recommendations

Cherry clafoutis with Fonseca Ruby Port

Four small dishes of clafoutis come out of the oven: cherries in a batter of eggs, milk and cream that has set around the fruit, with brown butter and flaked almonds through it. Opposite that, the port is a ruby, whose dark fruit sits right next to that of the cherry.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Fonseca is a port house in Vila Nova de Gaia with vineyards in the Douro. This is the ruby from the permanent range. The house ages this wine for three years in large wooden vats, where it softens without losing its fresh, intense fruit and its deep ruby-red colour. The bottle is at 20 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres. Fonseca serves it at 16 to 18 degrees and says that decanting is not necessary; the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto uses 12 to 16 degrees for port of the ruby style.

Fonseca Ruby Port

The combination

Why this works together

A clafoutis is at heart a set egg batter with fruit in it, and that makes it a favourable partner for a young port. Tannin binds to proline-rich proteins in saliva and makes them clump together, so that the saliva no longer lubricates and the mouth feels dry; Zanchi and colleagues have described this. Eggs, milk and cream bring protein and fat that take away part of that tannin, so that the ruby feels round in the mouth. The fruits go along with it: a ruby that has spent three years on wood with little oxygen smells of dark red fruit, and the cherry in the dish is the same fruit in a different form. The brown butter and the toasted flaked almonds bring a nutty layer that holds the whole together, and the fruit acidity of the cherry stops plate and glass from becoming too sweet together.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 55 minutes
  • Type dessert

What you need

  • 470 g cherries (2 punnets of 235 g), pitted
  • 70 g unsalted butter, plus 30 g melted butter for the dishes
  • 100 g fine caster sugar, plus extra for the ramekins
  • 100 g flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • the finely grated zest of half an orange
  • 150 ml milk
  • 170 ml whipping cream
  • 25 g flaked almonds
  • icing sugar for dusting

How to make it

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Brush four 12-centimetre ramekins with the melted butter and dust them with sugar. Set them aside.
  2. Pit the cherries and spread them over the bottom of the dishes; pour the juice that has been released over them.
  3. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla extract, orange zest, milk and cream and whisk slowly, gradually drawing in the flour, until you have a thick, lump-free batter.
  4. Heat the 70 g butter in a saucepan until nutty brown and pour it onto the batter whisking constantly until it is smooth and glossy.
  5. Pour the batter over the cherries, sprinkle the flaked almonds over it and bake the clafoutis for 35 minutes, until golden brown and set.
  6. Dust with icing sugar and serve the dishes warm.

In the glass

Serving

Serve this ruby at 12 to 16 degrees, or at the 16 to 18 degrees the house recommends. Use a tulip-shaped glass and fill it no further than a third. According to the house, decanting is not necessary. An opened bottle of ruby keeps for eight to ten days according to the institute; Fonseca itself notes that this wine keeps for a while after opening without losing its freshness. Stand the bottle upright in a cool place with the cork in.

All about Fonseca Ruby PortBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

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