Corti Brothers Newsletter for Fall 2002   Page 3 

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LUXARDO BABA AL MARASCHINO--A NEW PRODUCT FROM AN OLD TRADITION

When we think of Poland we usually do not think of "haute cuisine." However, such is really not the case, since Poland was an enormous country, the seat of great culture, that was the heart of central eastern Europe. It had a court, the envy of Europe, and it still speaks to us about fine cooking and gracious living.

The term "polonaise" or " a la polonaise," means little now, but the polonaise was a stately dance, a la polonaise, vegetable and fish preparations, and a way of life which influenced the great courts of western Europe. Just the enormous size of undivided Poland, encompassing many of today's separate countries like Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, made it a geopolitical factor. One of the Polish cooking traditions that has come down to us is the BABA. This is a special raised cake, traditionally baked for Easter, loaded with tradition, myth, and folklore. It is also one of the few Polish dishes that has made its way into the international repertoire coming through classic French cooking. Fusion cooking of east and west is not new.

Made out of a very rich, raised dough, with or without dried or candied fruit, the baba probably came to the west with the exiled Polish king, Stanislaus Leszczynski, who reigned in Poland 1704-1709 and again 1733-1736. In 1725, with the marriage of his daughter Maria to Louis XV, ties with France were firmly bound. Exiled in 1736, his court was set up at Lun‚ville in the French province of Lorraine, and the story often recounted is that Leszczynski himself had a hand in the creation of the baba as we know it. Supposedly it was he who put rum with it, but also supposedly, it was set alight much like a plum pudding. What we know as baba is not this. So much for the history of regal intervention.

The baba we have now, an alcohol flavored syrup imbibed spongy cake, takes on several different forms. One is the ring mold "savarin," type, created originally by Julien, a Parisian pastry cook, in honor of the noted French writer, Brillat-Savarin. Baba come in two shapes: small, baked in a small circular mold and large, baked in a fluted mold. The word baba--meaning grandmother in Polish--is first used in French for this cake in 1767, a year after Stanislaus's death.

By 1806, the recipe for the modern baba appears in Viard's cookbook. The 1828, Philadelphia edition of Ude's cookbook says it is the same paste as a brioche, flavored with saffron, Madeira, currants, raisins; one of the "ornamental" dishes. In Francatelli's 1870 cookbook, baba is listed as a "Polish" cake. In the U.S., baba finds its way on to dessert menus of restaurants and the menus of important civic functions throughout the 19th and most of the 20th century. In the specialty food business, beginning in the 1950s, canned rum babas in the savarin shape, were the height of dessert sophistication.

Universally enjoyed throughout Italy, this cake of Polish origin can be found in all pastry shops from the Valle d'Aosta to Sicily. Curiously, the Italian pronunciation of this cake is accented on the last "a." Neither the Polish pronunciation nor the French is so accented. The center of baba tradition in Italy is Naples. There, old, famous, pastry shops such as Scaturchio, have them in vast quantities and varied sizes. Normally, they are rum syrup flavored.

Now, Corti Brothers can offer you our exclusive BABA AL MARASCHINO, produced for the Luxardo company, the creator of Maraschino liqueur in 1821. Some of the earliest recipes for baba actually call for "Maraschino di Zara" which was Luxardo's, so that Baba al Maraschino has quite old roots.

The LUXARDO BABA AL MARASCHINO come in an elegant package. Nestled in a lithographed box, a clear jar contains 22 small baba, soaking in their pale, Maraschino flavored syrup. To use these baba, merely open the jar, remove from the syrup and serve with whipped cream (as in Italy), a tepid zabaione as suggested by Nino Bergese, Italy's most famous chef, or with very good vanilla ice cream and a bit of the syrup. Two baba per serving is an elegant sufficiency. Three or more, positively luxurious.

FROST TEA--BESPOKE NILGIRI BLACK TEA FROM INDIA

FROST TEA is the creation of James Norwood Pratt, an accomplished tea writer and Devan Shah, a noted tea merchant. This name refers to a "bespoke" or made to order tea, from plucking done in the Nilgiri region of central south India during the peak of the quality season of lower temperature periods in early to mid January, 2002. The Nilgiri hills are at an elevation of 6500 feet and produce a high grown, very aromatic black tea not often seen. "Frost" here means temperatures in the high 30s, low 40s, cold for the area, unusual for tea production.

The plucking is from the earliest growing season. Unique, these teas were produced to show the highest quality that Nilgiri can make. Four estates were involved, producing six different teas. Maximum production of any one tea was less than 1,000 lbs. Two teas are labeled "breakfast tea.." They are the smaller leaf grade from the production of two larger leaf teas, producing a very full bodied tea to be drunk with sugar and milk at breakfast. Coppery colored and wonderfully scented, Nilgiri teas are hard to over steep, and they give great pleasure.

MATURE VINTAGE PORT FOR FALL AND WINTER DRINKING

The declaration of vintage port is a classic example of concerted marketing. A universal declaration such as the recent 2000 vintage means that most, if not all the shippers, will bottle a wine. However, the port shippers do not all run in pack, and when the individual shipper thinks a wine good enough, it will be declared and bottled in its second year after the vintage as a vintage port. These are known as not "declared" vintages. Sometimes these wines have the shipper's vintage label; sometimes that of a single vineyard or quinta. In any event, they really do epitomize the port producer's reputation and house style. They are generally very fine wines and at times can be wonderful surprises in flavor and concentration, quality and price. What vintage port does need, however, is age. We can offer some mature and maturing vintages that are very fine for current drinking.

We are coming into the vintage port drinking season, and since it all has deposit and must be decanted, if you are stocking up for drinking, now is the time to do it. Please remember that vintage port should be drunk at one time or, at most, after 2-3 days from decanting. With colder weather, a simple dinner with the emphasis on vintage port(s), cheeses, and savouries, makes a wonderful, unusual, yet easily produced dining entertainment.                              

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