Creme brulee from New York’s Le Cirque
Crème brûlée is one of the simplest of desserts, and a triumph to serve — if you have the equipment to do the job. I fiddled and failed several times with this dessert all over the place — at home, in the restaurant, all ways — but couldn’t get that glassy caramel on top of the silky smooth custard. I had given it away until a visit to Le Cirque, the New York restaurant.
This is one of those typical swank Manhattan Italo-French eating houses, with tables close enough together to allow you to cuddle the person sitting next to you, a person who may or may not be a close friend. It is one of old Ronnie Reagan’s favourites, which may or may not be an advantage. The waiters have just the right mix of arrogance and twinkling eyes. We had praised the food universally, an event which caused the gruffly spoken Italo-American to mutter, smile: ‘Of course. It is as good as the service.’
The five of us hopped into the crème brûlée. So good is this version that Paul Bocuse, the great French chef, has included it on his menu, calling it ‘creme brulee Sirio’ after Le Cirque’s proprietor, Sirio Maccione. The dish was a triumph. A richly flavoured, smooth-as-smooth custard, exploding with vanilla seeds, all topped with a crunchy, glassy caramel. Perfect.
I asked Daniel Boulud, Le Cirque’s chef, for the recipe. Certainly, he said. ‘It is very simple.’ Then he smiled, and screwed up his face a little. ‘As long as you don’t cook the custard too long, and you don’t put too much sugar on top.’
He might have added another rider. For perfect crème brûlée, you need a blow torch or a red-hot salamander (griller) to achieve perfect glassy crackle-crackle caramel. But even if you haven’t either of these, the dish is worth trying. Even 80 per cent right, it’s still a winner — and then you’ll give the dish greater respect when you come across a perfect version in a restaurant. Even without the sugar on top, it is a delicious moulded custard.
1 vanilla bean
500ml cream
65g caster sugar
3 egg yolks
brown sugar for the top
1
The recipe is simple, as the chef said, but there are plenty of ifs, buts, twists, turns and maybes, as we shall see. Heat the oven to 160°C. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the cream, and warm the cream with the vanilla pod and seeds until it just starts to bubble and has thinned. Set aside.
2
Whisk the caster sugar with the egg yolks until the yolks have thickened and whitened.
3
Remove the vanilla pod and whisk the cream slowly into the egg yolk mix. (Dry the pod and put it into your sugar jar. It will infuse the sugar with its delicious aroma.)
4
Pour the flavoured, enriched cream into flat gratin dishes, or flat ceramic pie moulds. Single-serve souffle moulds are too big. This dish should be offered in small serves, else it is too rich.
5
Warm about 2cm of water in a flat pan, or a baking dish. It should be no more than warm to the touch, but well away from boiling. Gently place your moulds in the pan, and put the lot into the oven. Daniel Boulud says it takes about 30 minutes to cook. I reckon it takes more like 45 minutes. Remember, this custard does not have to set rock-solid. It should thicken and firm up, but it will never be like the custards and creme caramels you buy in coffee shops.
6
You’ll need to keep an eye on it as it cooks. It needs only to be firm enough to hold a thin layer of sugar. Don’t panic if it takes longer than 45 minutes; some of this depends on your oven. If the custard gets too hot, it will curdle.
7
Remove gently from the oven, making sure no water splashes into the custard. Allow to cool, then refrigerate, covered with a plastic wrap. Half an hour before you are ready to cook the caramel ‘glass’, heat the grill flat out.
8
Sift the brown sugar over a bowl, then sift it again over the custard, spreading it thinly over the top. It should be no thicker than the cover of a paperback book.
9
Place the sugar-covered cream under the grill, about 5cm from the flame. Watch it closely. It should take about 90 seconds. This is the sort of recipe which teaches as you try. You have to know how hot your grill is and how well it works. Trial and error. (Boulud’s recipe, by the way, says 12 seconds! They must have a white-hot salamander at Le Cirque. Most restaurants prefer to use a blow torch, so don’t be alarmed if you peek through a kitchen door and see a chef brandishing a fearsome flame. He or she is not about to attack the kitchen- hand.)
10
Remove it gently, as the top will be very hot and probably bubbling. Leave for a few seconds and don’t be tempted to feel the top to check its firmness. The temperature of the caramelised sugar is more than 150°C, and touching it will give you an instant, painful blister.
11
You might not succeed at the first time, or second, or third, but keep trying. The result might never be as perfect as that at Le Cirque, but even a silver medal is still worth winning.
WINE: Rutherglen tokay, like muscat, is a unique style of wine and one of which Australians can be enormously proud. Try Baileys, Bullers, Chambers, or Morris’s. Any of them will be perfect with this.