paris was plagued by some seriously miserable weather last week: chilly temperatures, heavy clouds, and just-light-enough-to-be-annoying drizzle. the dreariness was starting to wear me down, so my friend kristen and i planned a lovely night in. of course, it involved dessert (as any lovely night in should.) kristen brought the most amazing moelleux aux framboises (little cakes generously dotted with plump raspberries) from her favorite bakery, and yours truly supplied the vanilla ice cream and red wine reduction sauce. the sauce is incredibly easy to make, and it got rave reviews from both kristen and my housemate, katie. here’s the recipe for about 1/2 cup of syrup, enough for 4 servings:
1/2 bottle of good red wine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 strips lemon peel (only the yellow part)
3/4 tsp aniseed
1 vanilla bean
combine first 5 ingredients in a heavy pot, scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean.
bring to a boil, stir until sugar dissolves.
continue to boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 12 mins.
refrigerate until cool, drizzle over ice cream or fruit (it’s especially yummy on pears!)
KC&CO,
Bessie
