What Goes Around, Comes Around
January 13, 2018
“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
~ James Thurber
About a week ago I was commenting to a friend about how the national roller coaster ride that began a little over a year ago seemed to be intensifying as we begin 2018. My advice to her was “Hold on or put your hands in the air, whichever seems appropriate.”
A similar conversation with an Italian friend of mine caused me to look up the Italian word for “roller coaster”. Imagine my amusement when I found the translation to be montagna russa or “Russian Mountain”. In fact, the languages of French, Portuguese and Spanish also use equivalents of the term Russian Mountains to refer to roller coasters. This struck me as quite an interesting and humorous linguistic coincidence, considering current events.
Curious, I looked into the history of the term. It turns out that the predecessors of our modern roller coasters were 17th and 18th century Russian winter sledding rides. They were built to stand between 70 ft/21 m and 80 ft/24 m tall, with a 50-degree drop, on specially constructed hills of ice and snow. The ice hills were reinforced with wooden supports. Located mostly around Saint Petersburg, the rides were very popular with the Russian upper classes. Catherine the Great even had a version built at her personal residence, complete with a special gazebo where her guests could enjoy a post-ride cup of tea.
The first version of what we think of today as a roller coaster opened 1812, when one of the founders of the Moulin Rouge music hall built a wheeled ride, inspired by the Russian hills but without the ice, called the Montagnes Russes de Belleville or Russian Mountains of Belleville. It was the first roller coaster to lock the cars to the track. The first looping roller coaster opened in France in 1846. In 1884, the first American roller coaster debuted at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. Called the Switchback Railway, it traveled about 6 miles per hour and cost five cents to ride. Nonetheless, this roller coaster’s immense popularity made its creator hundreds of dollars each day.
Interestingly, when modern roller coasters made their way to Russia, they came to be called amerikanskie gorki, or “American Mountains”.
What goes around, comes around.
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Turn a frown upside down with a delicious batch of Orange Fool. The fruit fool is a traditional English dessert, dating back to the 1500s. It began as a form of fruit custard, but has evolved into a combination of whipped cream and fruit. An orange custard version is rumored to have been included in Martha Washington’s (our first First Lady) personal book of recipes. In a nod to both the traditional and modern, my Orange Fool recipe combines both versions, by stirring tangy orange curd into whipped cream.
Orange Fool
A simple but elegant dessert that combines homemade orange curd and freshly whipped cream for a finale that is both rich and refreshing. Be sure to use eggs from happy hens (pastured or free range). For a simpler version, substitute prepared orange curd and transform the Orange Fool into an Orange Genius (recipe option below).
For the Orange Curd:
3 large eggs
1/3 cup organic sugar
Grated zest of one medium organic orange
1/2 cup strained fresh orange juice
3/4 stick of butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Whipped Cream:
1 & 1/2 cups organic heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon organic sugar
To garnish:
Additional orange zest
Cookies, such as ginger snaps or vanilla wafers
Note: You will need an electric mixer, medium bowl and medium-sized wire whisk for the whipped cream. Chill the bowl, beaters and whisk in the fridge ahead of time, so that they are super cold when you use them for the whipped cream.
Step one – make the Orange Curd:
In a medium saucepan, whisk the eggs, sugar and grated orange zest together until light in color.
Add the orange juice and the butter.
Put saucepan on the stove and cook mixture, whisking, over medium heat until the butter is melted. Then whisk constantly until mixture is thickened and let simmer gently for a few seconds (do not boil!). Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Let cool, stirring a few times. Cover and refrigerate to thicken further (now is a good time to chill your bowl, beaters and whisk for the whipped cream).
Makes about 1 & 1/3 cups
Step two – whip the cream:
Remove cream and chilled bowl and utensils from fridge.
Pour cream into the chilled bowl. Whip cream with electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar and finish beating by hand with the chilled wire whisk until stiff peaks form (finishing by hand helps the whipped cream to hold its shape longer).
To assemble the Orange Fool:
Remove chilled orange curd from fridge.
Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold in 3/4 cup of the orange curd and stir into the whipped cream almost completely, but with some white streaks remaining. Cover and refrigerate the remaining curd and save for another use (on toast, as a dip for fruit or cookies, or mixed with your morning yogurt).
You can serve the fool immediately or make ahead and chill up to 2 hours.
Serve in wine goblets or glass dessert bowls. Top each serving with a bit of extra orange zest and a cookie.
Serves 6
Orange Genius
Brilliantly simple to make (hence the name), this variation uses purchased prepared orange curd. You can find bottled orange curd in the jams and jellies section of a well-stocked grocery store, specialty store or online.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup purchased prepared orange curd
1 & 1/2 cups organic heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon organic sugar
To garnish:
Additional orange zest
Cookies, such as ginger snaps or vanilla wafers
Note: You will need an electric mixer, medium bowl and medium-sized wire whisk for the whipped cream. Chill the bowl, beaters and whisk in the fridge ahead of time, so that they are super cold when you use them for the whipped cream. Also chill your purchased orange curd.
Make as in Orange Fool recipe above, but begin with Step Two.
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