Biscuits roses de Reims

The famous pink rose biscuits, made in the Champagne city of Reims by Fossier. These are traditionally dipped in a glass of champagne. Class. There used to be more biscuit fabricators around, but these days it's just Fossier.
Imagine a light and crispy sponge biscuit, flaky and dusted with icing sugar. Gentle and indulgent: only once have I ever tasted this flavour combination, whilst in its home city. Lovely.
Right now I'm imagining a creamy coupe of Pol Roger and some biscuits roses on a shaded evening terrace, vines overhead and the scent of jasmine all around.

I didn't know that some people also enjoy them dipped in milk or as an ingredient in other recipes. Not available in Australia, unfortunately, but then I always think this is the sort of thing best enjoyed authentically.

Vodka, cranberry and pomegranate

Smirnoff festive mixers

New for the holiday season- Christmas-flavoured vodkas from Smirnoff.

Hummingbird Lager

Apparently, girls, this is made just for us.

Much like we are addressing an oversight of female artists, we are also
addressing an oversight for female drinkers by bringing you a light refreshing
beer created especially for women - Hummingbird Blonde Lager. Australian women drink over 44 million cases of beer a year but there wasn't one beer made
especially for them. Lower in carbohydrates, a smaller 275mL bottle, light and
fresh tasting with a hint of citrus -Hummingbird Blonde Lager by Cruiser is
something for the girls to enjoy.

Anyone tried it yet? It's made by the same mob who do Vodka Cruisers, so that's already a turnoff. Seems like they want to appeal to 19 year olds who are trying to look classy in front of their 18 year old mates. Perhaps not really a grown women's beer. Then again, maybe it tastes great, what do I know?

They are milking the whole thing at the moment with their 100 Top Female Artists campaign. Much as I admire the sentiment, it all seems a little too cold and calculated for my liking.

Paris absinthe shop

You know I've talked about absinthe before: now here's the store in Paris dedicated to the green fairy.

Don't ask me where it is. All I know is that's it's in the Marais somewhere.

Spiced chicken with olives, preserved lemon, rice and salad

We had this at Crepes A Gogo (great name, for the 1960s maybe) in Paris, just near the Pantheon. I thought it sounded great, and wasn't too disappointed by the actual dish... even though it was listed as "saffron rice" and it was about as saffronny as a red popsicle. Nice juicy chicken though. This marked the first of our many many attempts to find France's best alcoholic cider. It was definitely a high-ranker.

Top ten holiday cocktails

It's summer, it's the stupid season (also, the lazy and lounging season), a lot of people are on holidays, and it's Christmas. Therefore, one requires several things to gracefully glide through December and January unscathed: a comfy pair of togs, a great dress, a good book, a easy-care haircut and... cocktails. They don't have to be alcoholic, just delicious, classy, and appropriate for both raucous late-night gatherings and a solo afternoon by the pool.

The list does tend towards the bitter-based cocktails, as these are my personal favourites. I've also chosen drinks that can be relatively easily mixed at home.

Here are my top ten holiday cocktails for 2008.

10. Bloody Mary

Down the bottom of the list, not because of any un-deliciousness, but because it can be tricky to make at home. You need tomato juice, vodka, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and possibly celery salt, lemon juice, celery garnish, horseradish, cayenne pepper, etc. A bit fiddly for my liking, but certainly fantastic and has the added bonus of all those free-radical fighting antioxidants in the tomato juice, thereby cancelling out the alcohol. No, really.

9. Caipiroska

A Caipirinha made with vodka (much easier to buy) instead of cachaca, the Brazilian distilled sugarcane spirit. If I could, I'd drink these on the beach. Probably easier to just drink them on a verandah OVERLOOKING the ocean, at about 5pm on a Saturday. Buy a bottle of vodka, a bag of limes and a packet of palm sugar, and your holiday packing is done. Maybe throw in a hot bikini as well...

8. Special Iced Tea

Not a Long Island Iced Tea: this is my version of a bitey, yet slightly sweet cocktail with that tasty tea flavour. Make your own favourite batch of iced tea (I like to use grapefruit or lemon as the flavouring), sweeten to taste and refrigerate overnight. Next day, at drinkin' time, add some vodka and ice cubes. The flavoured fruit vodkas (blackcurrant, lemon, etc) from Absolut go perfectly with the tea.

7. Mint Julep

Great if you've got a mint bush growing by the pool: then all you need do is cart out an esky of ice water, bourbon and some sugar. Well, hush my mouth. Frosty, fresh goodness.

6. Vodka and Cranberry

Oh, it's so seasonal. Lots of ice cubes, some proper cranberry juice, a splash of orange juice if you like, vodka straight from the freezer and topped up with soda. Santa would totally drink this.

5. Lemon, Lime and Bitters

Not drinking? Still, look good and get some bittery tastiness into you with the super old favourite.

4. Kir Royale

A beautiful French classic. Blackcurrant syrup is cheap and easy to find in supermarkets, and not a bad substitution for the original creme de cassis. Use local sparkling wine to make your own variant, or go all out with real champagne. Also, the kir framboise uses raspberry liqueur / syrup and fresh raspberries (which are in season!) Imagine your New Year's soiree, your guests sipping softly raspberry-perfumed bubbles...

3. Caribbean Citrus

This is my name for my own cocktail invention: Mount Gay rum and chinotto. It's sweet, but not too sweet. Better than a Cuba Libre.

2. Gin & Tonic

Can't really get much better than a G&T. One of the mixer brands now makes a tonic that's flavoured with either lime or lemon. Ice cubes, Tanqueray and cold tonic. Tropic perfection.

1. Americano

Campari, soda and sweet vermouth. Easy to mix, tastes great over ice, ingredients are relatively cheap. An old-school favourite that's perfect for hot climates, whether that's Cuba or Queensland.

Review: Cocoa Farm Shiraz Chocolate Barrels

As if anyone needs ANY more chocolate in their life. I certainly don't. One more square of 70% (strictly for the antioxidants, you see) and it'll be Mrs Creosote Central around here.

But forget the 70%. Cocoa Farm have a new range of elegant little dark chocolates, infused with Australian shiraz. They're little barrel-shaped, bite-sized bundles of love, and what with the dark chocolate coating and the grapey tannin-soaked insides, they're so stuffed full of antioxidants that they could single-handedly fend off the plague, or a nuclear blast.
They come individually wrapped in a box of eight. Just the right size for after dinner, with the last bottle of red wine. There's about two bites per chocolate, and they are soft, toothsome, delectably savourable and with a strong yet subtle presence. These chocs know their place. They don't overpower, or undermine others. They devote themselves to evoking dreams of shaded southern vineyards, long lazy lunches, white linen tablecloths, sun-drenched courtyards and decadent, sensual afternoons. Mmm. If only they came with a bonus handsome Italian.

And these are the kind of thing that would be perfect for the wine buff, the wannabe wine buff, the mother-in-law, the social butterfly, the boss, the grandparents, the health nut, the sports freak or just someone who needs a treat. Personally, I think these would be great as Christmas standbys: much more original than the bottles of wine I usually keep as a standby, and much more likely to appeal to a wider clientele. Last year I made jams: the year before it was gingerbread hearts. This year it will be shiraz chocolates... so much easier, more original, and so much more forgiving.

But I really must address the thorny issue of fruit and nut. You may or may not know that I detest fruit and nut chocolates, chocolate-dipped strawberries, etc. It's the two kinds of sweetness, the refined sugar plus the fructose that undoes me. So one must admit that one was a little hesitant about the chocolatey, grapey goodness of Cocoa Farm. However, I was convinced by two things: its not-too-sweet aroma and fresh, bitey, tannic aftertaste, and the perfect balance therein of the grippy shiraz wine and the dark chocolate. Neither overly fruity nor sickly sweet. Not at all like the usual fruit/nut combos. I liked it a lot.

Whence to fetch them? Bottle shops and specialty sweet stores, or check the website. Cheers!

Note: This review is an entry in Cocoa Farm's editorial contest. They sent me a sample pack.

Champagne

She keeps Moet & Chandon in a pretty cabinet. Note: the correct pronunciation is Moet WITH the T, not silent. This I know, because lucky me spent ten months living on Avenue de Champagne, in the founding town of the champagne district, Epernay. Tough break.

In the street are the production houses of Moet & Chandon, Perrier-Jouet, Mercier, Piper-Heidsieck, De Castellane, Gauthier and Pol Roger, among others. All of the houses are grand, ornate, castle-like buildings in a turn-of-the-century architectural style, with gold-plated gates, scrollwork, statues, circular drives and so on. In winter the sky is a permanent dull grey, and the champagne houses look magnificent, imposing and bleak against the dark frozen backdrop.
I was able to take a few tours while I was there, do a few tastings, and take a ride on the underground trains which roam the kilometres of chalk cellars deep beneath Epernay. Contrary to poular belief, the people of Epernay don't spend endless hours quaffing top-rate champers on the cheap. It's only slightly cheaper to buy it within the region as it is outside, and when you grow up with champagne you treat it as the special treat that it is.
But all of this is beside the point: which champagnes are best to drink?
A local favourite is Mumm (produced down the road in Reims). It's cheaper than others, has a creamy soft finish and a wonderful colour. A couple of smaller producers that I personally love are Nicolas Feuillatte and Perrier-Jouet. I'm not ashamed to say that I am especially in love with the Perrier packaging: the retro vintage stylised labels and the art deco colours. Their Belle Epoque limited edition flower bottle is just gorgeous. Might make a great birthday or Christmas present.


Of course, other producers like Veuve-Clicquot Ponsardin (Reims) also look beautiful and make a great product.

And when there's a half-bottle left over of your favourite champagne, recipes like champagne risotto and champagne jelly will use it up nicely.
Most of these champagnes are available at Dan Murphy's.

The Bowery and Pho B

Last Friday night, I was alone. Lord Porkface was off worshipping the almighty tennis god, and I had a set to see at the Valley Fiesta. Pre-set, I enjoyed a lovely Vietnamese beef salad and a pot of jasmine at Pho B, a little pho restaurant off the Valley Mall (Burlington-side, not Fat Boys-side.) And then afterwards, my book and I took ourselves off to The Bowery: recent winner of Gourmet Traveller's best bar in Australia award. Safely and sagely curled in a fat old leather couch, I contentedly read my Michael Crichton with a salty tequila cocktail by my side. Possibly one of the best nights out this year. And possibly the best cocktail, too! Well won, Bowery.

My liquor cabinet

Well, it's actually more of a tray. A black lacquered tray on a high trolley, parked permanently within arm's reach of the dinner table and the tea cups. What's on the liquor tray? An array of rarely-used (unfortunately) tipples. Probably not the most conventional selection, but also probably quite tame in comparison to other people's.

• Tanqueray gin


• Bombay Sapphire gin (one needs one's martini, or gin and tonic, to be adequate)


• Cinzano Dry vermouth


• Absente


• Mount Gay rum (used thusly)


• Rose syrup


• Other syrups: peach, chocolate, cranberry, blackcurrant. For making kir royales, chocolate martinis, cocktails.


• Grenadine


• Tempus Two botrytis semillon, for freezing winter nights


• A caramelly tokay, ditto


• Apple schnapps, for flavouring pies and fruit


• Pastis 51 (a remnant of France, again)


• St. Remy brandy, to put in my galette des rois and to help preserve fruit


• Amarena sour cherry syrup (goes down great with icy soda water on a hot day)


• Cointreau (for Nigella's flourless chocolate cake)


• Tawny port (for the Christmas cake)

Gee, that seems like a lot. Oh well. No regrets. There's also a wine cabinet somewhere which is mostly filled with the Italian, Chilean, South African and French imports I like to buy, and the local stunners that we get given as gifts. Quite a selection.

What do you have in your liquor stash?

Gaugalin opium poppy liqueur

What a fantastic website. Cerbaco is a Melbourne-based company importing brilliant French liqueurs and aperitifs, plus Calvados, cider, armagnacs and cognacs, fruit eaux-de-vie. All those ones you thought you'd never see again outside France... they are but a mouse-click away. I just adore the gorgeous old-fashioned packaging on especially the Calvados and eau-de-vie bottles. They look like beautiful handwritten artisanal labels.


The newest one from Cerbaco is Gaugalin opium corn poppy liqueur. The promo material says "hallucinations not included". Wonder what we could do with a poppy liqueur? I feel like there are insanely wonderful cocktails to be made somewhere.
The same company also makes Pera Azteca, a pear and chocolate brandy. Doesn't look like it's being imported here yet, though.
For only $40, though, perhaps that Gaugalin could be in my liquor cabinet before too long.

SP Beer... the lager of the South Pacific

There should be more talk on teh interweb about this beer. SP Beer (South Pacific Beer) is what they in the tropics drink on a hot steamy afternoon. SP has won lots of international beer awards and lots of fans, on account of it being a totally fantastic, crisp and delicious lager.

Many of us expats who have since decamped to other shores find ourselves yearning for that short-necked brown bottle, or that green and yellow can. Maybe it's the memories and the associations with the place we were when we first tasted it, or maybe it's just a damn good beer. Personally, my SP fetish was first sparked when Dad used to let me slurp the foam off his glass of SP. Once you've had brown, you can't go back.

The good news is that SP Beer is FINALLY available in Australia. No more bribing friends to smuggle me back a slab from Port Moresby. At last we can enjoy the best beer in the southern hemisphere, without needing a passport. Where, you say? Read on. Fetch thy drinking boots.

Where to buy SP Beer in Queensland

Za Ba Bottle Shop

Cosmopolitan Building

Corner of Beach Rd and Gold Coast Highway

Surfers Paradise

5526 9018

Aubrey St Cellars

1/31 Aubrey St

Surfers Paradise

5538 2600

Islander Resort Bottle Shop (Bottle O)

6 Beach Rd

Surfers Paradise

5528 8000

Spiro's Bottle Shop

535 Milton Rd

Toowong

3871 1725

Spiro's Bottle Shop

97-105 Latrobe Tce

Paddington

3369 1782

Acacia Ridge Tavern

1260 Beaudesert Rd

Acacia Ridge

3875 2438

Cowboy food

Got this book from Cumquat's the other day. Veeeery interesting. Published in 1997: a collection of recipes arranged by location within the US.
Lotta beans in there. Beans n' rice. Beans n' meat. Chili n' beans. Beans n' beans.
But seeing as we all know how to make chili con carne anyway, let's disregard el beanos for now and look at the MUCH MORE INTERESTING stuff on offer.
What is it with American lowbrow cooking? Why do they call for so much prepackaged brand-name product? To make a pie, why not just make a crust and make a filling yourself, instead of specifying x-brand biscuits to mash up for a crust and a tin of bought pie filling? (Just thinking about tins of pie filling make me uneasy. What the hell's in there...?)
It creeps me out, imagining doing a run to the supermarket before baking and ending up with a trolley full of stuff that would probably survive a nuclear (nucular) blast.
Something's not right with that. It's not cooking, it's assembling. And it's fake, like 1950s domestic fake. But it IS very creative. Somebody had to invent this stuff. Anyway. See exhibit A.

Grasshopper Pie

1 package Oreos
quarter cup melted butter
1 bag white marshmallows
1 cup milk
2 cups whipped cream
6 tbsps creme de menthe

(Are you freaking out yet?)

Crush cookies into fine crumbs. Reserve a few for topping. Add melted butter to crumbs and mix well. Press into pie dish. Carefully melt marshmallows in milk using a double boiler. Cool until syrupy.
Add cream to cooled marshmallows. Fold in the liqueur. Pour over crust and sprinkle with leftover crumbs. Refrigerate overnight: can be frozen.

Now see exhibit B.

Dirt Dessert

1 package Oreos (there's a pattern here)
1 8oz package Philadelphia cream cheese
three quarters cup butter
1 cup sugar
8 oz Cool Whip
2 three-ounce packages of instant chocolate pudding
2 and a half cups milk
Half cup Irish Cream liqueur
1 washed flower pot, approx 6in diameter x 5in high
washed fresh flowers

Crush cookies in processor and set aside. Mix together cream cheese, butter, sugar and Cool Whip. In a separate bowl mix pudding, milk and liqueur. Stir the two mixtures together.
Line bottom of flower pot with aluminium (aluminum) foil. Spread half the crumbs on bottom. Pour in pudding mixture. Top with remaining crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, insert flowers into pot.

Luxury at 200 metres

We enjoyed a one-night stopover at the Marriot Surfers Paradise recently. It was rainy, cold, grey and blustery. We had a room on the 21st floor, with views to the icy ocean with big storm clouds rolling in.

Later we swam in the lagoon with the tropical fish and its waterfall.

The highlight may have been when we were down in the lounge bar having cocktails (French 75, and an original creation they call the Oasis... lychee, cranberry, Belvedere and lime) when I realised the weird tattooed old guy next to us was Tommy Lee. Yeah, him, the guy who used to be married to Pamela Anderson and now no one knows what his job is.

He looks so much older and weirder in real life, and especially next to normal, average people. Still cool though. I also saw him at the breakfast buffet the next morning, at a very civilized 9am.

Mount Gay & Chinotto, please, bartender

Begone, vile Bundy and cola! May the fleas of a thousand camels infest you!

The sickly-sweetness of Coca-Cola and the raspy paint-stripper aftertaste of Bundaberg Rum: what an unfortunate and yet bizarrely popular combination that turned out to be. Blerk.

How many seventeen-year-olds took their first unfortuitous sip of Bundy and Coke pre-mix and decided that a) this is the way rum should be; or b) wow, does anyone actually LIKE this??

Once at City Rowers, in a previous lifetime, a drunken buffoon bumped me in a stairwell and spilled an entire B&C down me cleavage, and me favourite black top. It took days of soaking to get the stale rummy pong out: I was like a decommisioned pub barrel table.

Now I hate B&C. Take note: I don't hate rum, or cola per se. Just THOSE PARTICULAR TWO.

So, in retaliation and in an effort to prove to myself that this drink doesn't always have to taste like sugared metho, I have created el hybrid magnifico.

The outstandingly gorgeous Mount Gay Barbados Rum, and the lovely and bitter San Pellegrino Chinotto. Yes, I know, I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier either.

And the verdict is: very good indeed. Delicious. Not even a hint of any other possible incarnations. Sophisticated, elegant, European and original. The Mount Gay (apart from its fabulous name and bottle design) is smooth, golden and smoky.

My favourite part is that as I'm lying back with a frosty mix in hand and gazing at the bottle(s), I can legitimately daydream about being on a white sandy beach in summer Barbados, or at a sultry roadside cafe in Rome: two places I would swap for Bundaberg in a heartbeat.

Riverbend Books at Balmoral, plus German cooking

Probably, Riverbend is the best bookshop in town. Folio Books and The American Bookstore in the city are also great, but I would put Riverbend ahead of those two because of its accessibilty, its teahouse and sushi bar double life, its position at the forefront of what's hip and happening in books, and its commitment to extras like live music, readings and so on.


Especially, Riverbend has great cookbooks, and books on cooking. There is a book out called Eating For England that I really want to buy: it is filled with funny anecdotes and information about those quintessential British foods and dishes like spotted dick and Cadbury Flake bars. I want.

The other book that I bought today is called Culinaria Germany. It's one of a series that also includes Russia and Hungary. I had to get it, because it's not often you see a giant cookbook busting its seams with information about German food and cooking.

I don't really know much about German cooking. My knowledge is confined to a few thematic cooking moments at home, a visit to the Black Forest German Cafe-Restaurant at West End for Oktoberfest last year, and a fleeting 3-day visit in 2004 to see my friend and her family, who live in the shipbuilding town of Papenburg in Lower Saxony. (We also visited the Becks factory in Bremen: what an afternoon that was!)

My friend's mother made us a special meal: I don't remember much except the spatzle and the rich cakey dessert. Breakfast was a platter of cold meats, soft dark bread, smooth mild cheeses like emmenthal and gruyere, and lots of hot milky coffee.
This book is seriously huge: it will take me a week to get through it. I'm so excited, I can't wait, and I really hope I learn some interesting and exciting things that will lure me away from my constant obsession with French cooking.

65th birthday dinner

What do you make for a man who has it all? And who has done it all? From memory, these are the jobs my father has held in his life:

• Qualified baker and pastry cook
  
• Hotel night manager
  
• Oil rig supervisor


• Cameraman
  
• Pilot


• Disc jockey


• Glass worker


• Home builder and renovator


• Salesman

Plus there's a few more unofficial ones in there, like boating expert, holder of the world record for music trivia, man with the ability to take anything apart and fix it, prankster, world traveller, aeroplane expert and maker of the best homemade potato chips, bar none.

Today my wonderful father turns 65. We will be celebrating his birthday tonight.

I am going to make an all-French affair (again, surprise surprise.) I have some lovely 2005 La Vielle Ferme French rose wine and an Italian trentino white chilling, and all is in readiness.

***update

It was great. Here's what we had:

• Damien Pignolet's salad of prawns and roasted tomatoes


• Roast rib fillet with herby Dutch Cream potatoes
  
• Green beans
  
• Coeurs a la creme with raspberry sauce and strawberries

I feel the standout was probably the salad, which is what Mum said too, if only because it was a bit interesting and different. Here come the recipes.

Damien Pignolet's salad of prawns and roasted tomatoes (serves 6)

This is the original recipe: mine was amended (I used asparagus instead of beans, slight change in the mayo and so on). For the salad:

12 small, firm and ripe tomatoes, blanched and peeled

Olive oil (I used basil oil)

Salt and pepper

200g baby green beans, trimmed

1 small cucumber

24 cooked king prawns, shelled, tails still on

150g frisee lettuce, washed and dried

For the mayonnaise:

1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised

1 yolk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt

60ml extra virgin olive oil

80ml grapeseed oil

2 tsps aged sherry vinegar

1 tsp verjuice

freshly ground white pepper (I used three drops green Tabasco instead)

Preheat oven to maximum. Brush tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, put on cake rack in a baking dish (I put them straight onto a tray) and roast till slightly scorched. Let cool.

Lightly cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Let cool.

Peel and deseed cucumber: cut into small batons.

Make the mayo. Rub the inside of a mortar and pestle with the clove and discard. Beat together the yolk, mustard and a good pinch of salt. Beat in the oils a little at a time. Fear not, nothing will go wrong. Add vinegars and verjuice, then the pepper to taste. Mine should have been a little more runny. Next time I will add more verjuice.

Clean the prawns and remove the digestive tract. Keep tails on. Reserve prawn shells for various pranks, like hiding them in the neighbour's garage.

Arrange your salad: tomatoes go off centre. Toss the lettuce, beans and cucumber with a scrap of mayo and arrange piles on plates. Prawns go between tomatoes and salad. Damien says to dip the prawns lightly in mayo: I would have, except for various fussy people who prefer to dip themselves.
Roast rib fillet with herby potatoes

I bought a slab of fillet weighing about 1.4kg from the Stanley Rd butcher. This was HEAPS and could have fed six easily, or even eight if you spread it out a bit more. The day before, I rubbed the fillet with a little olive oil and red wine and let it marinate in the fridge. On the day, it took about an hour in a 190C oven, untied, and then 20 minutes of resting time in a foil tent. The result was delicious, tender, soft, well-done on the ends and medium-rare in the centre.

The potatoes were washed, sliced lengthwise and prepared thusly, then sprinkled with random chopped herbs from the garden (rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme).

The beans were just blanched and served with a drizzle of olive oil.

Coeurs a la creme with raspberry sauce

I bought six little coeur moulds from Taste at Bowen Hills ($7.95 each, totally worth it). They are a small porcelain heart-shaped mould with holes in the bottom. You CAN go without and make freeform bag-shaped coeurs, but that means rigging up a rack and a draining apparatus in the fridge. Too fussy for me. Much easier to get the moulds, even though they are totally useless for anything else. I love it. For six coeurs (I only made four and kept the leftovers in the fridge):
Macerated fruits 700 gm mixed berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and youngberries (I just used strawberries)
20 ml Cointreau or other orange liqueur
Coeurs à la crème
250 gm each of cream cheese and ricotta
110 gm (½ cup) pure icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (pod reserved for another use, if desired)
200 ml double cream (48% milk fat) (I used the Bulla brand: excellent)
Raspberry sauce
300 gm (2 punnets) raspberries
75 gm (1/3 cup) pure icing sugar
60 ml (¼ cup) Cointreau

For coeurs à la crème, pulse combined cream cheese and ricotta, icing sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a food processor until smooth, scraping down sides. Add cream and pulse until just combined. Cut six 20cm squares of muslin or a clean Chux, rinse well and wring out. Use muslin to line six coeur moulds. Fill the moulds with mixture and place on a tray. Stand overnight in the fridge.
For raspberry sauce, process raspberries, icing sugar and Cointreau in a food processor until smooth, then push through a fine sieve, discarding seeds. Makes about 300ml.

Combine berries and Cointreau in a bowl and stand for at least 5 minutes to macerate.
Invert coeurs onto serving plates and peel away muslin. Drizzle some sauce around the coeur to show off its shape. Add some artistically-placed berries to the side.