Le Russe

A little word about a big cake!

In the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwest France is the patisserie shop, Artigarrede, at 1 Place de la Cathèdrale. This is home to one of the world’s greatest cakes, Le Russe. A cake with a history shrouded in secrecy and mystery.

According to legend, the cake was invented here on behalf of and dispatched regularly to, a Russian nobleman. An astonishing feat for a small patisserie in rural France but one that gave rise to guard its recipe with the up most secrecy.  A tradition upheld to this present day where its employees still must sign a secrecy agreement. Le Russe is now advertised as the Le veritable Russe (the true Russe) - indicating Artigarrede has come up against strong competition and conjecture.

Our own discovery of Le Russe came from an article in Gourmet Traveller about 8 years ago on the Basque country. An article that sent us not only in search of the mysterious cake but ever onward and upward to almost the top of the Pyrénées to the tiny mountain village of Larrau and the destination gourmet inn, Etchemaite.

We were (unbeknownst) lucky that day, Artigarrede was open. We bought many slices for ourselves and everyone we thought might like to try this famous cake. It was eye wateringly expensive, gob smackingly delicious and every mouthful savoured right down to the last speck. As the years went by we took and sent many friends to Oloron enroute to Etchemaite but sadly the shop was always closed presumably for summer holidays or some such reason so more bad luck than anything else, we supposed. Disappointment rained.

UNTIL just recently when friends from Australia stopped by for lunch enroute to Carcassonne bearing gifts of wine, cheese and a whole LE VERITABLE RUSSE - the Holy Grail itself. I was absolutely stunned.

However, my stunned state did not last long. We (the four of us) ate the whole cake in one sitting I am rather ashamed to say. We just had to make up for 8 years of longing and dreaming, who wouldn’t! 

Liz is a champion cook, food writer and food critic and together we enjoyed discussing the possible secret ingredients of Le veritable Russe. It has two wafer thin layers of a type of melt in the mouth almond flavoured meringue with an almond paste butter cream sandwiched between the two. The base is firm enough to slice through but there is no awareness of this slightly harder texture at the moment of taste.

Spurred on by Liz and Arthur’s visit and their wonderful treat I thought I’d do a little research and came up with the story that it is to the almonds in the cake that we owe the name and not to any count or Russian nobleman. The almonds came from Russia - not quite so romantic, I’m afraid. As to the secrecy surrounding the recipe, I could not come up with anything but then it is, after all, a secret!

I also found many recipes for Moroccan Le Russe cake. A similar sounding cake from my imagined ingredients and from all accounts, one that would have a similar taste, but I could not find one photograph that resembled in any way our Le Russe from Oloron-Sainte-Marie. It is, after all,  Le veritable Russe!

Link to printable version of this recipe https://sites.google.com/site/foodvineprintablerecipes/home/le-russe

Bastilla

Bastilla, thanks to Mint, Tea & Rosewater, is a new discovery for me and I now have the recipe thanks to Pete Bakes to which I have made a couple of changes. I used 650gm chicken instead of 2lbs and a small thumb of fresh turmeric, chopped, instead of powdered. I baked the Bastilla at 180˚C in a fan-forced oven and watched it like a hawk. Over all, the flavour was perfect but the chicken and egg mixture was a bit too dry so I would recommend under-cooking the scrambled eggs. I cannot see their ‘wetness’ doing any harm to the pastry. In every other respect this is a delicious recipe and one I shall repeat again, and again. Individual pastries as an alternative look lovely and make a perfect canapé but might prove challenging to prepare.

Fig & Walnut Palmiers

My friend Anne brought the wonderful world of palmiers to my attention a few years ago with her great salami, olive and rosemary recipe, featured below. Thanks to Anne, I have not only made these tasty pastries countless times but so have many others I know. One friend in particular made them to the exclusion of all else and I have to say drinks in Balmain got just a tiny bit predictable. As much as we all love them there is a thing called a fair go but some people just don’t get it - “what did I do, what did I do” came the response when his wife threatened things I cannot publish here – but that’s Brian for you!

For a variation on a theme, I made this up the other day but didn’t weigh or count the ingredients so it’s a bit of a rough guide!

Makes 10-12 palmiers

Ingredients:

1 large frozen sheet bought puff pastry (thawed)
1-12 dried figs
2 handfuls walnuts
zested rind of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons caster sugar
Brandy (optional)

Method:

Reconstitute figs by placing in a saucepan, cover with cold water or brandy and gently bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer for about an hour – test with a skewer to check if they are soft enough, if not simmer a little longer. Remove from the heat and leave until they are quite cold.

Chop walnuts well with a sharp knife. Do not blitz in a whizzer – walnuts should be chopped one-step above “finely” not obliterated! Slice figs and cover the piece of pastry with them leaving a small boarder around the edge (see above photograph). Scatter with walnuts and sprinkle over the sugar.

To fold:

Fold the sides into the middle, turn the pastry one-half turn, fold the sides into the middle again, and then fold in half (making eight layers). Wrap in cling film to chill for at least an hour before cooking.

Remove from the fridge, slice each one into half-inch slices, and put them all onto a greased baking tray. Bake at 180˚C for approximately 15 minutes or until brown.

Serve warm sprinkled with icing sugar or sugar snow.


This is Anne’s magic recipe (as she originally sent it to me)

1 cup pitted black olives
2/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary needles
8 slices of salami
2 - 3 tablespoons oil
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Whiz all the ingredients in a food processor.

Take one packet (3 sheets) of thawed frozen puff pastry and spread the paste equally between the three sheets. Spread all over each one in a thin layer to completely cover
pastry.

Fold the sides into the middle, turn the pastry one-half turn, fold the sides into the middle again, and then fold in half (making eight layers). Wrap in cling film to chill for at least an hour before cooking. Cook in a fairly hot oven for 15 minutes until brown and sizzling.


TIPS: Buy the pastry that had sundried tomato and herbs already in it.
Make and freeze days or weeks before so no work to do on the day of eating!
Make only half the above amounts for less people!
Have a large gin and tonic when you’re cooking them!