What is a Bavarois?

Le Gourmand asked the question. I adopted the textbook Julia answer - "A Bavarian Cream". Which means two thirds of bugger all to most people unless they have been a fan of Sara Lee's Chocolate Bavarians. I suspect however that these are a bit more like a cross between a bavarois and a cheesecake with its biscuit base. A bavarois is a gelatin set creamy dessert, lamentably absent the biscuit base, so you need to prepare it well in advance of your evening meal. After a somewhat disastrous clash with gelatin last year, I was understandably hesitant about making an orange bavarois, but it was time to get back on the horse.

Two sugar cubes were rubbed over the skin of two oranges, the oranges were zested and the zest was added to the mashed sugar cubes and set aside. The oranges were juiced and gelatin added to the juice. A cup of sugar was added to the zest mixture and 7 egg yolks were slowly beaten in until the mixture thickened and turned light yellow. It was more difficult to obtain a "ribbon" with the mixture, possibly because of the zest. Boiling milk was slowly added to the mixture which was then heated slowly until it reached 170 degrees (I used my candy thermometer). I took it off the heat and the gelatin juice mixture was added to this. Meanwhile 5 egg whites were beaten with salt and a tablespoon of sugar (I forgot the extra sugar but the finished product was definitely sweet enough) and added to the bowl before it was all placed over an ice bath and delicately folded until "cool". I then folded in half a cup of beaten cream and two tablespoons of orange liqueur before I poured the mixture into my new fangled silicon mould (which I had acquired after torturing the poor sales assistants at Peters of Kensington with my assertions that this could not be the right mould as it appeared much deeper in the photos on the website) and placed it in the fridge, covered with baking paper.

All this happened on Monday. As well as prepreparing my bavarois, I cooked up some Purée D'Épinards Simple and Purée De Pommes De Terre À L'Ail (garlic mashed potatoes) which beautifully complimented Le Gourmand's superlative Osso Bucco. The spinach was blanched and then cooked with a little butter. The potatoes were more complicated - a head of garlic was boiled, peeled and then cooked slowly in butter for ten minutes, before adding 2 tablespoons of flour then 2 cups of boiling milk. Once it thickened it was strained into the potatoes which had been mashed with butter. Le Gourmand was the masher and varied the recipe by adding cream at this stage, rather than at the end, as the recipe directs. The result was superb.