Recipe: The Emperor’s Mess with Stewed Plums from Seabourne

During these unprecedented times, when staying at home is of the utmost importance, us here at The AU Review are going to be doing everything we can to help readers live their best lives, indoors.

As with many other media companies who typically focus on getting folks out and about, we’re shifting to adapt to the necessary lock-downs taking place all over the world. One way we’ll be doing so is simply by sharing our favourite recipes.

Over the next few weeks (or months, who knows) we’ll be publishing the cocktail and food recipes that we find most exciting, so that when you aren’t ordering in to support your favourite venues, you’ll know enough to quickly throw together some top-class concoctions.

The Emperor’s Mess with Stewed Plums

Luxury cruiser Seabourne is known for having some of the best dining in the cruise industry. While the company is, like many others, halting operations at the moment due to the current pandemic, that doesn’t mean anyone can’t try recreate some of their classics at home. Here, we’ve sourced a dessert recipe for an Emporor’s Mess with stewed plums from Seabourn’s Consultant Chef and Culinary Advisor Anton (Tony) Egger.

Notes from Chef: “This dessert is known for in Austria as “Emperor’s Mess” is a sweet dessert that takes its name from the Austrian emperor (Kaiser) Franz Joseph I, who was very fond of this kind of fluffy shredded pancake. This delicious Dessert are childhood memories. My Grandma Antonia Egger, made this simple recipe version always for my sisters and me once a week after school. This was our sweet highlight of the week”. Recipe serves 2.

Ingredients

For the Raisins…

• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 3 tablespoons rum

For the Stewed Plums…

• 10 pieces fresh plums, ripe
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 piece orange, juiced
• 1/2 piece cinnamon stick
• 1/2 piece vanilla bean (or 2 drops of vanilla bean extract)
• 1 piece star anise
• 1/4 cup or 60ml red wine
• 1 dash dark rum

For the Pancake Batter…

• 1 cup or 180 grams all purpose flour
• 3 eggs, divided
• 1 cup or 250ml milk
• 1/2 piece vanilla bean (or 2 drops of vanilla bean extract)
• 1/2 lemon zest or grated
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Pinch coarse kosher salt

To Caramelise the Pancake…

• 1 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

To serve…

• 1 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 serves of mullet stewed plums OR apple sauce OR vanilla cream

Method

Soak the Raisins…

1. In a small bowl combine raisins and rum and soak for 15 minutes. If you cannot use rum, soak raisins in water to soften.

Cooking the Stewed Plums…

1. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape-out the vanilla seeds / paste.
2. Wash the plums, cut into halves and remove the pits.
3. In a pot over medium heat add the sugar and let caramelize it slightly.
4. Add red wine, rum, cinnamon, star anise, orange juice, vanilla bean and seeds and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add the plums and reduce the heat to low. Let simmer on low heat for 3 minutes, it will thicken a bit.
6. Remove from heat and let the stewed plums come to room temperature.

Prepare Vanilla Bean for Pancake Batter

1. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape-out the vanilla seeds. Paste and set aside for pancake batter.
2. Keep the scrapped vanilla pods half and store in an airtight jar of granulated sugar to make vanilla-scented sugar, if you wish, for future dessert recipes.

Whisk Egg Whites…

1. Separate the eggs and set the egg yolks aside
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add egg whites and a pinch of salt and beat at high speed about 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Make Batter…

1. In a large mixing bowl add the milk, lemon zest, vanilla and salt and then with a whisk stir in the flour.
2. Once you achieve a nice runny batter, add egg yolks.
3. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the stiff egg whites to the egg yolk mixture until combined and smooth. Be very gentle and do not over mix batter.
4. Tip: Adding the flour before the eggs will avoid lumps in the batter.

Make the Kaiserchmarren…

1. Heat a 20cm frying pan over medium with 1 tablespoons butter.
2. Pour in the batter about 1cm high and bake for 2 minutes.
3. Reduce heat slightly to not burn the batter.
4. Sprinkle the drained raisins over the batter and bake for further 2-3 minutes.
5. Use spatula to peak underneath the pancake and see if it’s golden brown already.
6. Using a spatula, quarter the pancake, turn it over and let it bake for 1 more minutes.
7. Divide into bite-size pieces, add 1 tablespoon butter and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar and briefly caramelise.

Serve…

1. Remove the stove and transfer onto serving plates.
2. Dust with plenty of powdered sugar.
3. Serve with either mullet stewed plums OR apple sauce OR vanilla ice cream on the side.