Coincidentally, since our prior post was about Michael Recchiuti’s new cassis gelée chocolate, our tip of the day focuses on pâte de fruits—a.k.a. fruit gelée or fruit jellies, although we hesitate to use these terms because these have nothing to do with American candies like Chuckles and jellied watermelon slices, made with “fruit flavoring.”

Pâtes de fruits (pronounced pot duh froo-EE) are gourmet fruits jellies, made of fruit purée, sugar and pectin. A great pâte de fruit is like eating a wonderful piece of fruit in a different form (as is a great fruit sorbet).

For people who like sweets but not chocolate, a perfect Valentine’s Day gift is a box of the best pâtes de fruit we know, from Paris’s Maison du Chocolat—which, conveniently for us, has five shops in New York City and a website.

Keep an extra box in your own pantry. These edible gems are so versatile:

 
In fact, if you’ve forgotten the dessert, or the soufflé flops, bring out a plate of these beautiful, jewel-colored sweets and no one will be the wiser.

By the way, the difference between pâtes de fruit, plural, and pâte de fruit, singular, is not how many pieces you get, but how many flavors.

If there’s more than one flavor, use the plural, pâtes. This nuance of the French language is courtesy of our French cousin, Philippe.

Read more about our favorite sweets in the Gourmet Candy Section of THE NIBBLE webzine. If you pursue the greatest chocolates, visit our Chocolate Section

[1] Our favorite pâtes de fruit, from La Maison du Chocolat. [2] Some pâtissiérs, such as Charles Chocolates in California, prefer this half dome shape.

Enjoy a Cassis Strata bonbon with a Kir Royale. Photo courtesy Recchiuti Chocolates.

Love chocolate? Love pâte de fruit? Love cassis (black currant)? Chocolatier Michael Recchiuti combines them all to create the February 2008 “Flavor of the Month,” Cassis Strata.

It’s a layer of cassis gelée atop a layer of silky Madagascar single origin ganache, enrobed in pure bittersweet chocolate. Nibble a piece as you sip some creme de cassis…or add the cassis to a moderately-good Champagne (never a great bottle, where you’ll want to enjoy all of the flavor nuances and not cover them up with external flavors) to make a Kir Royale).

The Kir was named after Félix Kir (1876-1968), a mayor of the city of Dijon in Burgundy (the same city of mustard fame). He added a splash of cassis to white Burgundy and it became a popular drink, named in his honor.

The Kir led to the Kir Royale, substituting Champagne for the still wine. You can use any sparkling wine for a similar effect…and you can substitute framboise or Chambord [raspberry liqueurs] for the cassis.

1. POUR about an inch of cassis in the bottom of a flute or tulip Champagne glass.

2. ADD the Champagne, slowly pouring down the side of the glass. Stirring breaks the bubbles in the Champagne, so the better option is not to stir (if you must, stir once, very gently).

An alternate technique is pour in the Champagne first, then tilt the glass and pour the cassis down the side.
 
  

Guy had prepared some of California’s signature dishes: A Tomales Bay Kumamoto oyster tasted so fresh, it was hard to believe that it had flown across the country. The fried version of the oyster with a generous smattering of Californian Dry Jack cheese had us asking for seconds. Also on Guy’s appetizer table were succulent Cornish game hens and San Francisco’s seasonal favorite, Dungeness crab.Now that we had a little food in our system, we were ready to partake in the “Wine Tasting Tour of California,” led by some of the winemakers whose wines were showcased. We tasted seven wines, ranging from a dry Muscat from Chalk Hill to an oaky Cabernet from Oakville (which seems funny when you see it in print, but not all wines from Oakville are oaky). Our personal favorite was the 2004 Curtis Winery Syrah from Santa Barbara County, presented by the winemaker (and former star of “The Bachelor”) Andrew Firestone. It tasted of plum and blackberry with a hint of vanilla and a caramelly finish. We’ll be searching for bottles of this one on our next trip to the wine store.

All this was followed by…lunch! John Stewart and Duskie Estes, the husband/wife chef team behind the restaurant Zazu in Santa Rosa, presented us with a delicious family-style meal, focusing on the seasonal and the sustainable for which Zazu is known. (in fact, many of the ingredients were picked from the organic garden at the back of the restaurant). A whole roasted lamb, raised by one their neighbors in Santa Rosa, was tender and bursting with flavor. The side of “Enormous Fagioli,” big Italian-style white beans, was accompanied by crisped vegetable bits that imparted a smoky flavor. We even discovered a new vegetable, puntarelle, which tastes a bit like chicory and is completely addictive.

The meal was accompanied by many of the same wines that we had tasted, plus new ones including a Bordeaux-style blend by Rodney Strong called Symmetry. Dessert was a stellar finish to the meal—burst-in -your-mouth goat cheese fritters, topped with chestnut honey (also provided by a beekeeper who is a neighbor to the restaurant.) In California, it seems, the best meal is the one that comes from just next door. Go locavore! Go culinary tourism! Go to California and taste all of this great food firsthand. Visit LandOfWineAndFood.com for information and to enter to win a six-day adventure to California’s Central Valley.