WATCH | Australian chef Anna Polyviou is turning the volume up on the typical strawberries and champagne game. This time, it's strawberries and champagne bubbles, and it looks incredibly fancy but is actually so simple to make.
The ingredients are simple: berries (your favorites), sorbet, mint, sugar, soy lecithin, and of course... champagne. Did we mention this recipe is vegan-friendly, in case that's your thing?
And if you're sitting there like "soy-what?" -- it's a super common soy-based emulsifier that's easily found in the supplements section of any grocery store. It's what will help create those bubbles.
It starts with cutting strawberries into quarters, pouring sugar over them, and allowing them to sit overnight. The sugar will cause all the juices to release from the strawberries.
Then the overnight strawberry juice gets blended with the champagne and soy lecithin, which creates light-as-air (but really flavorful) bubbles. A hand mixer or, better yet, an immersion blender, does the trick here.
Bubbles!
The bubbles get spooned over the berries and sorbet and topped with a sprig of mint. Et voila! It looks like some fancy-pants dessert you'd be served in a fancy-pants hotel, but it's way simpler to recreate than it looks.
The bubbles, by the way, fizz in your mouth and lend a tang, kind of like gentle Pop Rocks.
Anna Polyviou is the executive pastry chef at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney, Australia.
Check out another recipe from Chef Anna -- an Australian turntable chocolate tart. (It will make total sense when you see it!)