Pommes à la Moscovite

Pommes à la Moscovite (apple cases with kümmel Soufflé) teaches that a soufflé can rise only as well as its vessel holds it. Here the apple is vessel and flavour together. Its walls must take enough syrup to become tender, but remain firm enough to stand through another twenty minutes of baking. Let them soften in the syrup and the structure is gone before the egg whites arrive.

The original entry assumed a pâtissier's station with thin syrup, smooth apple purée, and a Soufflé preparation ready for service. Here, the brigade scaffolding goes: four apples replace ranks of fruit, one small saucepan makes the syrup and purée, and an ordinary oven held at 325°F (160°C) supplies the mild heat. The ready mise en place can go. The firm poach, the lower third of purée, the kümmel in the Soufflé, and the twenty-minute bake are the dish, so all four stay exactly where they belong. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished apples arrive glossy at the sides, pale gold and gently risen on top, with concentrated apple beneath the warm caraway perfume of the liqueur. Watch the poach more closely than the clock: lift each case while a skewer still meets clear resistance, because that firm wall decides everything that follows.