Passion Flowers! Is there anything more exotic? Or more
perfect in their symmetry? I have a wonderful vine that greets me every morning
with a fresh batch of flowers for the day. They greet me and I greet them, and
thank them for making me happy.
Thinking of passion flowers leads me to think of passion
fruit – who would have thought of opening up the first one and tasting the
inside, sweet, tangy with seeds to stick in your teeth – Heaven.
Thinking of passion fruit leads me to think of a pavlova,
laden with whipped cream and dripping with passion fruit insides – more Heaven.
Strangely, I can’t think of pavlova, or to be more precise,
meringues without thinking of mayonnaise – because I always make them together!
I rarely use bought mayonnaise as home made is so easy and
so much better: I take 3 egg yolks, pop them into the small bowl of the food
processor with some Dijon mustard, or alternatively some grain mustard for a
change, a little salt, whizz, whizz and then start adding my wonderful extra
virgin olive oil gradually and then with more confidence as it thickens, juice
from a lemon from my very own tree (!), sometimes I use a little sunflower oil
if I want a lighter result, whizz, whiz
and again, a few magical moments later….. Hey Pesto, perfect mayonnaise,
foolproof!
Before I had the small bowl attachment for the food
processor, I used to make this glorious yellowy/greeny cream in a 1pint glass
jug with a hand whisk – I think it needs to be compact as I never managed to
make it in the large processor bowl – too much space.
So now I have three egg whites to be turned into meringues
that I often prepare in the evening – you’ll understand why in a moment:
preheat the regular (not fan) oven to 200C; I use a (scrupulously clean) copper
bowl and electric hand whisk and whisk the whites with a pinch of salt until
they start to turn into clouds of soon to be meringue; add 350gr of caster
sugar a little at a time (and it should be caster – if you haven’t any, don’t
cancel the operation, just whizz regular granulated sugar for a few moments in the food
processor!), add 1 teaspoon of corn flour, 1 teaspoon of the best vanilla
essence and 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar, continue until they are really
thick and hold their shape. I either make one large cake shape, but more often I
pipe individual mounds on to the greaseproof paper lining the sheet pan and pop
it into the hot oven. Leave for about 5 minutes and then turn the heat off completely
and leave over night (hence doing it in the evening!) without opening the door.
By morning they will have dried out and will be perfect.
The good thing about meringues in general is that they will
keep for ages in a container with a tight fitting lid and, in particular, I
find that having a supply of small, medium or large individual meringues
always ready for an instant pudding gives me a great feeling of security:
simply add whipped cream and chopped strawberries, raspberries, mixed berry
coulis from fruit in the freezer or any compote you may have in the fridge (I
love apple with star anise) - baked, carmelised peaches are exceptionally good. If you have meringues sitting in the store you will always be able to produce a wonderful dessert, impressively and quite effortlessly - promise!
Eton Mess (see above) is a perfect spring/summer dessert – whizz up some strawberries with icing sugar and a little vanilla essence until very smooth, set aside (if there are a lot of seeds you may need to strain it, but usually, enough whizzing will avoid that); whip cream pretty thick with a little icing sugar and vanilla; break up some of your stored meringues and combine in a glass bowl with the cream and strawberry mixture and add a load of chopped strawberries – redolent and delicious! But it needs to have lots of strawberry sauce! Serve with pink champagne - of course.
Wishing you sunshine, whatever the weather.
Bridget
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