Apetece-me...

São quatro da tarde, vou desligar o computador, calçar uns chinelitos, ir espreitar a caixa de correio da rua para ver se já vieram umas cenas que encomendei p`la net e confeccionar uma receita da minha cozinheira favorita, a Nigella Lawson

está-me a apetecer...

in english of course

 

Eton Mess

I am a regular Food Network watcher. More like a Food Network stalker, if I’m honest. I can watch all day long. In fact, having the luxury of a television being next to my desk at work, I pretty much do watch (or listen) all day. One of my favorites is Nigella Lawson. I think she is so interesting and beautiful and she is an unapologetically greedy eater. I’ve seen her make Eton Mess in a few variations but this one is my favorite.

So let’s talk about Eton Mess for a second. Eton Mess is a delicious combination of fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and meringue cookies. Its name "Eton Mess" pays tribute not only to the place where it was invented, Eton College, but also to the fact that the cream, strawberries and broken meringue cookies are all just mixed together in one big bowl that looks, frankly, like a big ole mess. But what a tasty mess it is!

This is a very simple dessert that needs to be assembled just before serving so the pieces of meringue stay nice and crisp. Luckily, though, there are only three ingredients involved and most of the prep work can be done in advance. For starters, the meringue cookies can be store bought or if you prefer making your own, I do not, then they can be made several days beforehand. Next, the cream can be whipped several hours in advance and stored in the refrigerator, and the strawberries can be cut and sweetened about an hour in advance.

For maximum flavor, make this dessert when strawberries are in season. When buying strawberries, look for ones that are bright red, plump, firm, with no white or green "shoulders" at the stem end. The green leaf-like cap or hull should still be attached and it should not be brown or wilted. This particular recipe uses pomegranate juice to encourage the strawberries to ooze out their fragrant summery juices. If you don’t have pomegranate juice you can certainly carry on without it, but it does make a great addition.

Next, the meringue cookies. They’re so airy, sweet and crisp that they seem to almost melt in your mouth. The outsides of the meringues are nice and crisp, yet the insides remain wonderfully soft and puffy, almost like a mini-Pavlova. You can use as many cookies as you like in the Mess, so use the recipe as a guide only.

Finally, we need to whip the cream. Cream is a very important part of this dessert as it binds everything together. At first, I thought it was a mistake that the recipe didn’t have me sweeten the cream. But then when everything is all mixed together, the strawberries and the cookies give the absolute perfect balance of sweetness and tartness. It is simply delicious.

(Side note on the whipped cream: I started out whipping it by hand because it looks so quick and easy when they do it on the FN. Um, think again. I’m a pretty strong gal and I have a high level of endurance but it almost killed me. Maybe it was because my bowl wasn’t chilled first or something. But I thought my arm was going to fall off into the floor and I would be forced to eat my strawberries and cookies sans whipped cream with one missing appendage. So you will notice that there is a picture of cream in glass bowl with me whisking and then there is a picture of my awesome mixer doing all the hard work for me and in the end saving me from having to find a man that not only will love my curves, but also love that I have one arm. Thank you mixer.)

I have to mention this just because I have to. When my 3 year old niece, who is one of my very favorite taste testers, had this dessert the other night she said to me “this is the best strawberry dessert in the world!” I have to admit, I agree with her.

Eton Mess
Adapted from Nigella Lawson, Nigella Bites

Ingredients:

4 cups strawberries
2 teaspoons caster or vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons pomegranate juice
2 cups whipping cream
1 packet individual meringue nests

Directions:

Hull and chop the strawberries and put into a bowl and add the sugar and pomegranate juice and leave to macerate while you whip the cream.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until thick but still soft. Roughly crumble in 4 of the meringues nests - you will need chunks for texture as well as a little fine dust.

Take out about half a cupful of the chopped strawberries, and fold the meringue cream and rest of the fruit mixture together.Arrange on 4 serving plates or glasses or in a mound, and top each with some of the remaining macerated strawberries.

Good Appetite