We had a fantastic dinner at my cousin’s last night. He cooked a wonderful Chilli con Carni for me, my siblings and our other half's.
It was great we covered every topic under the sun, had lots of laughs, took the mickey out of each other and had a brilliant evening ... which is par for the course in our rather crazy wonderful family.
We generally have great evenings together ... from small diners to birthday parties ... there are quite a few of us so their tends to be lots of parties.
Mummy is one of six ... there are 20 cousins ... I think part of the reason we all get on so well is that we all grew up holidaying together in a small seaside town ...
There is no better way to bond with your family than packing up a picnic ... jumping into a selection of rickety sailing boats and heading up the river to eat sandy sandwiches. Throw in a capsize or two, boats getting stuck on the mud, mud fights ... a few tantrums and you soon have a recipe for lots of fun ... and a little bit of disaster ...
I will always remember the moment my sisters brand new mobile was pulled out of Daddy's soaking wet trouser pocket. She had given it to him for safe keeping ... he had been pushed over board by Hugh and Flic ... The phone rang once and died in Daddy's hand ... such a bad moment for my sister ... very funny for the rest of us.
So a big thank you to Hugh for another great evening (next time cook from my blog ... !) and here is the recipe for the pudding we ate.
It was given to me by my friend Tiff a few years ago and is now one of my favorites:
RASPBERRY MERINGUE ROULADE - Serves 8-10
Ingredients
5 Egg whites, 10oz Caster sugar, 300ml Double cream, 200g raspberries, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, Icing sugar for dusting
- Turn you oven to 160
- Get out a baking tray that is about 36cm x 24cm. Place a piece of baking paper on to this. I tend to use reusable baking paper as it peels easily of the meringue. If you are not using reusable paper then turn the normal baking paper upside down to stop it rolling
- Separate the eggs, place the whites in a mixing bowl. You do not use the yokes so if you want you can pop them in a freezer bag and place in the freezer for when you need them
- Whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks ... to check pull the whisk out of the egg and if a little peak forms and stay then you have a soft peak and can move onto the next stage.
- You now need to slowly add the caster sugar. I tend to do this in four batches. Roughly pour a quarter of the sugar into the egg whites, whisk until the sugar is mixed in, then repeat until all sugar is mixed in and the mixture looks nice and glossy
- Spoon the mixture on the the baking paper and spread out forming a rectangle, the mixture will slightly spread when cooking so leave about a cm round the edge
- Place in the oven for about 20 minutes, when done the top will be crisp and will have turned a light gold
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool
- While the meringue it cooling, place the cream in a mixing bowl and whisk it until it is thick. You are looking for the same thickness of clotted cream you spread on scones (a scoop full should stay on a teaspoon if turned upside down for a few seconds)
- Once the cream is thick add the raspberries and sugar to it and mix until the raspberries are mixed into the cream
- Layout a piece of tin foil that is bigger than the meringue, on top of this lay a piece of normal baking paper. You are now going to put the meringue onto of this paper. Lift the cold meringue, it should still on its baking paper, and carefully place it face down on the new piece of baking paper (so the crispy brown side is on the new piece of baking paper)
- Carefully remove the baking paper from the back of the meringue
- Now spread out your cream mixture on to the meringue, cover it completely adn equally, the cream should be about half a cm thick all over the meringue
- Sprinkle with the sugar ... if you are using very sweet raspberries you might not need the sugar
- Now is the tricky bit, have your serving dish next to the meringue as you are going to roll it and you will need to place it on the plate as soon as it is rolled.
- Using the tinfoil and baking paper to help you, slowly roll the meringue up into a roulade and place on serving dish
- Gently cover with tin foil and place in fridge till you are ready to use
- When you are to serve dust with icing sugar and bring to the table
Cooking notes
I use a hand held whisk for this recipe. You can do it by hand but be prepared for quite a bit of whisking.
I am aware that this sounds ... and looks really complicated but is not. The most fiddley bit is getting the meringue off the baking paper. I tend to use reusable baking paper as then there is no sticking so it is less nerve wracking.
Make the Roulade on the day you plan to serve it.
Adapting
If you don’t like raspberries you can use any fruit you like ... slightly tart fruit like passion fruit would work well so the pudding does not become to sweet.
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