So one day last week we had a nice morning but by lunchtime he was getting a little cheeky and I was getting a little short tempered. So he spent the afternoon chilling out watching TV and I spent it in the kitchen trying a couple of recipes I had on my to-cook list.
My last blog post dealt with the bran scones from that day, but I wanted something a bit special and light and zingy to counteract the dark, grey, wet, miserable summer days we were being dealt. My younger brother (BAFTA award winning, no less!) is filming a new TV show with chef Peter Sidwell at the moment and so I had a nose around the interweb for some of Peter's recipes. Peter is the chef at Rheged in Penrith. If you've never been to Rheged, do make time to pay it a visit if you're in the area, it's a great place... http://www.rheged.com/
There's a nice little bio of Peter on the website, along with one of his recipes which hit the nail on the head as far as I was concerned - Lemon Meringue Posset. A quintessentially British dessert with a twist, lemon curd on the bottom and crunched up meringue on top, lovely! It got me thinking that I would like to do a regular feature where I take a recipe from a respected chef and make it at home. A lot of people are scared to try, I'm a bit more haphazard and up for having a go! So, hopefully, this might encourage someone to have a pop at something that seems tricky at first.
This is the recipe ----> http://www.rheged.com/files/Lemon%20Meringue%20Posset.pdf
And this is the end result:
If you do have a go, the measurements for the cream and the creme fraiche are a bit confusing as one says 300ml = 1/2 pint and one says 300ml = 1/4 pint. Use 300ml of both and ignore the pint measurements. For the curd, you need 6 egg yolks. I used the egg whites to make my own meringues to go on top, they really are easy to make. When you are separating egg whites/yolks break each egg into a little bowl just in case one of the yolks splits and you end up contaminating all of your lovely clean egg whites. Then add them one by one to a larger bowl.
I have always used Delia's measurements/timings for meringues and they have always been great. For each egg white you will need 2oz of caster sugar. I like using golden caster sugar as I think it has a more natural taste, and it gives the meringues a lovely golden colour. In a clean, grease free bowl whisk the egg whites on a medium speed until they start to firm up, then increase the speed and beat them until you get firm peaks. At this point, add the sugar a bit at a time and whisk on a fast speed until you get firm peaks again that will be lovely and glossy. Either split the mix into small blobs on a lined baking tray, or make one large meringue. I made half the recipe for the posset dessert so only made 3 egg white meringue and there was LOADS. Pop it in a preheated oven at gas mark 2 or equivalent, then turn it down to gas mark 1 as soon as they are in the oven. When the meringues are baked, turn off the oven and leave them in until the oven is completely cooled, this will dry the meringues out and give them a nice crisp shell.
Before:
After, with a lovely golden colour:
Easy peasy, honest!!
The recipe also calls for home made lemon curd which seems daunting but really is fairly simple to make. Just follow the recipe and, most importantly, once you add the eggs to the bowl keep the mixture moving with a hand whisk so the eggs don't scramble. I ended up making a double batch of the lemon curd the following day as it's so delicious, I'll never buy shop bought again! It was absolutely gorgeous on the warm home made bran scones that I made the same day.
The dessert really was one of the nicest I've ever tasted. The very fussy 'wife' even gave it a 10/10! Time consuming to make, but well worth the effort to make everything from scratch. It just wouldn't have been as nice with shop bought lemon curd and meringues. Go on, give it a go, bring a little bit of lemony summer sunshine into your day!
