Marvellous meringues

It’s funny how sometimes we take a simple egg white for granted; put about four together in a bowl, whip them up with some sugar and voilà you’ve got the perfect low fat topping to dress your pies with. Place them in a hot oven and the pie turns to golden splendour. Place the pie in your refrigerator to chill and a few hours later you’ve got a perfect dessert.

Good meringues should be thick and firm with just the right amount of sugar, not airy and slack.

Meringues have earned their place in the culinary world, without them there would be no soufflés, no lemon meringue pies, no meringue cakes. As common as they may be and as simple as their mode of preparation may be, one small minute of over or under-beating will inhibit a good rise from your soufflé and prevent your sponge from rising to their occasion.

Always start with room temperature eggs, these will increase in volume much more than refrigerated eggs would. Use squeaky-clean beaters and nonplastic (stainless steel or glass) bowls to prepare them in, plastic tends to trap grease, grease tends to prevent your egg whites from beating up. When separating egg whites from yolks never let the smallest amount of yolk slip into your whites, this will also prevent your whites from beating up.

Egg whites freeze well, just bring them to room temperature before using. According to your recipe your whites would need to be beaten to a certain consistency, soft peak stage would mean they look thick but droopy when made into peaks, stiff peaks would mean your meringue would hold its peak when dropped from a spoon.

If you’ve over beaten your egg whites then they would have an almost grainy consistency.

Passion fruit souffled crepes

Crepes

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 egg and one egg yolk

¼ cup each milk and water

1½ tbs melted margarine

1 tbs sugar

pinch grated nutmeg

Place flour, nutmeg and sugar in a mixing bowl, whisk in milk and water until smooth, add eggs and continue whisking until smooth, add melted margarine and combine. Cover and rest for one hour in the refrigerator.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and pour crepe batter by ¼ cup measures, tilt pan until batter is almost transparent, flip over when bubbles appear, cook for a few seconds more and remove, repeat for others.

Makes 6 crepes.

For the passion soufflé:

4 egg yolks

⅔ cup granulated sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

⅓ cup passion fruit puree

4 egg whites

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Beat the yolks with ⅓ cup sugar add milk and warm over low heat until thick, remove.

Beat whites with cream of tartar until frothy, add the rest of sugar and beat to soft peak stage.

Add some egg whites to the cooled custard then add the custard mixture to the egg whites, fold to incorporate.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place crepes onto a greased baking tray or a prepared ovenproof dish, spoon some soufflé onto one half of the crepe, fold over and place into oven, cook until lightly browned and puffed, about 5 minutes, remove dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Pavlova with mangoes

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp white vinegar

Filling

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup mango pulp

Preheat oven to 275F.

Run the sugar through a food processor to pulverise.

In a large bowl beat egg whites until peak stage, add cream of tartar.

Add the sugar gradually continue to beat until firm and glossy.

Beat in corn starch and vinegar.

Line a baking tray, with a piping bag fitted with a star tube, pipe 3-inch circles onto the baking sheet, you should get about 12 nests.

Use a knife to spread the meringue into the circle forming a meringue base.

Pipe a wall onto the discs to about 2 inches.

Bake for one hour. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven until completely cooled.

Before serving, beat cream until firm, fold in mango pulp, fill meringue nests and garnish.

Serves 12

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