FLOWER POT KITCHEN: ROSE WATER AND PISTACHIOS MERIGUNE

8 Oct 2014

ROSE WATER AND PISTACHIOS MERIGUNE

I have never been good at meringue's firstly because I don't eat them so I do not have the greatest passion to cook them, but with all the paleo mayonnaise I am making I am gaining a good stock of egg whites building up in the freezer, so I thought I would give this a go, I cleared my afternoon so it would be just me and the meringue...

I married up two different recipes from ottolenghi the king makers of meringue's and an old fashioned recipe from someones nan who uses the Italian method which has you heating your sugar in the oven or in a pan and making a soft sugar syrup that you add to your whisked egg whites, I also learnt about the Swiss method where you heat the egg whites with the sugar until to hot to touch and then whisk it, there are a few other methods but the Italian method served me proud. So here we go...

This was a lot easier than I expected, the reason for this is that I actually read the recipe and followed the instructions, something I don't often do! mmm explains a lot !!!

Ingredients

300g caster sugar

4 lrg egg whites

pinch of salt

4 tsp rosewater

handful chopped pistachios

Pre heat your oven to 115 degrees C/(225F). Separate your egg whites from your egg yolks and reserve the yolks for making mayonnaise (recipe below), place your egg whites in a clean dry whisking bowl.

Place a pan on the stove and add the sugar on a medium heat gently start to warm the sugar slowly so that you can just see the edges melting, you don't want a syrup (you can) but I wanted hot sugar just melting at the edges take off the heat while you whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt on high speed until they double in volume and become stiff.

With the mixer on medium speed slowly add the hot sugar and once incorporated add one tsp of rosewater now turn up to a high speed and mix for approx seven minutes, a good indication of this is when the mixing bowl is warm to touch.

Line your baking sheet with parchment and using two of your largest spoons make large grapefruit size dollops, don't be a perfectionist, character adds charm and flavour, place on your baking sheet and sprinkle over some of your chopped pistachios.

Place in the pre heated oven for 1.30 mins/2hrs I like to turn the baking tray every half hour as I am a novice and still need to practise, also my oven does not give an even cook!

Once cooked you will have a perfect crispy dry outside with a gorgeous gooey marshmallow soft centre, now I would drizzle in the cracks some of the left over rose water to enhance that gorgeous burst of flavour, this is what makes these meringue's outstanding gorgeous and even I could not stop eating them, I suppose serving them with a generous dollop of clotted cream fresh blueberries and raspberries did not help!

These do not really need a shelf life as they will not last long enough in any home to go out of date.

Mayonaise Ingredients

3 egg yolks

1 pinch of sea salt

1 pinch of white pepper

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 cap full white wine vinegar

300ml ish cold pressed raspeseed oil

You can make your own mayonaise in 3 minutes, place the egg yolks, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar in a deep whisking bowl with a dash of rapeseed oil and whisk together, then keep whisking with a constant drizzle of oil until you have a thick mayo emmulsion, you can season this further with fresh grated garlic or some lemon juice and zest.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.