The British have a real talent for desserts. (Have you noticed this?) I may be more prone to their charms because of my UK heritage, or because I'm not a chocoholic. Most traditional Anglo desserts aren't based on chocolate. Or because I think everything goes better with gravy - the dessert variation is a baked or steamed dessert with a sauce on top. As a med student many years ago I wangled my way into a plastic surgery rotation at Oxford, and whenever the hospital canteen served rhubarb crumble with custard sauce I was the happiest camper in town. Yes, the custard was lumpy and made from
Bird's dessert powder, but even so.
Though I adore it, trifle may not be to everyone's taste... but if you haven't tasted
sticky toffee pudding, put it on your bucket list. Yes, it is that good. Steamed desserts like Spotted Dick (it has currants in it, and in Britain it
comes in a can. No, really) and sticky toffee pudding are good but best reserved for cold weather. Not to worry, the Brits excel at summer desserts too. They pioneered the class of desserts known as "
fools," usually a mixture of fruit and cream, chilled. The fruit can be cooked as in gooseberry fools, or raw, crushed and macerated with sugar, such as raspberry fools. You whip the cream, chill the fruit, and mix the two together.
A variant of this idea is
Eton Mess. The name comes, I think, from the fact that the schoolboys at Eton would mash everything on the dessert plate together with their spoons and then eat it. It sounds unappetizing but it is really delicious. It is now past high strawberry season and I should have posted this earlier, but here we go. The recipe is made easier by the existence of Trader Joes, which sells vanilla meringues in large plastic buckets. If you don't have a TJ's near you, you may be forced to make your own, or look around at any local specialty stores.
Ingredients are simple: strawberries, meringues, whipping cream. You will use equal parts of each. Crush the meringues, but not too finely. Mix with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Let chill for a little while, maybe half an hour, and eat. You want the meringue to still be a little crunchy. Yum.
Labels: Ingestion
posted by Dr. Alice at #
Oh yes, Eton Mess brings the memories flooding back. Also with a UK heritage, we grew up with flummery, jelly or junket in summer and those sauce puddings in winter. My brother and I used to whip the trifle out of discrete parts into a hand-pureed mess. Delicious.
meAND SHES BACK! asking for your return may have been a downfall if you were planning a non-generic release of a house-like show or a medicallish greg-iles-like novel series. no really, read greg iles if you havent yet. Dead sleep may be most fitting to your initial taste!
-pashka
