Raspberry Marshmallows

Ever since I read in a newspaper about James Martin having a can of diet coke and a chocolate bar for brekkie, I have fallen big time for this guy. My ideal and regularly consumed breakfast is diet coke with a slice of - as I call it - “black forest toast”: lightly toasted bread with a generous helping of Nutella and a dollop of cherry jam on top. I could however easily swap my black forest toast for a Mars bar if James Martin wanted me to ;-)
What I like about him is his down-to-earth approach to food. 90% of chefs would never admit that they eat or god forbid like any other chocolate than Valrhona chocolate. We all know that high quality dark chocolate is a good thing, but let’s be honest: a Mars bar, Bounty or Milky Way now and then can have its charm too. A sticky, gooey, high calorific charm… Yummy.
I had my last Mars bar 3 years ago. I love the stuff, but hardly ever eat any other choc bar other than a Milky Way Crispy Roll or Duplo when I am back in Austria: Not quite as satisfying, but less calorific.
Nevertheless, I love James Martin’s unpretentiousness. Which is reflected in most of his food as well. Simple, easy to recreate and very, very delicious. Like his raspberry marshmallows.
Damn, they are good! And as long as you have a sugar thermometer at home and manage to get hold of some liquid glucose, they are fairly simple to make as well. But don’t try to improvise and do stick to what the good man has to say: the sugar syrup’s temperature has to reach 127 degrees Celsius and you do have to beat the egg white/sugar mixture for about 10 mins. When you do that, success is guaranteed. I promise! And once you have tasted a homemade marshmallow, you will never go out and buy another pack of food colouring and E-numbers again.