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Gooseberries are my favourite fruits, closely followed by currants: red and white. I will always remember the redcurrant cake my grandmother made whenever they were in season. Spongecake with redcurrant-meringue. I adored it, I loved it, I would have given away my Barbie for it. My mother didn't share my appreciation for this cake though. The pungent acidic flavour of the redcurrants and the slighlty uber-sweet meringue didn't tickle her tastebuds enough to ever bake it.
Redcurrants are not only tasty, but also very pretty little berries and great for decorating dessert. Especially when frosted with caster sugar. Simply dip the washed fruits in a little egg white, then cover with sugar. Leave them to dry for an hour or so. They add some texture and crunchiness to mousses and cream desserts, or even cakes (try it with my favourite chocolate cake)
Mebos must be some kind of chicken nugget amongst snacks. We believe them to be healthy, but actually, they are worse for you then a Big Mac.
When I went to South Africa some time last year, I came across those compact fruit rolls in a wee road side shop. The first bite is a bit of a shock to the system… very sour and salty. But the more you nibble on it, the better they get.
They are very high in salt and sugar content, but hey, at least they are 100% fat free. And they keep for months!
It is a recipe for summer since you will need to dry them in the full sun for a few hours. So not much chance that I will make my own this year!
Apricot Mebos
: sweet, ripe apricots
: 250g or more sugar per 500g mebos
: 1kg salt to 8 litres water
Soak the apricots in salted water for 12 hours, then drain them and remove the skins. Leave the whole apricots out in the sun for 12 hours, then squeeze gently to force out their stones. Press the apricots into round flat shapes and spread them out on racks to dry for a few days. Keep on shaping and pressing them (dip your hands in a mixture of 25ml salt and 2 litres water) occasionally during drying. Pack the mebos neatly into small boxes and cover them with sugar. If you layer them, make sure to put a good layer of sugar between them. Store in a dark place.
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.
