Swiss Meringue

  Sometimes a good recipe can end quite different from what you would expect. With one of our friends (C), we decided to prepare some chocolate éclair. However, we never managed to make the pate a chou properly. They were not good and stayed as flat as when we put them in the oven.

Instead of losing all the eggs white I decided to try the meringue. The ingredients are sugar and eggs white, easy enough. We don’t (yet!) have an electric whisk so all by hand. I found a variant of the universal meringue. The Swiss one. You have to beat the eggs in a bain-marie.

Ingredients:

• ·         4 egg whites
• ·         250 g of white sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 130°C or 250°F (th 4).

Create your bain-marie by heating a pan full of water (50°C) and put a mixing bowl over it. Start by whipping the egg-whites to a light mousse. Then incorporate the sugar little by little (1 or 2 table spoon each time) wait 5 seconds and reincorporate sugar. Remove from the warm water and beat for 5 more minutes. 

Don’t over beat it.

Stop when the mousse is strong and shiny.

Dress a baking sheet for the oven.

Create small piles of meringues by using a pastry bag or two large spoons.

Put in the oven for 1h. It as to be crispy on the outside with a little yellow colour and soft and sticky inside.

You can eat after 30 minutes or keep in a box for maximum two weeks.

M&R

Shiitake Omelette

So, when we came back from Christmas we had little left in our fridge. Thankfully we received our fruits and vegetables the same day but still needed to come up with something nourishing and tasty.

Every Grain of Rice gave us a recipe we slightly transformed… ahem, instead of oysters we put shiitake mushrooms. It’s a very simple recipe but full of flavours and slightly less bland and usual than your average omelette:

Serves 2

Ingredients

8 shiitake mushrooms

3 eggs

1.5 tbsp of corn or potato flour mixed with 1 tsp of cold water

Ground white pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
4 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens (we added whites in as well)

Beat the eggs, then beat in the flour mixture with salt and white pepper to taste.

Put the mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of oil and cook until tender.
Pour in the eggs and swirl the mixture around the base of the wok.

 

Scrambled egg version:

Add the spring onions whites and mix the eggs as they cook. When cooked to taste transfer into a dish and serve.

 

Omelette version:

If you want to do a real omelette, let the eggs settle when you pour them into the pan. When the omelette is golden underneath, scatter over the spring onion greens, then flip to cook the other side. When this side, too is golden, transfer to adish and serve.

 

Sprinkle with onion greens and enjoy!