Strawberry's Time and a Meringue tart

Maybe because today's raining  after months of amazing sun even on winter , I feel just like " homesick" today , so I randomly look between my archives of photos . Three years ago I rented a  tiny, lovely cabanon near Gordes : I needed to be ' far away from the madly croud ' for a while , that " while" lasted 1 year and an half , but it helped me to better know myself . As I was completely alone I spent most of my freetime in taking photos , I just bought "my" first camera , a small one but good quality . I didn't even know how to take snapshots !

Wild fennel

The thing I loved most in the Bastidon was the sink : a perfect circle cut in a piece of marble , very small, not easy to use but so beatiful !  

Strawberries & Wild Fennel Syrup

First strawberries are coming to the market : it's not really the season yet but I bought some anyway , I couldn't resist !

Later there'll be gorgeous wild fennel . I make a syrup with it and it is so delicious with strawberries ! Just put 150 gr of sugar and 150 ml of water ,bring to boil , add an handful of wild fennel and  let cook till it makes a rather thick syrup. You can keep it in the frigidaire and use on fruit or yaourts . 

Then you can make this  also :

Strawberry's Meringue  with whipped cream

Most of people think that meringue is very difficult to make , me too..till I found the good recipe .

This one is infalliable ! this recipe is different from that one for Pavlova here .

 



Meringue:

150 gr of egg's white
150 gr of caster sugar
120 gr of icing sugar
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground ginger
Weight the two different sugars into two separate bowls , put the egg'swhite in a bowl and begin to whip gently at first , then when they begin to increase add the salt , the ginger and the caster sugar little by little , continue  till the meringue gets steady and makes picks . Incorporate the icing sugar with a spatule , mixing very gently .Smear two circles of meringue ( one smaller ) on  a baking-pan lined with a baking sheet and put in the oven at 90° ( 194 F) for 3 hours . It takes long but you dont have to worry about it , aand you can keep it long time in a tin-box.

Strawberry coulis
I've always hated that frozen pieces of fruits in cakes , meringue has to be frozen before and so I thought that if I made a coulis instead of putting slices it would defrozen at the same time  than whipped cream . I was right .
200 gr of strawberries
Wild fennel syrup
Wash the fruits, cut them and mix with one/two spoons of syrup ( it depends on how much strawberries are sweet)

Whipped Cream : 250 ml of cream , vanilla extrat ,  1 tbsp of icing sugar
Put the bottle of cream in the freezer for 15 mn before whipping , and also the bowl : it has to be very very cold . Then whip adding sugar aand vanilla till it makes peaks .
Place the bigger cirrcle of meringue on a large dish , cover with whipped cream , pour some coulis , repeat with the smaller . I made a very small meringue to put on the top as you see in the photo.
Place in the  freezer for at least 3 hours ( but you can keep it more ) leave at room temperature 1/2 an hour before serving.

Mini pavlova al Mango selvatico del Camerun

English version below

Ingredienti
 150 gr di albumi a temperatura ambiente
280 gr di zucchero extrafine
½ cucchiaino di aceto di mele
½ cucchiaino di amido di mais
½ cucchiaino di zenzero in polvere
Un pizzico di sale

Esecuzione :

Mischiare lo zucchero , il sale e lo zenzero , montare gli albumi nella planetaria aggiungendo gradualmente lo zucchero fino a che la massa sarà piuttosto solida Accendete il forno temperaura 150° ventilato.Su una placca da forno rivestita di carta disegnate 6 cerchi di 9/10 cm di diametro , spalmate la meringa su ogni cerchio , formate dei ‘picchi’ sul perimetro esterno ( come da foto ) infornate e abbassate la temperatura a 120°, cuocete per 1,30 mn circa ( é pronta quando la sentirete " secca " al tatto .

Coulis di mango

200 gr di polpa di mango

50 gr di sciroppo di zenzero

Per lo sciroppo : mettete a bollire 200 ml d’acqua e 100 gr di zucchero , a ebollizione aggiungete qualche fettina di zenzero (circa 20 gr ) fate bollire fino a che comincierà a fare delle bolle uniformi . Lasciate raffreddare .Pesate 50 gr di sciroppo e passate nel mixer con il mango.Conservate in frigorifero. Potete usare il resto dello sciroppo per le insalate di frutta .

Chantilly 

1000 ml di pannafresca

1 bacca di vaniglia

20 gr di zucchero a velo

Per la buona riuscita di una Chantilly la temperatura é essenziale : raffeddare bene la ciotola e le fruste (in estate metto tutto in congelatore , anche la panna per 15 mn )

Versare nella ciotola gli ingredienti , montare fino a che la panna formerà dei picchi , serve una certa consistenza per la finizione del dolce .

Montaggio

Riempire la base della pavlova con la panna , fare uno strato di coulis di mango , terminare con la chantilly e ancora un po di coulis .Servire immediatamente .

English version