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.