Situated close to the Rathfinny Wine Estate is Namayasai Farm, a local farm who produce the most amazing fruit and vegetables and always deliver with a friendly smile. I feel lucky to be able to cook with the ingredients and serve to our guests. That being said, you can of course source your berries for this sweet treat wherever is most convenient for you!
INGREDIENTS
For the Poached Summer Berries topping:
200g Young Small Gooseberries
200g Raspberries
200g Strawberries
200g Blackcurrants
250g Sugar
250g Water
1 Vanilla Pod Case or 1 tsp of Vanilla Essence
For the Mascarpone Cream topping:
250g Double Cream
150g Mascarpone
1 Vanilla pod or 1 tsp of Vanilla Essence
150g Icing Sugar
A handful of toasted nuts of your choice
For the Meringue:
250g Egg Whites
500g Sugar
1 Vanilla pod or 1 tsp of Vanilla Essence
12.5g Vinegar
METHOD:
Start by preparing the poached summer berries topping.
A note from Chef – Try and cook your fruit gently to bring out the natural flavours and spice up the syrup to your liking; rose petals, lemon verbena and bay could all work nicely. You are trying to not to overcook the fruit but bring out its flavour.
- Heat the sugar and water up to the boil with the vanilla pod (without the seeds), otherwise use vanilla essence.
- Prepare the fruit separately. Start by top and tailing the gooseberries and cover with the boiling hot sugar syrup and leave them to cool. You will need the syrup liquid for the other fruit so make sure you don’t use it all! If the gooseberries are large, you may need to cook them gently over a heat for 5 minutes beforehand.
- Quarter the strawberries and blackcurrants and cook for approximately 3-4 minutes and cover with the syrup.
- Leave the raspberries whole and heat up for approx 5 minutes and cover with the syrup once its been taken off the heat.
Next prepare the mascarpone cream.
- Sift the sugar into the cream and whip with the vanilla to soft peaks.
- Whip the mascarpone into a separate bowl to break it down and then mix into the cream.
Finally prepare the meringues:
- Pre-heat the oven to 90c.
- Whisk the egg whites starting with 100g of the sugar then adding it slowly in five intervals until you have a glossy meringue.
- Add the vanilla and the vinegar with the last addition of sugar into the mixture.
- Using a piping bag, pipe the meringue mixture onto grease proof paper in circular shapes.
- Cook in the oven for one hour then turn off the oven and leave to cool completely.
Now all the elements are ready to serve:
- Top the meringue with the cream and then the fruit and sprinkle with toasted nuts.
