Eton mess in a teacup

Another quicky of a recipe - As you can see even when I have no time I still like to eat nice things :) I made my own meringue as an experiment for the tearoom, and had a lot left over so I decided to make a quick Eton mess style dessert for my dad and I.

I love summer puddings, and nothing says summer to me like Eton mess - Strawberries, meringue and cream  YUM.I used this recipe for the meringue in case you were wondering -  Pavlova good food

Ingredients:

Meringue

A punnet of strawberries

Double Cream

Icing Sugar

A mint sprig

Crumble your meringue into your dish/teacup/plate. I like to make individual puddings but you can make a larger one by following the same steps but just changing the quantities.

Whip your double cream and add a tablespoon (or two...) of icing sugar to sweeten the cream. Try not to over whip your cream - it' not so nice when its too thick, ideally it should be soft and light still. Add a dollop to your meringue, there is no real measurements here just add more or less depending on your own particular tastes.

Chop your strawberries and sprinkle them on top of the cream. I like to add a mint sprig because I'm going to a bit of a food obsession with mint at the moment but that is again optional! And that is all..... Enjoy your summery dessert , we certainly did :)

Stewed Plums

Stewed plums are one of my favourite child hood puddings that I had when I went to my Grandma's house. They came from a Chef who used to work at The Midland Hotel In Manchester, and then found their way into my grandma's amazing recipe book which is full of yummy timeless recipes that she has collected over the years.

 The recipe is potentially the easiest recipe ever, Providing you are not horrified by the amount of sugar!

Ingredients:

roughly 6 plums

5 ounces of sugar at least.

1/2 Pint water.

Place your plums in a pan along with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil, and simmer until the plums are tender but not falling apart. Once this is done fish them plums out with a spoon into your desired serving bowl. With the juice left in the pan, turn up the heat and make a syrup with the sugary plum water. You want the juice to thicken and be sticky and sweet. Once this is done pour over the plums. You can serve them hot or cold,  but I personally like them cold with a scoop of clotted cream.

If you have left over juices, it makes a wonderful salad dressing or a sauce for the top of ice cream and other puddings.

As you can see the water takes on the plum colour which is the most wonderful rich pink! I love when food looks good, but to me it's more about the taste, but this sauce really has a wonderful aesthetic to it which makes it all even better!

This is the recipe from my Grandma's recipe book. It is such a special book and is now one of our family's prized possessions. The book has a hand written index and is meticulously labelled from large cakes to soups, main meals and cooked meats. The cover and pages are that used that it all has to be kept in a large bag so it doesn't deteriorate. I love how precious it is to my Grandma, and how she has always shown me how to do recipes from there since I was young.

I served the plums for dessert as part of my family meal night on Thursday, and it was enjoyed by all!