Off the Fork: Time for dessert? Make a mess
Menantic Mess is based on a dessert invented
in England that was meant to be served
at a cricket match.
When my husband and I arrived in England for a vacation less than a week after the Brexit vote, there were signs of disarray; a protest in Piccadilly Circus, screaming headlines in the papers, and vociferous politicians on television.
We had lunch at a brasserie in a neighborhood of art dealers and financiers, and at every table the discussion seemed fraught, the word Brexit often audible.
On the dessert menu was a dish called Eton Mess. What sort of mess?
Our waiter explained that it was a traditional English dessert, originally served at Eton on the occasion of a cricket match, but now eaten everywhere. The dish relies on seasonal berries, often strawberries, whipped cream, and meringue for its light fruity taste and crunchy texture.
It’s a great dessert to serve to uninvited guests he added; you can run into the kitchen, crumble up some cookies, whip the cream and throw in the berries, and produce a presentable and delicious treat in a few minutes.
That sounds like my kind of entertaining, so I decided to teach myself to make a Shelter Island version of Eton Mess. Our strawberries are finished, so I made it with raspberries. I’ll call it Menantic Mess.
If you are making your own meringue, do it the day before you want to serve the dessert to give the meringue time to dry out completely. It should be so crisp that when you crumble it, you get dust as well as large crumbs. The meringue dust and the crumbs, when mixed with the whipped cream give this dish its wonderful texture as well as its name, because it looks like you swept the kitchen floor and threw the sweepings in a bowl.
Menantic Mess
6 servings
4 cups crumbled meringue either purchased, or made the day before using 3 egg whites and a cup of sugar.
4 cups raspberries
3 tablespoons super fine sugar
1 pint heavy cream
4 sprigs of fresh mint cut into very thin strips
1. If you are making your own meringue, start with a spotlessly clean bowl. Even a little grease will compromise the puffiness of your meringue. Put three room temperature egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix at high speed until they are foamy.
Add one cup of sugar gradually as the whites continue to gain volume and structure. When the whites are glossy and stiff, spoon blobs of the meringue on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Each blob should be no bigger than an apple. Bake at 275 degrees for one hour, turn off the heat, and leave the meringues in the oven with the door closed until they are completely cooled. Keep them in an airtight container at room temperature until you are ready to use them.
2. Set aside the six nicest-looking raspberries to put on top of each serving, and coarsely chop half of the berries. Put the rest of the raspberries in a sieve and press out the juice with the back of a spoon into a bowl, resulting in a pulpy purée. Discard the seeds, taste the strained berries, and add up to 1 tablespoon of sugar to sweeten them.
3. Whip the cream with a hand-held mixer until it gains volume; add 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue whipping until soft peaks form. Do not overbeat.
4. Spoon 2 cups of the whipped cream into a bowl, and stir in 3 tablespoons of the raspberry purée.
5. Just before serving, gently fold in the crumbled meringue to the remaining whipped cream. There should be crunchy lumps of meringue throughout the cream.
6. Assemble the Mess. In each of six dessert dishes, place a scoop of the meringue-laced whipped cream, drizzle it with a tablespoon of the berry purée, then a spoon of the berry/cream mixture, then two tablespoons of the chopped berries, another spoon of the cream/meringue mixture and finally a whole raspberry and a sprinkle of the sliced mint leaves. Serve immediately.
