Ongoing culinary one-upmanship

[kaberett]

A messaged me in great excitement, the other weekend, to tell me that he'd had afternoon tea somewhere that had given him basil-flavoured meringue that didn't have green bits in, and he wasn't sure how they'd done it, but it was Tasty and A Friend.

They'll have infused either the sugar or the egg white with basil, I said, and it was probably the egg white.

I am pleased to report that infusing the egg whites with basil -- separating your whites from your yolks, then leaving them in the fridge overnight with some lightly crushed basil leaves dropped in with them -- does in fact give you basil-flavoured meringue. But, er, you really don't need much basil -- two leaves would probably have been plenty sufficient for my five egg whites, and as it is they're a little assertive -- but hey, basil-meringue strawberry Eton mess. \o/

(You can of course also just chop some basil up very finely and add it to your meringue mix right before shaping the meringues and putting them in to bake, but that wasn't the spec so it isn't what I did. ;) )

Comments

[redbird]

Now I need people who are willing to try this if I make some; I think Cattitude might if he got them while they were fresh, but Adrian won't.

Also, I have a very nice jar of "spiced pluot" jam, where the "spice" is mostly basil. (Pluots, for those who don't know, are an apricot-plum hybrid.)

[pipisafoat]

I have known of pluots for a few years but today is the first time I have connected that the name is from plum apricot.





wow.