Serves: 6 - Time:
The title of this pudding refers, not to a culinary mistake made during preparation, but to the Mess of Eton fame. This one may lack the visual impact of the strawberry version but it is no less delicious. Greengages are an oft-forgotten autumn fruit but I’m not sure I don’t prefer them to plums. They make a delicious jam, by the way. If you have any homemade meringues all the better but don’t feel you need to make them just for this. The joy of this pudding is that it can be made in minutes and, as you crumble the meringues into the cream and fruit purée, it doesn’t really matter if they are shop bought or homemade. If you need to make this in advance, leave out the crumbled meringue until just before you want to serve the pudding as they dissolve into nothing fairly quickly.
Ingredients
- 800g greengages
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 4 tablespoons caster sugar
- 400ml double cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
- 8 large meringue nests
Method
- Halve the greengages and remove the stones. Cut each half in half again. Put in the saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar. Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes until the fruit has softened. Pass the fruit through a sieve to remove any tough skins. Leave the purée to cool completely.
- Put the cream in a large bowl and add the vanilla and icing sugar. Whip to floppy peaks-don’t over-whip the cream as it’ll firm up further when the purée is added. Fold in the greengage purée and crumble in the meringues. Serve as soon as possible.
