Squidgy Chocolate Meringues!

Whenever I roast a chicken my real man has it with all the trimmings (potatoes, homemade bread sauce, homemade stuffing, veggies, real gravy and cranberry sauce) but I just have some breast meat with butternut squash roasted with red onion and chilli plus a little gravy.  Today the leftover spicy sweet roasted butternut was excellent mixed into mayonnaise with some diced chicken and served with delicious homemade sourdough. 

Incidentally, see here for a lovely Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash Mayonnaise recipe.

Lunch pudding was one of my luscious ...

Chocolate Meringues

175g dark chocolate

2 large room temperature egg whites

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

50g caster sugar

~   Break up the chocolate and put into a small bowl and stand it in a small pan of boiling water to come about a third of the way up the bowl.  If your bowl is plastic it is a good idea to stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
~   Simmer the water until the chocolate is melted and then stir till smooth. 
~   Cool a little but it should still be runny.
~   Preheat your oven to 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment or a  non stick liner.
~   Whisk the egg whites together with the cream of tartar (abiding by the rules of meringue making here) to soft peaks.
~   Add the vanilla extract and then, still whisking, gradually add the sugar and whisk to stiff peaks.
~   Add the cooled chocolate and fold in gently, gently to till all merged together. 
~   Immediately drop teaspoonfully onto the parchment a couple of centimetres apart and bake till shiny and cracked – about 15-20 minutes.

This recipe is taken directly from the chapter on Inclusions, Complimentary Stuff & Ancillary Recipes in my book Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine.

In Other News ...

1.   The reason I had two glasses of wine (other than I wanted to) is that there has been a bit of a cock up in the distribution of my "real" book, The Leftovers Handbook, department; people are still waiting for delivery, and I am in a Bad Mood!  Not surprisingly I cheered up after lunch!

News from the future ... by book is now in its second edition  and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas, recipes, handy hints, cook’s treats, storage info, ideas of what goes with what that I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.