Meringue cups with lemon curd filling and raspberry coulis

Submitted by NosmoKing

You will need lots of shit to do this, but it looks pretty and is quite yummy.

This recipe won second place in the inaugural Iron Chef SA competition, BATTLE EGGS

Meringue Cups

Meringue Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C powdered sugar
• pinch Cream of Tartar

Get your drink ready right up front as you'll be busy with this one. Today we'll be having a vodka and tonic. Also show are your meringue dry ingredients. sserts

Meringue Method

Separate the eggs. Keep the yolks as you'll need them for the second phase of this project.

Add the whites to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk. Turn the mixer on medium speed and wait for a light foam to start to build. Add your pinch of tartar. Now, SLOWLY add the granulated sugar to the bowl and whip until stiff peaks have formed.

WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION, NUMBNUTS?!?!? I SAID STIFF PEAKS!!

Ah, that's more like it. Now it's time to gently fold in the powdered sugar.

Fit a piping bag with a star tip and fill with the meringue. Today I'm using a Zip-Lock gallon sized bag as I didn't want to (nor could I find) my piping bag.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you have one of those fancy Silpat thingies, now's the time to use it. Pipe a small disk on the parchment and a ring on the to make a cup to hold the lemon curd.

Set the cups in a 220 degree preheated oven for at least 60 minutes. The cups should not brown while they are cooking. If they start to brown, drop the temp to 200 degrees. After the cooking time is over, the cups should be quite firm. Shut off the oven and let the cups cool in the oven (at least 1 hour). This helps the cups be very crisp (and you want crisp).

Lemon Curd

Now it's time to make the lemon curd. Well, it's time to talk about making the lemon curd, but actually the time to make the lemon curd is right after you put the meringue cups in the oven.

Lemon Curd Ingredients

You will need the following:

• 2/3 C granulated sugar
• 2 TBSP grated lemon zest
• 3 large eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 C lemon juice
• � C lime juice
• 4 TBSP (1/2 stick) unsalted butter cut into 1/2" cubes and kept chilled

Lemon Curd Method

Prep an ice bath and a double boiler. I like large mixing bowls so I use my pasta pot as a double boiler rather than one of my sauce pans.

Zest your lemons, preferably with a microplane.

Add you sugar and lemon zest to a food processor. Pulse until the sugar is yellow and very fragrant with lemon oils. Add the sugar and zest to the bowl that will be the top of the boiler and wash and dry the processor bowl and blade. Set the processor up next to the cook top.

Add the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar/zest mixture to the bowl that will be the top of the double boiler. Note the clip on the side of the bowl. That's to hold the lead wire from my remote electronic thermometer thingie.

The next steps are not photographed as they are one of those things where once you start, you can't stop until you are done or everything stands a fine chance of fucking up royally.

Whisk the stuff in the bowl for 30 seconds or so until the sugar is well mixed and mostly dissolved into the eggs. Set the bowl on the simmering bottom pot and continue whisking constantly. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula a few times during the cooking process to be sure nothing is cooking to the bottom of the bowl. Nothing will happen until the temp approaches 160 degrees F, then the curd will quickly thicken up. At 160 degrees, remove it from the bottom pot and keep stirring. Scrape the curd into the food processor and start adding the chilled butter hunks.

Drop the pieces in one at a time and pulse after each chunk. After adding all the butter, run the processor for 10 seconds or until the mixture is homogenous.

Now, scrape the curd out of the processor and screen it into a bowl to be sure it is smooth and to remove any large hunks of zest.

Set the bowl in the ice bath and let it cool. After cooling, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd (to prevent a skin from forming) and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours to set. This should be the time that your meringue cups are cooking and cooling.

After cooling, spoon some curd into a piping bag (note the fine zip lock makes yet another appearance) and fill the cups with the curd.

Coulis

Now, it's time to make the raspberry coulis.

• 1 1/2 C raspberries
• 1/2 C powdered sugar

Blend the ingredients in a blender and press through a sieve to separate out the seeds and pulp. Put the remaining goo in a squirt bottle and use to decorate the plate.

Ain't it pretty?