Contemporary Festive Fruit and Wine Jellies

Red Wine Jelly
Heat the water, spices and sugar in a heavy based sauce pan. Add the lemon zest and juice, add the wine and sherry and cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat. Measure the liquid – for every 100 ml of liquid you will need 1 leaf of gelatine. For 1,5 litres of liquid you will need 15 gelatine leaves. Add the bloomed gelatine leaves to the hot liquid and stir to dissolve. Strain through a fine sieve. Leave to cool slightly and pour into the moulds. Place the jellies in the freezer to set. The jellies will be easier to unmould when they are frozen.

La Motte Straw Wine Jelly
Place the wine, water and sugar in a heavy based saucepan. Bring to the boil and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatine leaves until dissolved. Leave to cool slightly and pour half of the mixture into the moulds (only filling the moulds half way to the top). Leave to set in the fridge. Once the jelly has set, divide the diced green fig preserve between the moulds and top up with the rest of the jelly mixture and place in the freezer to set.

Berry Jelly
Place all of the ingredients (except the gelatine leaves) into a heavy based saucepan. Bring to the boil and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the bloomed gelatine until dissolved. Strain though a fine sieve and pour into the moulds. Place in the freezer to set.

Homemade Egg Custard
Combine the egg yolks, vanilla bean seeds, castor sugar and cornflour in a mixing bowl.

Add the milk, cream and vanilla bean peels to a heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring continuously for about 5 minutes. Remove the pods from the milk mixture and pour the liquid onto the egg mixture in 3 additions, mixing well after each addition.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir over a very low heat until the mixture starts to thicken and covers the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat immediately and pour into a Sauce Jug.

Rose Meringues
Preheat the oven to 110 °C.

Grease 2 large baking trays and dust with cornflour.

Mix the egg whites, lemon juice and salt in a bowl, beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Add the castor sugar in spoonfuls, while beating constantly until the mixture is stiff and shiny. Sieve the icing sugar and cornflour over the mixture and fold in. Add a few drops of rose water.

Spoon or pipe the meringues onto the baking trays. Bake for 60 – 90 minutes depending on your oven. Check that the meringues do not start to colour – this will mean that the oven is too hot. Reduce the oven temperature to 100 °C, if necessary. Switch the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven.

To Serve
When ready to serve, unmould the jellies and serve with the rose meringues and your choice of seasonal fruits and berries (optional). Serve the egg custard on the side.