Fresh Stone Fruit with Meringue and Lemon Curd
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Desserts; easy; Fruit; Main Ingredient; Meals and Courses; Seasonal; Spring; Summer
Description
A light, fresh dessert perfect for a spring day.
Ingredients
Meringue
1 large egg white
a pinch of cream of tartar
100 g castor sugar
Lemon Curd
juice and zest of 4 medium lemons
100 g butter
250 g castor sugar
3 extra large eggs
Mascarpone
1 ml vanilla essence
100 g mascarpone
zest of 1 lemon
2 white-fleshed nectarines cut into 8ths
2 Tbsp (30 ml) pomegranate arils
a small handful of micro greens for garnish
Instructions
Meringue
Preheat the oven to 120 °C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Whisk the egg white and cream of tartar to stiff peaks and slowly add the sugar a little at a time. Whisk continuously until all of the sugar is incorporated. The meringue should be thick and glossy.
Using a round nozzle, pipe small meringues onto the lined baking sheet. Bake the meringues for 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Lemon Curd
Heat the lemon juice and zest, butter and sugar in a small heavy-based saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Temper a bit of the sugar mixture into the whisked eggs, then add that to the remaining sugar mixture and lower the heat. Continue whisking until the curd has thickened. Do not boil.
Strain through a fine sieve -set aside to cool and refrigerate.
Mascarpone
Mix together the mascarpone, vanilla and lemon zest and place into a piping bag.
To Serve
Place the meringues on to 4 plates, pipe dollops of mascarpone around the meringues. Scatter over slithers of nectarine, dot with a few small drops of lemon curd. And some pomegranate arils, and for artistic effect, squeeze some of them over the plates to get the paint splash effect. Garnish with micro greens and serve.
