Accidental bake off spin off: meringues

This week I thought I'd go back to basics and make meringues. I wanted to make them like my Granny used to, slightly chewy in the middle, so I used my newly acquired 1976 St Michael* "All Colour" cookery book, supplemented with some tips from Perfect Felicity Cloake. 

I can't tell you how rare it is to find a 70s cookbook with photos in! 

*St Michael used to be the M&S food brand for those too young to remember. And was always written in italics.

Ingredients

4 eggs whites (large) - possibly left over from making ice cream, see later

200g golden caster sugar

1/2 lemon

Method

- Spread the sugar on a lined baking tray and cook in the oven at 200C until melting at the edges. This makes the resulting meringues slightly beige rather than pure white but is worth it for the flavour

- Wipe the inside of a very clean bowl with the half lemon to remove any grease so the egg whites whisk up properly

- Whisk the egg whites (with a gadget if you have one) until foamy, then add the hot sugar, keeping the whisking going until the mixture is glossy and holds it shape 

- Spoon or pipe the mixture onto a lined baking tray and bake in the oven at 100C for 3 to 4 hours. This might be the lowest setting for your oven, and if they start to brown, open the door to cool down. If your oven is like mine, 60C is the "lowest setting" and they never cook at that temperature so turn it up a bit! 

I had nothing to do for 4 hours so here's a photo of them in the oven...

 - Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.  At the Bearded Argentinian's request we had made chocolate and dulce de leche ice cream (using lots of egg yolks, hence the egg white glut) which went brilliantly with the meringues, either as a classic sandwich combo or as a crumbly topping.

Meringues can be tricky (she writes, never having made them), but these turned out perfectly crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy tight in the middle. Hopefully those people on GBBO who struggled with their meringue in this week's Signature Bake have picked up some tips ;)

Having conquered the basic meringue, I might graduate to lemon meringue pie or even basked Alaska - watch this space!

Beef olives: a 70s excuse to use a blender and a freezer

This could also be known as 'beef olive surprise', as there are no olives involved at all. It must have been a popular dish though, as it's in both The Penguin Freezer cookbook (1973) and The Mixer and Blender cookbook (1972). No freezers or blenders needed either - I'm going to have a word with trade descriptions from the 70s...

Ingredients:

Serves 3 (a bit random but my sister was staying...)

3 slices of braising steak

1 onion

2-3 slices white bread or equivalent in breadcrumbs 

1 lemon

1 egg

1 small handful sage leaves

1/2 pint beef stock

2 tsp cornflour (or gravy granules)

Method:

- Bash the steaks flat with a rolling pin or meat mallet until about 1/2 cm thick

- Fry the chopped onion in a little olive oil to soften 

- Blitz the bread in a mixer/blender (!) to make breadcrumbs then add the grated lemon zest and juice, half the softened onion, the egg and the sage. Season and mix together.

- Add a tablespoon of stuffing to each flattened steak and roll up, securing with a cocktail stick

- Brown the 'beef olives' - they look nothing like olives - in the pan the onion were cooked in, adding back to rest of the onions and the stock when browned.

- Cover and simmer for 1-1.5 hours. Chill out for a bit

- Take the beef olives out of the plan and thicken the sauce with a little cornflour in water or some gravy granules (ie cheat).

- Serve the beef olives and gravy with mash or dauphinoise potatoes if feeling posh (I was) and some green veg (again, kale being the posh option)

The verdict?

Sister: yummy; would have been even better with olives in it (cheeky)

Bearded Argentinian: yummy; not sure the meat was the right texture (it was very soft - which I liked but the meat expert wasn't convinced).

And if you're wondering where the freezer came into it, the freezer cookbook says you can use frozen beef, but defrost it first (genius)... There are a lot of tenuous links in that book.