Meringue tumble with rhubarb

Jeremy Lee meringue
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This classic and brilliantly named meringue tumble from Jeremy Lee has a riot of brightly coloured toppings - it's a pudding sure to make people smile. You will have more compote, curd and custard than you need, but they keep well in the fridge for several days. Feel free to just make a selection of the toppings (in the video Jeremy Lee makes it without the gooseberry compote) or switch out the pistachios for other nuts that you'd prefer.

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First published in 2023

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Meringue

  • 10 medium egg whites
  • caster sugar, equal to double the amount of the weight of the egg whites (e.g. if you have 50g of egg whites, weigh out 100g of sugar)

Lemon curd

Gooseberry compote

Rhubarb compote

  • 800g of rhubarb
  • 3 blood oranges
  • a small thumb of ginger
  • 1/2 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
  • 3 soup spoons of caster sugar

Vanilla custard

  • 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 500ml of whole milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 40g of caster sugar
  • 140ml of double cream

To serve

  • 100ml of double cream, lightly whipped
  • Jersey cream
  • 20g of shelled pistachios, chopped
  • icing sugar

Method

1

To make the meringue, heat the oven to 180°C, line two oven trays with baking paper

2

Weigh the 10 egg whites and weigh out double the amount of sugar (e.g. if you have 50g of egg whites, weigh out 100g of sugar). Whisk the whites until stiff in a scrupulously clean bowl and beat in half the sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, then fold in the second half of the sugar

  • 10 medium egg whites
  • caster sugar, equal to double the amount of the weight of the egg whites (e.g. if you have 50g of egg whites, weigh out 100g of sugar)
3

Using a large tablespoon, spoon large dollops of the mix onto your prepared baking sheets, with plenty of room in between

4

Put into the oven, turn down to 120°C, and bake for 1 hour. The result is a delicately shelled meringue with a soft mallow interior. Don’t worry about any cracks – they will be concealed when the meringues are dressed

5

To make the lemon curd, put all the lemon curd ingredients in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Turn the heat up gently. Stir all the while as the butter melts and everything combines. Stir gently and frequently for 20-25 minutes, or until thick. Should the curd be on the thin side after this time, cook for a further 10 minutes or so. Set aside to cool

6

Preheat the oven to 180°C

7

Next, make the gooseberry compote. In the widest dish possible, or several if needs must, arrange the gooseberries in one layer. Spoon the sugar evenly over the fruit, cover the dish(es) tightly and bake for 35–40 minutes, checking from time to time they are not catching at the edges

8

Let the gooseberry compote cool, pass through a sieve and refrigerate. This keeps well for a fair few days

9

Next, make the rhubarb compote. Trim the rhubarb and slice into 6cm lengths, or thereabouts. Lay these side by side, but not touching, in a layer in a wide baking dish

10

Carefully grate the zest of the oranges, removing any excess pith. Peel and grate, or thinly slice, the ginger. Lay the zest and grated ginger on
and around the rhubarb, with the vanilla pod

  • 3 blood oranges
  • a small thumb of ginger
  • 1/2 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
11

Juice the oranges and mix the juice with the sugar and the seeds scraped from the vanilla pod. Pour this over the rhubarb

  • 3 soup spoons of caster sugar
12

Cover the dish tightly with foil and cook in the oven for 12–15 minutes, until tender. Once cooked, let cool undisturbed. Remove the vanilla pod before serving

13

Next, make the vanilla custard. Place the vanilla pod and seeds in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the milk (if using vanilla extract, add this to the milk instead). Place over a gentle heat while the milk infuses, stirring from time to time

  • 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 500ml of whole milk
14

In a bowl mix the egg yolks and sugar together. Just as the milk comes to the boil, pour half on to the egg mix, stirring all the while. Pour this back into the remaining milk in the saucepan, and return to a gentle heat, stirring until the custard thickens

15

Remove from the heat and pour in the cold cream. Pour the custard through a sieve into a waiting bowl and stir for a few minutes until the steam disperses. Cool and refrigerate until needed

  • 140ml of double cream
16

To assemble the pudding, carefully loosen the cooled meringues from the baking paper, and set aside. If serving individually, put a tablespoonful of custard, followed by a dollop of whipped cream on each plate. Put one of the cooled meringues in the middle, then top with further whipped cream, Jersey cream, liberal amounts of lemon curd, rhubarb and gooseberry compotes, a sprinkle of chopped pistachios and a dusting of icing sugar. Alternatively, you could create a glorious meringue tumble tower by stacking them on top of each other, interspersed with compotes, curd and cream

  • 100ml of double cream, lightly whipped
  • Jersey cream
  • 20g of shelled pistachios, chopped
  • icing sugar

With the voice of a thespian and the culinary skills of a French master chef, Jeremy Lee is by far one of the most well liked chefs in London.

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