1001 Halal Recipes: Eton Mess

As-salam`alaikum warahmatullah,

'ow you doin'? Olrigh'? ... Good, alhamdulillah.

I bought a magnificent recipe book last year with over 1000 continental recipes. Baking, drinks (halal ones), appetisers, poultry, fish, desserts, budgeting and 9 course meals are all included.

Thus I have this never-accomplished goal to learn to cook, bake and piece together all 1001 recipes that are halal, from Thai cuisine to posh-English-nosh. Eton Mess is up there with the poshest of English nosh. Eton Mess is supposedly an Eton College tradition that's served every summer, hence named after the founder. Consisting of strawberries, whipped cream and meringue it's very quick to assemble and tastes freakin' beautiful. Alhamdulillah. Here's the 1-2-3 of this halalified goodness:

1. Whisk whipping cream (I don't use sugar to sweeten the cream) until fairly stiff; it should be neither liquid nor completely mousse-like. Add crushed ready baked meringues at this stage if you want. I bought a tub of strawberry meringues, which technically is cheating, but I am not going to bake something for 12 hrs that I can buy in 2 minutes, uh-uh.

2. Crumbly meringue works best. Keep a consistency between crumbs and small bite-size pieces. It's to'ally like an art form. Now to the fruit. Strawberries are traditionally used as seasonal fruit during summer but I also added raspberries.

Quarter the strawberries, leave the raspberries whole (after picking and stemming).
I didn't cut my finger, that was berry juice. *licks thumb*. Yum.

3. Assemble. Get the biggest or poshest dish you can find and layer the fruit and cream in whatever fashion you prefer. A blessing:

This above is called dolloping. Whatcha do is tumble in truckloads of fruit, generously dollop cream over the fruit without measuring and repeat until the container is overflowing. Top with left over meringue or more cream.

And this above is the original layering without meringue and mess. You can also soak the strawberries in elderberry flower or rose water to heighten and bring out the flavour. Proceed to layering and eating maturely outside under Allah's sun. Glorious.

I'll be back for more food love later insha'Allah.

Peace and respect and wholesome jihad,

Zaufishan, the eco muslim