Mango and Fig Meringue Nests Recipe

This is a VERY easy dessert. Just a little chopping and stirring, but the results are pleasing and the flavours elevate it to a whole other level.

There is usually a packet of little meringue nests in my pantry. It’s amazing how many yummy desserts you can whip up with them in a culinary emergency, like yesterday…

I had a wretched Valentine’s Day on my last day of this round of horror Lyme drugs and spent most of the day in bed, but with the help of a friend I still managed to make dessert for what ended up being a ‘romantic’ backyard candle-lit dinner: just me, Ben, our neighbour Sheryl who’d come to help Ben with some farm work, our three dogs, and all the cows who came and stuck their heads over the fence.

Apparently if you light candles and put a flower behind your ear it’s classed as ‘romantic’. If only I’d known that years ago…

And the moo-ing cows really added to the elegant atmosphere. As you can see from the picture below we all got very dressed up!

Anyway, dessert! We were gifted a few juicy mangoes from a neighbour, and I had two fresh figs and a couple of passionfruit from our own farm. Add  a little white chocolate, and a honey and cardamom infused cream and suddenly we have dessert magic.

Ingredients:

4 pre-prepared meringue nests, 1 large ripe mango (or 2 small), 2 passionfruit, 1 large or 2 small ripe figs, 1/4 cup chopped white chocolate, 150ml thickened cream, 1 teaspoon sweet sherry or vermouth, 1 scant teaspoon cardamon powder, 1 dessertspoon of honey

Method:

Chop the mango flesh and fresh figs and place in a bowl. Stir through the passionfruit pulp and then add the white chocolate chunks.

Pu the cream, cardamom, sherry and honey in a small bowl and whisk together. (You could beat it until whipped and thick, but really, that’s a whole lot of unnecessary effort.)

To serve, place the meringue nests on a plate and spoon in the fruit topping. Drizzle some of the honey cream over the top. Garnish with a sprig of mint if you so desire.

In honour of Valentine’s Day we also made some naff little hearts from chocolate and strawberry fondant icing pens to adorn our plates too – that’s how fancy we are! 🙂  I swear this entire dessert took less than five minutes to make and assemble.

As we sat in the backyard eating dinner (food!!!) Bert was his usual devoted self. What a wonderful dog.

And Harry was fixated on my every mouthful me just because he loves me! Luckily they both had a Valentine’s Bone to munch on too.I’m so glad I made the effort to get out of bed for a few hours. Happiness is sharing time and food with the people (and dogs, and cows…) that you love.

Lots of love to you too, Nicole xx