The title of this post makes me laugh. It is so long. It would not be out of place on a resturaunt menu. Because I was cooking one pot stew I had time to prepare dessert. The seventy centimeters of counter space was free again as the stew simmered in a le creuset casserole on the hob. There is something about owning le creuset that makes you feel like a grown up. I am a grown up, but I remember as a child my mother making casseroles in her le creuset. It it comforting to use the same cast iron cookware that has been trusted for generations. This dessert was inspired by needing a custard. I prefer to make my own custard but that leaves you with egg whites. So, I remembered that gorgeous french dessert ile flottante. France were playing England, so a French dessert seemed quite apt.
rhubarb:
place two tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan, grate in one tablespoon of ginger (i keep my ginger in the freezer and it grates easily when peeled from frozen)
chop up one packet of rhubarb, which if memory serves is about four stalks. after chopping, rinse it in a colander, throw immediately into sauepan. i find this is a great way to get just enough water to melt the sugar while the rhubarb starts to break down. place saucepan on heat and simmer very gently until soft. if the heat is low enough it will need stirring only occassionally.
creme anglaise:
500 ml milk, 4 egg yoks, 1 quarer of a vanilla pod, 140g sugar. (this made a very sweet custard, if i was making it again, i would probably reduce the quantity of sugar).
place the vanilla pod and the milk in a saucepan, place on heat, bring almost to boil. i do not like the taste of boiled milk, so I was careful to catch the milk before it boiled. leave to infuse over a very low heat for about ten minutes or fifteen minutes
meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar together. when the milk has infused, pour through a seive over the eggs, stirring vigourously as you do. return to saucepan and cook over a very low heat, stirrring constantly until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
meringue islands:
with the four egg whites, add 100 grams sugar, for a more toffee like consistency in the meringue mixture, i substituted 50 grams of demerara sugar instead of all white. beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, add in sugar and beat some more until shiny and smooth.
in a saucepan, bring some milk to a point where it is almost boiling. do not let it boil. poach spoonfuls of the eggwhite mixture in milk. after two minutes, turn over and poach the other side. store cooked egg white in a platter until you have poached all the mixture.
sticky sugar syrup:
bring two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of sugar to boil, keep boiling until it is a sticky consistency. do not burn.
to serve ile flottante with rhubarb: place two meringue pieces in a bowl, pour in creme anglaise, add rhubarb to the top of the meringue, pour over a little of the stick sugar mixture. serve immediately. delicious.
the classic french recipe may not use sugar in the meringue. however, i prepared the dessert with assistance only from a cookbook for the creme anglaise. the rest came from my head.
on the cooking program, rachel allen also had a recipe for a chocolate and caramel tart. mine didn’t work out quite like hers. it’s all too rich anyway.
so, I say, don’t bother with the pastry or the chocolate ganache truffle topping. just make the hazlenut buttery gooey stuff.
in my experience, rachel allen has a very sweet tooth and uses too much sugar, too much sugar can sometimes lead to crystalisation which is what i think may have happened with my nut caramel. it was dry and not very caramely. course, it was still delicious. i would recommend less sugar though. because, sugar can poision you. my grandmother used to tell us that sugar would give us worms. but, on a serious note, rachel allen, in my opinion is a sugar fiend and you should knock ten to twenty to twenty five percent of her sugar quantities off all her recipies!
hazelnut roast carmelly delicious goo
50g gutter
75ml cream
100g soft light brown sugar (i would use 50-75 grams)
150g roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
an easy way to “chop” roasted hazlenuts is to place hazlenuts in a bag. seal bag. place bag on a chopping board. hammer the living daylights out of the hazlenuts with a meat mallet or a rolling pin.
place everything except hazlenuts in a saucepan.
bring to boil, reduce heat and let simmer.
when it starts to get gooey, remove from heat.
stir in hazlenuts, pour into a plastic lunchbox.
even out.
let cool.
nut goo that may be more eaten with a clear conscience. it is not accompianied by chocolate ganache and pastry. 
subsitute hazel nuts with brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, pecan nuts.
