Mark Greenaway is the head chef at Grazing at The Caledonian Edinburgh where he is always keen to prepare great food for restaurant guests, particularly with the new Grazing menu, but also to share his knowledge and skills.
Here he explains the best way to use Scottish strawberries with gellan gum…
- Eton Mess 2.0
- This is a highly experimental take on Eton Mess which keen cooks can make at home. An innovative fusion of Scottish strawberry fluid gel, Italian meringue and crème fraiche Chantilly, Mark has reinvented the traditional dessert with cutting-edge techniques and surprising ingredients.
- Mark says it is essential to use Scottish strawberries for this recipe: “The amazing thing about Scottish strawberries is their flavour. Our slow growing conditions produce some of the world’s best strawberries, with a rounder, richer taste. After five years in Sydney, where I didn’t use any soft berries as their quality just couldn’t compare, I’m thrilled to showcase Scotland’s superior strawberries in my new Eton Mess.”
- Strawberry Fluid Gel
- 6g gellan gum type F
- 150g caster sugar
- 600ml fresh strawberry juice
- Method
- 1. Rub the gellan gum through the sugar
- 2. Mix the strawberry juice with sugar and gellan gum and place in a pot
- 3. Slowly bring the mixture to the boil
- 4. Pass through a fine chinois
- 5. Chill in a container for 30 minutes
- 6. Once set blend on a medium speed for 10 minutes until smooth
- 7. Pass again through a fine chinois
- 8. Pour the mixture into a squeezy bottle and chill until required
- Meringue
- Italian Meringue
- 120g egg whites
- 280g sugar
- Method
- 1. Put the sugar and water into a small saucepan over a medium heat with a thermometer resting in the liquid
- 2. Start to slowly whisk the egg whites either in a stand mixer or with a hand-held electric whisk until just starting to foam
- 3. Heat the sugar until it reaches 121°C then slowly pour into the egg whites whilst still whisking
- 4. Turn the whisk up to full speed and whisk until cooled to room temperature
- 5. Spread the meringue onto silpat mats until extremely thin
- 6. Dehydrate at 65 degrees celsius until completely dry and crisp
- Crème Fraiche Chantilly
- 200ml whipping cream
- 50g crème fraiche
- 20g caster sugar
- 100mls strawberry fluid gel
- Method
- 1. Whip cream and sugar until soft peaks form
- 2. Fold in the crème fraiche and fold through the strawberry fluid gel, making sure you leave nice ripples
- 3. Pour the mixture into silicon moulds and freeze for 4-5 hours
- 4. Remove the frozen cream from the moulds
- 5. Scoop out the underside of the cream to form a hollow centre – you will need this to be as deep as possible without breaking the dessert as you are going to fill the cavity later
- Chocolate Spray
- 300g white chocolate
- 100g cocoa butter
- Method
- 1. Melt the cocoa butter and white chocolate together and mix well.
- 2. Fill up chocolate sprayer (we use a Wagner paint sprayer).
- 3. Spray the Chantilly to form an even layer of speckled chocolate.
- 4. Return the Chantilly back to the freezer.
- To Serve
- 6 strawberries (cut into small dice)
- Assembly
- 1. Two hours before you are going to eat the Eton Mess 2.0, remove the dessert from the freezer.
- 2. In the cavity you previously made, fill it with the broken dehydrated meringue, fresh diced strawberries and fluid gel, you really want to make sure it is extremely full.
- 3. Turn the dessert back over (with the hole on the underside).
- 4. And allow to temper in the fridge for 2 hours – you want this to be served almost like a semifreddo, so not quite defrosted, but not frozen solid.
- 5. Serve with more fluid gel on one side and halved strawberry on the other.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
