| 332 | 333 | 334 | 335 | 336 |
| 1 | 103 | 205 | 308 | 410 |
|
6. Watch the meringue closely. In about 5 minutes it should start getting lightly brown.
Leave it in for a few minutes longer, if necessary. When brown all over, the meringue is done. Take
it out of the oven, put the board and baked Alaska on an attractive serving platter and serve. Slice it
with a large thin-bladed knife or serrated bread knife.
Serves 8.
You can refreeze any extra piece covered well with a plastic wrap.
Fruits
Rich desserts are slowly giving way, in weekday meals at least, to sweets that are far leaner,
lower in fats and eggs, and contain less sugar. Our focus on healthier foods virtually demands that.
The most natural substitute we can think of is a fruit-based sweet.
Not that fruits are new as dessert item. The French have long had the tradition of ending a
simple weekday meal with nothing more than good fresh fruit and a full-flavored ripe cheese,
perhaps with some fresh-toasted nuts, all put on the table at room temperature for the most
pronounced flavor. Fruits and cheeses complement each other's flavors like a buttery shortcake and
strawberries do—the fruit softens and cuts the rich taste of cheese. But fruits and cheeses are not
accustomed combination for the American palate.
For a simple last course you can serve fruits raw, for a fancier course you can bake, stew or
poach many fruits. You can serve fruits with dessert sauces, syrups, ice creams, sherbets, or just
simply with complementing liqueurs. Or you can use a dipping sauce to coat them, such as
chocolate-dipped strawberries. The warm, liquid dipping sauce solidifies as it cools. Fruits with
least embellishment now appear on restaurant menus and dining room tables. The more diet-
conscious your guests are, the more popular you will be with a simple sliced fruit platter to end your
meal. But your guests with a sweet tooth will remain unfulfilled. Adding a little cheese and fresh-
roasted nuts gives weight to this final course.
Fruit basics
Even before they knew about such things as fire, cooking and kitchens, our early ancestors a
million years ago picked ripe fruits when they found them. Eventually, around 10,000 years ago,
they learned how to cultivate them, and made fruits not only more readily available, but in
abundance. The love of fruit may even be a basic instinct in humans. Ripe fruits with their high
sugar content provide quick energy and plenty of vitamins and minerals to keep the body healthy.
Fruits are easy to digest and are often the first solid foods babies eat. Very few human
beings dislike fruit in some form or another. No religion prohibits fruit of any kind, and neither do
nonsectarian organizations, except for political reasons, for example as with table grapes in
California to protest the working conditions of the field workers. Fruits have a truly universal
appeal.
Will it ripen or not?
Fruits fall into two categories, based on where they grow: fruits of temperate climate or
tropics. However, there is another way to classify them that is far more important to us in the
kitchen—a classification that many of us know by instinct. We know, for instance that inedible,
play © erdosh 334
Page
Quick Jump
|