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Who says sharing boards only have to be cured meats and cheeses? Kate Humble’s version is a display of spiced, colourful fruits to finish off a meal.
And the best part is they don’t require much effort at all.
Autumn winter board
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
For the brown sugar meringues:
2 egg whites, at room temperature
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
150g light muscovado sugar, at room temperature
For the fruit board:
2 clementines, peeled and sliced horizontally
2 persimmons, sliced
A handful of blackberries
2 pears, quartered, cored and sliced
100g Physalis, in their husks
2 balls of stem ginger, plus 1 tbsp syrup
150ml Greek yogurt
Zest of 1 unwaxed orange or 2 clementines
75g pomegranate seeds
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 120C, gas mark ½, and line two baking trays with baking paper. In a large, very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a handheld electric whisk (or you can use a stand mixer) until frothy. Add the lemon juice and continue to whisk until doubled in size.
2. With the whisk still running, slowly add the sugar one spoonful at a time, whisking constantly until all the sugar has been added and you have reached a glossy stiff peak. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with a one centimetre nozzle.
3. Secure the baking paper to the trays using a dot of meringue mix in each corner, then pipe meringue mix onto the trays at intervals, leaving a small gap between each. You are aiming for meringues that are about two centimetres wide at the base. To achieve a point at the top, pipe vertically down onto the tray, release the pressure and pull the piping bag upwards as you do so.
4. Bake for one hour in the oven. Then turn the oven off, leave the door ajar.
5. Once ready to serve, arrange all the fruit in a lovely pattern on a board, except for the pomegranate seeds, which you’ll use later.
6. Finely chop or grate the stem ginger balls and mix into the yogurt along with enough syrup to sweeten it to your liking. Dot the ginger yogurt over the fruit, or serve it in a small bowl for dipping.
7. Crumble the meringues over the top, then finish with a sprinkling of the orange zest and the pomegranate seeds.
‘Home Made: Recipes From The Countryside’ by Kate Humble (Gaia, £26).
