waste not, want not

[cellio]

A friend is recovering from surgery, so the gang organized a meal rotation. Our first day is tomorrow, to cover meals for a couple days. Our friend is a foodie, so we made something nice, which took a lot longer than we thought from reading the recipe. (James Beard's salmon tart. It started yesterday, because the dough wants to be refrigerated overnight, but most of the work was today, including rolling out a very stiff crust.)

We doubled the recipe, to make one for ourselves as well, which we had (part of) for dinner. The salmon is poached in wine, which left us about half a bottle. By definition, the wine you cooked dinner in goes with dinner, so that worked out. (Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.)

The recipe also called for egg yolks, which left me with a bunch of whites. I know exactly one thing to do with a bowl full of egg whites.

And that is how I came to be making meringue cookies after 9PM. If they're any good, our friend might get some dessert. Goofy-looking dessert, because I don't do this a lot and shaping meringues using a zipper bag with a corner cut off is...imprecise. But it's the taste that counts.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

this sounds glorious!

[hlinspjalda]

Sparky loves to make meringues, and they are invariably misshapen and non-matching. None of us care!

[shewhomust]

Lucky friend! Well, not the post-surgery bit, but the having friends who are not so intimidated by your being a foodie that they refuse to cook for you.

[sine_nomine]

This

[hudebnik]

Is there such a thing as meringue cookies that aren't goofy-looking, misshapen, and non-matching?

BTW, as of a few months ago, we now know of two things to do with a bowl full of egg whites: the other is glazed sweetened and spiced pecans, which make a lovely relatively-healthy snack-by-the-handful.

[hlinspjalda]

Oh yes, I have a recipe for that too and they're sooo delicious.

Overnight I remembered another thing to do with stray egg-whites plus nuts: our quick and easy Moses Snakes recipe.

And there's the Grande Dame of extra eggwhites: angel food cake.

[cellio]

Is there such a thing as meringue cookies that aren't goofy-looking, misshapen, and non-matching?

Mass-produced (or at least machine-produced) ones are uniform and soulless. I'll take handmade and misshapen any day!

Thank you for the tip about glazed spiced pecans! That never would have occurred to me, but I love spiced nuts.

[cellio]

And lots of people have signed up. He's cooked for the rest of us plenty; least we can do is return the favor. Plus, this is what friends do.

[hudebnik]

Do I dare ask what Moses Snakes are?

[hlinspjalda]

They're our favorite homemade nut and sugar sweet. I 'splain it all here.

Over the years we've come to treasure the walnut version, very coarsely ground and well roasted. This year we had them with peach jam and they were really excellent. But almond and hazelnut are also very tasty.

This year, due to a spicing mix-up, we made some almond ones with ground cumin instead of cinnamon. I glazed those with honey flavored with red chile sauce, and they were pretty entertaining. Next year I think I'll make them again but also add back the cinnamon.

[cellio]

That accidental variation does sound pretty interesting!

[magid]

There's also the 'cake' version of meringues, aka pavlova, which can be topped with whipped cream and fruit, if you wish. It takes longer in the oven, but less fiddling with individual cookies...

Also, yay for meal trains, and that is particularly fancy food food for delivery; I'm impressed.