I think because of the alcohol the sugar 'bled' out a bit and caramelized. So glad it did! Pour on your minty, zesty syrupy sauce and enjoy.

Mojito Meringue with a wisp of pinotage stained oak smoke

I have on occasion a sweet tooth that drives me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, coupled with the high temperature of 36ºC this past week (and no access to soda water), something had to be done!

So what do you do when it’s hot enough to melt your face, you feel like a mojito but have no soda water, AND have a bit of sweet tooth going on? Queue the A-Team theme song…

Mix the meringue but make sure you don't over do it or it'll lose volume
Mix the meringue but make sure you don’t over do it or it’ll lose volume.

Here’s a basic recipe for Meringue:

  1. 4 egg whites – beat them till they form soft peaks
  2. 1 cup of castor sugar – beat into egg whites 1 tablespoon at a time (too much and the sugar will separate, you don’t want that)
  3. 1 pinch of salt – this apparently is meant to stabelize the egg and sugar solution so that they don’t separate.
  4. **2 shots White Rum – mix in drop by drop. Meringue DOES NOT like moisture so put it in while beating and wait for it to get back to consistency.
  5. Preheat oven to 130ºC
  6. Cook at 90ºC for about an hour and ten minutes, so that outside is hard and inside is a little gooey .
Buy wax paper people don't be silly like me... sure it's pretty now...
Buy wax paper people don’t be silly like me… sure it’s pretty now…

Once the meringues are in the oven you can make the the muddled mint, sugar and lime mixture. You want to make more than you need with this because there seems to be a shortage world wide of this yuminess. Mix to taste.

Lemon juice, mint, and a table spoon of brown sugar. grind it ever so lightly and leave till you need it.
Lemon juice, mint, and a table spoon of brown sugar. grind it ever so lightly and leave till you need it.
Just a pretty picture.
Just a pretty picture.

 

This next part you don’t have to do but if you have Pinotage soaked French Oak staves and access to the MacGyver part of your brain you might enjoy it.

How cool is this?!
How cool is this?!

For those of you that don’t have access to a giant block of ice to help with your cold smoking like this, try this setup:

Make a whole in the bottom of a can, place solder iron in with wood chips. Presto - Smoker done!
Make a hole in the bottom of a can, place solder iron in with wood chips. Presto – Smoker done!

For those wondering how I got the yummy smoke from my ‘smoker’ to my mojito meringues, I drew you a picture just for you:

This is the Macgyver part, and worked pretty well :D
This is the Macgyver part, and worked pretty well 😀

And finally, here’s the end product.

I think because of the alcohol the sugar 'bled' out a bit and caramelized. So glad it did! Pour on your minty, zesty syrupy sauce and enjoy.
I think because of the alcohol the sugar ‘bled’ out a bit and caramelized. So glad it did! Pour on your minty, zesty syrupy sauce and enjoy.