Google photo
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Slim Photo…………….Taken in my garden this morning 
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So did you hear about The New Guy in Town today??
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The Strawberry Crab
Tue Jan 5, 6:31 am ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan – A marine biologist says he has discovered a new crab species off the coast of southern Taiwan that looks like a strawberry with small white bumps on its red shell.
National Taiwan Ocean University professor Ho Ping-ho says the crab resembles the species living in the areas around Hawaii, Polynesia and Mauritius. But it has a distinctive clam-shaped shell about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) wide, making it distinct.
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These cute little crabs look much more like the wild strawberries growing in my garden than like grocery store strawberries. And not that everything eventually relates back to food for me but damn if this photo doesn’t remind me of one of my very favourite desserts- Eaton Mess (Recipe on video below)
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Eaton Mess
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Eaton Mess with currants on top. Although this is committing the sacrilege of not being served in clear glass its a great photo of what the consistency of your mess should be like.
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Mess is also divine with raspberries …………………….. Photos from Google
Eaton Mess a La Nigella Lawson click here
Who am I to quibble with Nigella, but if you have the time and the talent, a chewy homemade meringue is infinitely nicer in this recipe than store bought cookies. In truth, I think the best Eaton Mess is made with Pavlova:
Pavlova is made by beating egg whites (and sometimes salt) to a very stiff consistency before folding in caster sugar, white vinegar, cornstarch, and sometimes vanilla, and slow-baking the mixture to create the meringue.[11] This makes the outside of the pavlova a crisp crunchy shell, while the interior remains soft and moist. The pavlova’s internal consistency is thus completely different from that normally associated with meringue, having more of a soft marshmallow texture.
Ingredients
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons water
250g (9 oz.) caster sugar
pinch of salt
5 ml or 1 tsp vinegar
5 ml or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cornstarch (optional)
[edit]Procedure
Beat the egg whites and salt to a very stiff consistency. Add water and beat again before folding in caster sugar, vanilla and vinegar. Beat until the mixture holds its shape and stands in sharp peaks.
Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Slow-bake the mixture at 150°C (300°F) to dry all the moisture and create the meringue, approximately 45 minutes. This leaves the outside of the pavlova a crisp crunchy shell, while the interior remains soft and moist.
A top tip (but not traditional) is to turn the pavlova upside down before decorating with cream and fruit because the bottom is less crispy than the top after cooking and unless you serve it immediately after decorating the “top” absorbs moisture from the cream. Another tip is to leave the pavlova in the oven after turning off the heat – this helps to prevent the middle of the pavlova from collapsing (although if it does collapse, generous application of cream can hide any mistakes!)
(recipe from Wikipedia)
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And now it’s Martini Time!
Fragoli Martini
1/2 oz. Fragoli
2.5 oz. Vodka
combine vodka with Fragoli
stir and pour into chilled
martini glass.
“Filling a glass with Fragoli is a unique experience that almost seems to defy the laws of physics. Each pour, whether the bottle’s first or last, will release a nearly equal number of petite dark red strawberries that are somehow suspended in the vibrant red liquid. Just what enables the flavor – packed fruit to swim gravity free throughout the bottle is a carefully guarded secret behind the alluring Italian liqueur that has now been introduced to the U.S. market.” (from Fragoli website)
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Frais des Bois or Alpine Strawberries are the easiest fruit in the world to grow in your garden or window box. They have a sweeter, much more delicate flavour than regular strawberries and they grow all year round in California. Somehow I got off the subject of the new crab species, didn’t I?
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