Martin's Plums

A minor turn up for the books this weekend, as Martin made a pudding. He normally leaves that sort of thing to Annie, as he thinks he has enough to worry about with starters, main courses, packed lunches, weekend breakfasts, and a steady supply of home-made bread. However, plums are in season now and this mousse by Dan Lepard in The Observer caught his eye. You need

450g plums
50ml water
250ml milk
150g caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
2tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g preserved ginger
250ml double cream

Stone and chop the plums, put them in a pan with the water and simmer for ten minutes. Cool. Whisk the milk with 50g sugar, egg yolks, cornflour and vanilla extract. Bring to the boil, whisking continuously, stir in the cool plums and allow to get completely cold. Stir the egg whites with remaining sugar, heat in a double boiler until piping hot and beat to create a thick, glossy meringue. Chop the ginger into little nuggets. Beat the cream until thick, fold the plum mixture and ginger through the meringue, gently fold in the cream, spoon into tumblers and chill for at least four hours. This makes six according to Dan Lepard, or eight according to Martin. Excellent, but next time M would use a little less sugar and real vanilla.

My sister Chutney is getting fussier about her meals these days, and she is now on steamed cod and coley like me, rather than commercial cat food. This defeats the object of my leaving my own dinner half way through to muscle in on hers, but I do it anyway, out of force of habit.