Some of you may be familiar with the public vs. private school phenomena in most countries, especially England. Unlike America, private would be public school and public would be what is commonly known to be the private, preppy school. Indeed it is rather confusing but this is a good start for this post. Berkshire, or Royal Berkshire, is home to Windsor Castle and one of England’s most famous public schools - Eton College from which the lovely Eton Mess has taken its origins from. The story behind this simple, classic, old-school dessert hails from Eton College’s tuckshop, of which it is served during their prize-giving ceremonies. It was originally served with strawberries or banana mixed up with either cream or ice cream. Simple enough but fantastic. Red and white mixed together with a spoon creates this sticky, sweet ‘mess’ and a trademark of its own. And what about red and white to make it all the more representative of England?

I first discovered, or rather, learnt about this dessert in a pub in Oxford whilst I was having dinner with Hans and her family. Over pints of Oxford’s award winning ales, our meal was as good as pub food gets and no one could complain the dinner conversation wasn’t witty and entertaining enough. At that time I was still pretty much a newbie with British culinary favourites and Hannah had to explain to me the ‘history’ or so it seemed, of that red/white/pink creamy sticky bowl of awesome goodness her dad Dave was tucking into. In my mind, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about with this Eton Mess business but then, I’d, in the past, been very stubbornly shut in my own closet being very picky with what I ate thanks to peer pressure from skinny girls all about me. Strawberries and cream never crossed my mind when I could just have them plain, warm and sweet as they are. My mind, naturally perverse in an argument-creating sort of way, thought this out ‘logically’ and ‘rationalised’ that strawberries which grew prettily under the sun were no where growing near cows so there was no chance in hell someone would think to make cream from milk and then put that with strawberries. But somehow, that sort of - yes, very irrational - thinking sorted itself out. Thank goodness for that. I completely chucked that out of the window and came to accept the fact that strawberries and cream are a match made in heaven. All that special diet nonsense was also blown to timbaktoo. Albeit, I may still be slightly iffy with what I eat or how much meat I eat in a week or how much fruit I must have in a day, but when it comes to dessert or strawberries and cream? Screw that!

Being decked out quite often in preppy wear just because I can, I have no qualms about having eton mess all day; not that you need to be preppy or raaaarish to have it. Jokes. But I thought the Jack Wills catalogue in the background of my foodshot was very apt! All you Jack Wills suckers, yes you Kate I’m talking about you too - take that. Watch and drool, mate. Watch and drool.

Eton Mess adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie
Ingredients

1 basic meringue recipe or why not try storebought meringues, haha
1 pint double cream (I used single cream, that’s fine too)
1 vanilla pod, scored and seeds removed
2 tbs caster sugar (I used demerara instead)
250g strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/2 cup raspberries & red currants for a little more variation
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp rosewater

Have your meringues prepared in advance. I’m never confident of making meringues so these were storebought. Actually to be honest, I know and am confident enough of making them. But I’m just lazy.
Whip the double cream, or if you’re using single cream, lightly. Mix in the vanilla. Soft peaks are good enough, you don’t need it to get too stiff. Single cream goes bubbly but I used it instead because that was all I had around. Plus I didn’t want too much cream to get in the way of my fruit. Ice cream would’ve been good too but yes, I didn’t have any around either and I was totally going to stick to the classic recipe.
Take half the fruit, mash it in a bowl with sugar and balsamic vinegar. The vinegar really brings out the sweetness and tartness of the berries and gives it an extra bang. Without the vinegar, you’ll miss out. Bang up the meringues into whatever size you like. Now fold the cream and mushed fruit along with the unmushed fruit together with the meringue and just literally, create a MESS.
Drizzle that tsp of rosewater, or a couple of drops from the bottle, over the top. Final mix really lightly. Serve in bowls or pretty in glasses and tuck in.