Rose Water and Pistachio Meringues

Ingredients
half a lemon
200 g egg white
400 g castor sugar
rose water, to taste
50 g chopped pistachio nuts

Method
Preheat an oven to 110 C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.

Rub the bowl of an electric mixer with half a lemon to ensure it is grease free.

Place the egg whites in the bowl and whisk on medium-high speed until the whites become thick and frothy. Add the sugar, a little at a time, until well incorporated and dissolved before adding the next batch. Once all the sugar has been mixed in and the egg whites are thick and glossy, add the rose water to taste.

Pipe or place spoonfuls of the meringue on the baking tray. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachios and place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 100 C and bake for a further 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once the meringues lift easily off the paper, they are done. Turn off the oven and leave to cool down.

Serve the meringues with whipped cream and a selection of summer fruits.


Pistachio-Olive Oil Cake

A delicious and unusual cake with a flavour of the middle east. The cake gets it's beautiful green colour from the pistachios and the olive oil keeps it moist. It's quite a rich cake, so a small piece will suffice. We usually serve it as part of a dessert with a parfait or some marinated pineapple. Yum!

Serves 8-10 

Ingredients
50 g fine polenta
200 g ground pistachio nuts
50 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125 ml olive oil
100 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 eggs
200 g caster sugar
juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
icing sugar for dusting

Method
Preheat the oven to 160 C. Mix the polenta, ground pistachios, flour and baking powder together.

Add the olive oil to the melted butter. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar until pale and fluffy, then slowly whisk in the olive oil and butter. Whisk in the pistachio mixture, then add the lemon juice and zest and orange juice.

Pour into a greased and lined 24 cm springform tin and bake for about 40 minutes. The cake should be slightly underdone in the middle, so that if you insert a skewer it will come out with a little of the mixture sticking to it. While cooling down, the cake will finish off cooking through. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.

Once completely cooled, cut into slices and dust with icing sugar.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours