Boiled egg and soldiers – by Martin Blunos

INGREDIENTS

For the boiled egg
1 ripe mango
Caster sugar to taste
Lemon juice to taste
3 medium egg yolks
50g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
25g plain flour
300ml full-fat milk
1 vanilla pod
300ml double cream

For the soldiers 100g plain flour
100g rice flour
Pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg, beaten

For garnish
Granulated sugar
Grated chocolate

METHOD

Peel and de-stone the mango. Liquidise until smooth. Add the lemon juice and sugar to taste. Pass through a fine strainer and store in fridge until needed.

Beat yolks, sugar, salt and flour until pale. Bring milk to just before boiling point, flavoured with the vanilla pod. Pour on to the yolk mix, pour into a clean pan, stir until boiling point and then pass through a fine strainer. Cover and cool. Whip cream until it makes soft peaks and fold in the cold cream mixture.

To make the soldiers, sieve flours and salt into bowl. Rub in the butter until breadcrumb texture. Mix in the sugar. Bind with the egg until you have a stiff paste. Press the mixture into the tin to a depth of ¼ in. Bake in a preset oven at 175ºC/375ºF until golden brown (about 20 minutes). Turn out while hot and cut quickly into fingers. Cool on a rack and, when cold, store in an airtight container.

To serve, put a little of the mango purée in the bottom of a clean eggshell. Cover with the vanilla cream and place more mango on the top to resemble the egg yolk. Place the biscuits on the side of the plate with granulated sugar and grated chocolate to resemble the salt and pepper.

Martin Blunos