lemon meringue posset

This evening I'm going to a leaving party for my old boss.  Even though I haven't worked at the company for seven years, I still managed to sneak an invite.  And, most worryingly, appear in the video tribute that has been made for him.  

I only worked there for two months or so in the summer after my second year at university.  At that time, there were only five of us in the office and my role involved a bit of marketing, some data entry and, mainly, dealing with a backlog of customer complaints.  There was nothing particularly demanding but it was exactly what I needed.  

I spent most of my second year at university in a very unhealthy on-off relationship.  I wish that now-me could have told then-me that it would all work out eventually but at the time, I really felt like it was the end of the world.  We were both so bad for each other.  I think we fed off each other's misery and insecurities and could barely go a day without descending into a blazing row.  Or, even worse, the passive-aggressive emotional blackmail that we both became quite adept at.  

Matters had finally come to a head in the April of that year when we agreed to cease all contact and move on with our lives.  The breathing space allowed me to finish the academic year with some semblance of sanity.  When I came home for the long summer break, I was exhausted.  Sleeping didn't come easily and I hadn't eaten a proper meal for months.  Due to the courses I had chosen in my second year, I had hardly any lectures or classes and had spent most of the year, when I wasn't arguing with my ex locked away in my room pretending to work when really all I was doing was raging at a life which seemed to me to be completely unfair.  All I craved was stability and normality and the chance to mend my broken heart.

The two months I spent working that summer gave me exactly that.  Having something to do everyday that wasn't staring at phone waiting for my ex to call gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning and the distance to really move on from our break up.  

Plus it funded the purchase of my very first pair of hair straighteners which probably did more for my mental health than anything else in the world could have done.  

My old boss will probably never know how much those two months helped me but when I heard that he was leaving, I couldn't miss the occasion to say goodbye and to thank him.  

It seems quite fitting then that today's post is something that I associated with my final, and much happier, year at university.  Not because I ate it often or, even, at all but because I was studying Shakespearian tragedy that year and in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth drugs the guards outside Duncan's room with a posset before the king is killed by Macbeth. 

The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores.  I have drugg'd their posset

That death and nature do contend about them,

Whether they live or die.  

My revision technique mainly consisted of learning lines from Shakespeare's plays by heart so that I had a ready stock of quotations to litter my answers in the end of year exam.  When I decided to make a lemon posset at the weekend, these were the first words that sprang to mind.  

Possets obviously have a long history with the word being traced back to 15th Century English.  I think one of the hallmarks of dishes that have stood the test of time is simplicity and a posset is no exception.  It contains just three ingredients - heavy cream, sugar and lemon juice - but these ingredients all combine to produce a rich and creamy dessert that is fit for a king, let alone his guards.  

I folded some crushed brown sugar meringues into the mixture as it set to provide a different texture and a little bit more sweetness but this is purely optional.  A simple lemon posset is one of the great pleasures of life.  

(Incidentally, after all that, the ex and I ended up getting back together a couple of months later and had a blissfully happy year or two before we finally broke up for good.  I'm a glutton for punishment.)

Lemon meringue posset

Yield: A generous 2

Ingredients

• 300ml heavy/double cream
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 6 small meringues, crushed

Cooking Directions

1. In a large saucepan, heat the cream and sugar to boiling point and simmer for three minutes, stirring all the time.
2. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice and stir well. Place the pan in a large bowl of cold water to cool it down (I used the sink) and continue to stir.
3. When it has started to thicken, fold in the crushed meringue and pour into ramekins and chill for a couple of hours until firm. Sprinkle some crushed meringue on top.