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Leche nevada
Custard with meringue clouds
Leche nevada: Chile's 'snowy milk', vanilla custard with poached meringue clouds
Leche nevada, 'snowed-on milk', is the custard Chilean grandmothers make on a Sunday with a litre of milk and a few eggs: soft spoonfuls of meringue are poached in sweet milk, then the same milk becomes a thin, vanilla-scented custard that the clouds float on. It is served cold in glass bowls, dusted with cinnamon, from Santiago to the south. The usual failure is letting the custard boil after the yolks go in, which curdles it into sweet scrambled egg. Chef's tip: poach the meringue at the barest simmer; at a rolling boil it puffs up, then collapses and goes rubbery. Because the whites are poached and the custard heated to 82 °C, the eggs are cooked through.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- 4 ¼ cups whole milk
- 1 strip lemon peel
- 4 eggsseparated
- 5 ½ oz sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ground cinnamonto finish
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Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Heat 4 ¼ cups whole milk with 1 cinnamon stick, 1 strip lemon peel and half of 2 ⅝ oz sugar in a wide pan until it is just trembling, with no big bubbles.
6 minStep 3: Drop large spoonfuls of meringue onto the hot milk, a few at a time. Poach for 1 minute, turn over and poach 1 minute more, until firm to the touch. Lift onto a plate with a slotted spoon.
8 minStep 5: Pour the yolk mixture back into the pan and stir constantly over a low heat until the custard thickens enough to coat a spoon (180°F). Don't let it boil.
6 minStep 6: Take off the heat, stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract and pour into a serving bowl. Cool, float the meringues on top, chill for at least 1 hour and dust with ½ tsp ground cinnamon to serve.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 240 kcal
- Protein
- 9 g
- Carbs
- 34 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does leche nevada take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 15 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
- What can I use instead of cinnamon stick?
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon per stick.
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