The Bonet

Ingredients

• Four eggs
• eight tablespoons of powdered sugar
• a glass of milk
• a handful of crushed macaroons
• one tablespoon of powder chocolate
• half glass of rhum
• five tablespoons of sugar

What to prepare

• A salad bowl
• a whish
• a wooden spoon
• a small skillet
• a metal mould
• a pot for the bain-marie
• a serving dish

Procedure

Break three or four eggs in a bowl.

Beat them together with the powdered sugar and a glass of warm milk, add a handful of crushed macaroons, a tablespoon of powder chocolate and some rhum.

Blend the ingredients with a wooden spoon and with a whisk.

On the side, put three or four tablespoons of sugar in a pan, wet the sugar with some water so that it stays thick and stir on the fire.

As soon as the sugar becomes slightly brown take it off from the fire and pour in the mould that should be have been left on the stove to stay warm. Twist the mould around so that the sugar covers all the walls and the base.

Let it cool.

Add the remaining ingredients and put the mould in a pan full of boiling water (the water must almost reach the top of the pan) cook at bain-marie on the stove or better yet in the oven. The crème must cook for at least an hour.

When it thickens take it out of the bain-marie and refrigerate for a few hours, before serving turn it over on a dish.

It must be served cold.

Curiosities

As the years went by, Mare Granda did not have anymore strength to continue preparing the tajarin (thin noodles); it was hard work to hold that pasta roller that she used to swiftly push back and forth on the cover of the erca (kneading trough), after the long work it took to make the dough, and her niece and young daughter-in-law married to her son started working on their own.

Now her Lady of the Kitchen could finally retire, however she was always present to keep a vigilant and watchful eye and following all that was being done, in what had been her reign for many years long ago, yet she still used to have fun doing something easy every now and then.

For example, she used to make the “bonet” and she used to do it often because during her life she developed a certain passion for sweets and she loved to gratify herself with that particular dessert.

This way, she used to say she would prepare the dessert for her nephews, but it was a pleasant excuse to start feeling the flavor from the beginning of its long preparation, looking forward to it while it was slowly cooking at bain-marie in the corner of the big stove for hours and hours.

That soft baking sound, the whisper of the slow boiling water kept her company and encouraged short naps, which made her dream of those experiences belonging to the past, when she used to wait for her family to come back from the fields, from the vineyards, from the grazing land that used to belong to their daily hard work.

Memories of long times ago, nostalgia and dreams. Today’s grandmas, good for them, chat for hours with their friends on the phone and pass hours ed hours at the beauty parlor to make themselves beautiful, they discuss of politics and economy, they take long naps in front of the TV (but who doesn’t?) and run around in their cars.

Modern days, a new life! But how much peace and harmony there was in the past.