This is my own invention, you know. It's an Iced Strawberry-coffee-meringuey-cream beautiful thing. Or, if you'd rather, 'cheat's ice-cream sundae', and, if we're being honest: ' What do you really want to eat for supper in this weather?'.

Why do you need to know about this recipe? It's hot. Bet you'd noticed that one. Very hot. Now, this is good, because it means that we all get tans, and can prance around fanning ourselves, chatting, paddling, and generally pretending that we don't live in Manchester, or Nether Wallop, or wherever, but instead are regular visitors to San Tropez, or, if you're in a surfing frame of mind, Torquay.

It's bad when it comes to cooking though. I'm a soup and stew, dumplings never optional, 'oooh, let's have a baked potato' sort of person, and, frankly, I don't feel culinary at the moment. It's the equivalent to imagining myself wearing a warm woolly jumper. However, I am the lucky possessor of an ice-cream maker and two small children, so, wanting to struggle from the aran-clad bounds of the autumnal stew, I've been experimenting. This particular thing was so nice that I've got to share. Really got to. I'm tired, though (remember that two small children thing), so bear with me. It's worth it in the end - promise. This is a malleable recipe, so it's all kind of muddled. But that's good, because, really and truly, when you're doing this, you don't need to follow strict weights and measures, or anything remotely resembling a 'recipe plan'.

Here's what you need for the beautiful meringue-strawberry-coffee-chocolate thing (see, it changes).

INGREDIENTS:

About six scoops of really good quality ice-cream. If you've an ice-cream maker, then make some; if not, then try and find a good vanilla at your local supermarket (we're not talking soft-scoop here - we're talking posh, but without the value added posh bits that lurk within your Ben and Jerry and your Haaagen Daaaaaz). If you're making it, then I'd go for coffee or vanilla ice-cream.

About three meringues. If you've made your own ice-cream, then you'll have egg whites kicking around to spare (which is why I started to experiment in this particular way). If not, then make some, and maybe consider making some lemon curd later on, when it's less hot.

Fruit puree. This is changeable, too. Today, we had mango, strawberry, and two volumtiously gorgeous passion fruit. Buy some fruit, peel it, and blitz to distraction in a liquidiser. Maybe don't use bananas - if you've bananas, just cut them into chunks, and freeze the chunks (more on that later). Whatever yummy fruit combination you choose, pop the puree into some ice-cube trays and then into the freezer. If you're doing the coffee-coffee thing, then freeze some expresso in ice-cube trays. You need about two ice-trays full of whatever it is you decide to freeze.

Some chocolate. Not chocolate chips, but proper chocolate - a good bitter dark one. Or whatever is your chocolate of choice, of course. We'll be adding the chocolate bits later, so if you love Mars Bars, then simply cut them into little chunks, then freeze them.

METHOD

Remember that frozen fruit puree/expresso cubes? Well, blitz it in a liquidiser until it resembles slush.

Now take your meringues, put them in a plastic bag, and hit them several times, so they're crumbly, but in biggish chunks. Don't start venting frustration, or you'll end up with white sugary powder that tastes nice-ish, but doesn't have any lovely crunch to it.

Now, put your ice-cream into the liquidiser, along with the puree/coffee cubes, and the meringue bits, and pulse one or two times - just to mix. You can always do this by hand, of course. If you're using chocolate bits, then simply pop those in, too.

That's it. Boring, huh? NO. The crispness of the meringue works really well with the softish ice-cream, and then there are secret, refreshing bits of fruit puree floating around in there to surprise your teeth, too.

And there's more. If you add about 7floz of milk to the liquidised mixture, and liquidise until smooth, then you've a gorgeous milkshake. Or use yoghurt. Then you've a smoothie which rocks beautifully.

Or, if you're in an ice-cream sundae sort of mood, don't blend, but layer the liquidised puree/coffee at the bottom of a sundae glass, add the ice-cream, add the meringue bits, and top with cream.

All pretty simple, and all rather refreshing. Just for the record, though, here are the combinations I've found work best.

If using coffee ice-cream, then plain meringues, and coffee ice-cubes. Frozen Mars bar chunks work rather well mixed into the coffee version, I've found.

If using fruit puree, then I'd go for a good vanilla, and plain meringues, too, but maybe add a bit of demerara sugar for added crunchiness.

If using chocolate, then I'd go for coffee ice-cream, plain meringues, and frozen banana chunks.

I could go on, I know. Again, for the record, the best fruit puree combination I've found is a mixture of mango, strawberries, and blueberries. Quite sharp, but not in a teeth-grinding sort of way, and of course there's those sugary powdery meringue bits to balance it all. Nice balance of texture, too, with the powdery-crunchy meringue, the crunchy-crunchy frozen puree-slush, and the smooth velvety ice-cream.

Divine texture mixture aside, bit of a cheat's recipe? Well, yes, but in this weather who on earth can blame me?

Oh, and if you happen to like smarties, then there's no harm in mixing some of the mini-ones into your sundae/milkshake. And did I mention how good Nutella tastes when swirled into vanilla ice-cream? Maple syrup, too.

Let's face it, if you're going to cheat, and it's hot, then the finished product has to be fun. Go on, start freezing fruit purees, and dig out that liquidiser. Play. St Tropez has nothing on a paddling pool in the back garden. Not when armed with a liquidiser and a punnet of strawberries.