Marshmallow Pavlova

 

I've been meaning to share this recipe on my blog for some time now. It's one of those recipes that have become an all-time-favourite in my family while growing up and even makes the cut as a birthday 'cake'! This recipe was introduced to me by a friend's mother, who was the undoubted pavlova queen, but  over the years this has somehow become uniquely ours with every flavour under the sun having been tried, from passion fruit curd and summer fruit, to whipped cream and raspberries.

The thing I love about this recipe? It's one of those make-ahead-recipes, so don't decide an hour before the picnic to whip up a pavlova! This recipes needs a little time, but will never fail you in the wow-factor of it's presentation. I just love people reactions when you present them with a crisp pavlova, filled with soft whipped cream and summer berries!

So, the trick is to get a really crispy outer crust and a spongy, marshmallow centre, the options are limitless from there! This is achieve by two very simple things, a tablespoon of cornflour and resting the pavlova in the oven, overnight. Proving to a last-minute-gal as myself, sometimes it's worth planning ahead...

Marshmallow Pavlova

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

1 cup castor sugar

1 tbsp corn flour

1 tsp vinegar

300ml cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 punnet cherries/raspberries/fruit

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius

Beat the egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form, adding the vinegar and gradually adding the sugar until it has all dissolved. Fold in the sifted cornflour.

Spread the meringue in a circle (about 20cm in diameter) on wax paper or a silicon sheet. Don't flatten the mixture too much, you want to get some height. 

Bake for 1 hour -1 1/2 hours until dry and crisp on the outside.

Allow to cool overnight in the oven.

The next day, whip the cream, add the sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract and serve with cherries or seasonal fruit!

Baby potato salad with watercress and radishes

Okay, it's official, Spring is here. This is a beautiful salad for a garden lunch and is prefect for this time of the year. It's still hearty, but has a lovely Summer freshness and crisp.

I love potato salad and love trying new and different ingredients in them... It all started when I visited Dublin and went to Cornucopia, this gorgeous little vegetarian cafe that serves good 'honest' food. You could immediately tell by the ques of vastly diverse people waiting to be seated every lunch time that there was something special about their food. I didn't quite get that term 'honest food' until I visited Cornucopia... One of their acclaimed dishes from their daily buffet menu is their potato salad with hazelnuts and home made garlic mayonnaise. Amazing! A serious surprise to me and it's taken me down the slippery slope of adding nuts and seeds to most things...be it an open sandwich or a simple green salad. 

 

So apart from Cornucopia's salad, next on my list of amazing potato salads is this one. A simple vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, whole grain mustard and good quality olive oil drizzled over warm potatoes. Oh and garlic, did I forget the garlic? ...I used the pink skinned potatoes for something a little different and added some radishes for a fresh crunch.

 

 

Ingredients:

(makes 4-5 portions)

 

16 baby potatoes

5 radishes

a bunch of watercress

1 punnet of sugar snap peas

a handful of frozen peas (optional)

salt and black pepper, to taste

a handful of fresh basil leaves

 

Dressing:

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

6 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp whole grain mustard

1 garlic clove, finely chopped 

salt and black pepper

 

Method:

 

Firstly, half fill a pot with water and wash the potatoes.

Add a pinch of salt to the water and put the potatoes in the pot. Bring them to the boil.

Make the vinaigrette by adding all the ingredients into an empty jam jar or bottle and give it a good shake.

When the potatoes are soft drain them and cut them in half. Drizzle the dressing over them while they are still hot. They'll absorb the delicious flavours.

Allow them to cool. Blanch the peas by pouring boiling water over them and allowing them to stand for 5 minutes or so. Drain them.

Toss all the other ingredients together and garnish the salad with freshly torn basil leaves.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Marbled bundt cake

This year has really taken me by surprise, it feels like just the other day I was thinking to myself that another two months of cold, wet winter days awaits us and somehow, here we are, on the official 4th day of Spring, but really the first. The birds seem to know it, the trees seem to know it and the definate smell of Spring hangs in the air as the sun is setting over the mountain. As happy as I am about Spring making it's first appearance I still have some Winter recipes to share before I start day-dreaming about pink peaches and plums, floral fabrics and pretty things...

My life has been somewhat of a whirlwind lately, studying part-time, food styling and catering. So much so that I have been a little bad with blogging regularly I'm afraid. So this is a very apt recipe for just a time as this, when you're trying to do the laundry, finish some work on your laptop and quickly bake a friend a wow-factor birthday cake, all before the day is out... 

There was a time I was baking 15 of theses marble loaves a day when I was working at La Maison de Gourmet! Just the thought makes me tired and this was just one of the items on my daily production list! Now I stick to one at a time, I'm happy to report.

Ingredients:

250g butter

250g castor sugar

4 eggs

420g flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cocoa

2 tbsp espresso or strong filter coffee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Sift the flour and the baking powder together and add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mix then add half a cup of milk. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and the rest of the milk.

Divide the batter into two bowls, equal amounts.

Add the vanilla extract to the one bowl and the sifted cocoa and coffee to the other bowl.

Mix each batter well.

Grease a large bundt cake tin and spoon alternate dollops of cocoa and vanilla batter into the tin.

Using a skewer, swirl the batters to create a marbled effect.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and served drizzled with ganache or simply dusted with icing sugar.

For a simply ganache: Measure equal weight of good quality dark chocolate and cream in separate bowls. Heat the cream to boiling point and throw it over the chopped chocolate. Allow it to stand for 5 minutes, then with a whisk, mix the mixture until all the chocolate is melted. Pour this over the cake when it has cooled and garnish with pomegranate pips and pistachios.

Enjoy!