Simple Summer Essentials: Patriotic pavlova

So there's been a bit of a hiatus in my Simple Summer Essential series owing to the end of my obsession with the Olympics, good weather (the irony, I know!) and a few days working away from home. However, I'm back on track now, with plans for some simple preserves.

At the end of last week I decided to tackle pavlova. The arrival of the much loved K-mix has meant that meringue is so much more straightforward to make. Discussion on twitter ensued after my photos went up, and it has been decreed that marshmallows will be my next K-mix adventure. Hurrah!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, meringue. So 'everyone' has a recipe for meringue. I knew I didn't want a crispy one - you know the ones you buy from the supermarkets that just seem to be all air and nothingness? I hate them. With a passion. Meringue to me needs to have a chewy middle and a crisp outside.

I toyed with the idea of making blousey overblown meringues a la the one's you see Ottolenghi windows, but as this was my actual first ever attempt at meringue I thought I'd take the easy option and make a pavlova base. With a difference. You see, I love pavlova, the combination of softly whipped, barely sweetened vanilla cream, tart and sweet fruit with the crisp, chewy meringue. It's a cacophony of contradictions, and a summer pudding I just can't get enough of. Truly. It's probably a good thing I've only just tried making it or my diet, well, not so much.

However, courtesy of M's mum (and for her via her Aunt I believe) I discovered a way to twist pavlova - to take the traditional flat base, and make it even better. How do you make it even better? Make it hold more of course! So, when making pavlova:

• Put a large baking tray on your worktop
• centre a cake tin, upside down on the baking tray
• cover that in a dome of baking parchment
• Cut out a big circle and pleated it around so that it made a kind of teepee shape, flattening the top
• Lay this over the cake tin.
• Use a spatula to liberally cover this with your meringue before putting it in the oven

So, now for the pavlova recipe - again courtesy of M's mum. You know, some things don't need a chef or a celebrity to tell you how to make them - a way that's worked wonderfully for years is what you're after.

M's mum's meringue - used as the basis for Patriotic pavlova

4 egg whites
8oz caster sugar (I used regular white granulated as that's what I had)
1 tsp malt vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
Pinch cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, and move your oven shelves around so that you can get a big meringue in
Beat the egg whites until stiff (this took considerably less time in the K-mix - I'm not boasting, just gleefully announcing!)
Add half of the sugar whilst still beating, then when that's mixed in and the mixture has started to go glossy, add the rest of the ingredients - continue to beat until you have a beautifully shiny, white mixture
Pile onto the dome of baking parchment using a spatula (try not to press it down too much)
Put in the oven and cook for 3 minutes (use a timer) at 190, then without opening the door turn the oven down to 120 degrees and continue to cook for an hour

Take out and leave to cool, then peel off the parchment and fill with softly whipped cream, and berries - I used blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for the red, whites and blues of the Union Flag.

Eat in front of the closing ceremony of the Olympics. Or y'know, just as you like! I used a pint of double cream, and large handfuls of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries and this made buckets - easily enough for a pudding for 4-6 people

 

Fie! For you are such a fool! I can no longer use words to express it!

Tell him! Tell him in a song!

Or so the song goes (Fool, from Xanadu of course!) That's a lot of exclamation marks, I shall be less declamatory for the rest of the post. Which is of course about fools. As you clearly realised from my witty quotation type title. Really, you can just smile and nod sometimes. I'll get to the food eventually I promise.

Now firstly I know I still haven't blogged about Taste, the London food festival that was on last month. However, I still have my notes, I just want to check with Olly Smith (wine guru from Saturday kitchen) that it's OK to use him as the centrepeice of my blogpost, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I've not had much in the way of occaisions to cook of late, being single and busy with Guiding have meant that I've eaten a lot of pasta and... dishes, thrown together in a hurry, with leftovers frozen for another night when I'm doutblessly racing in the door, throwing on my uniform and racing out again. However, I did manage to wangle some annual leave that meant I allegedly had time to rest between Pack Holiday and Guide camp, and this did afford me some time for proper cooking.

Summer in the UK is always a strange affair, just as you get used to the overpowering heat, the weather breaks and we're treated to thunderstorms where lightening flashes through the sky and it sounds as though every window in the house will surely shatter as the thunder crashes. However, the wonderful early part of this summer has left us with an abundance of summerfruits; strawberries, raspberries, and now as the summer is passing on blackberries, and blackcurrants. I didn't have the sort of idyllic childhood which has left me memories of smearing my face with strawberry juice at a Pick Your Own farm (actually I've never been to one at all) and neither was I brought up somewhere where one could go blackberrying. However, as with so many things that we miss out on as children, I'm determined to fit them in somewhere, and this year blackberry and apple jam is a must have. Truth be told I'm hoping to make it for Christmas presents as my plan this year is for home made ones. So I'm hoarding jars and lids and hoping that friends and loved ones appreciate the thought and love that goes into those little jars.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, summer fruit fool. I blogged a month or so back about my flatmate making a wonderful rhubarb fool with our first rhubarb from the garden. I however, cheated and used a recent discovery from Mr Sainsbury himself; frozen berries. Whilst the summer berries are in season, they are not cheap (and not living close to any useful markets) I treated myself to 3 bags of frozen berries, with plans to stew them up for yoghurt toppings. I must say I always have stewed fruit and natural yoghurt in the fridge for a quick serve pudding when something sweet is a must have.

Anyway, I looked through my recipe books for a basic fool, and found that it seemed to consist of fruit, cream and in some cases custard, whipped together, and served cold from the fridge.

I decided to live life on the edge... and make up my own recipe. Now having used Sainsbury's Taste the Difference (Good Lord I sound like an advert for them today, I feel like I should say, other supermarkets are available) custard as an ice cream base in the past I was confident in using it in this. It is more than flecked with vanilla seeds, it is positively freckled with them, and I whipped 150ml of this with 150ml of double cream until the mixture reached a ribbons consistency. I then layered the defrosted summer fruits in the bottom of a glass and topped it with the cream mixture. This made 3 large portions plus 2 sensible sized ones. And it tasted amazing, luxurious enough to feel like a proper dessert, but the tartness of the fruit cut through the creaminess of the fool just enough to make it feel less indulgent than it probably is.

I would and will definitely be making this again, I think the fruit needs to be tart to counteract the tooth achingly sweet cream, and you could easily substitute your own creme anglaise or custard for shop bought, but really, do try the Sainsbury's TTD, it is pretty much unadulterated and utterly lush (and as an added bonus, freezeable, so I just used 150ml of the 500ml pot and froze the rest for use at another time).