Pavlova - Home Made and Fool Proof

Perfect Pavlova

When you leave the supermarket car park there is a sign stating 

"trolley wheels will lock if taken past this point ".

Every time I see this I am tempted to push a trolley past this point

just to see if the trolley wheels really will lock.

Yesterday I had customers who had come to collect their order

and knowing they did not drive I was intrigued as to how they would get their 2 x 20kg boxes home.

Out the front of our shop proudly stood a borrowed trolley.

"The Coles ones lock but not the Woolworths or Aldi trolleys" I was informed.

So now you too know, some trolley wheels lock when taken too far from the shop.

If only all questions were as easy to answer as this one.

A friend asked me recently how to cook a pavlova that is hard on the outside yet soft on the inside.

Here is my response and I trust these guidelines are helpful;

Pavlova Recipe

5 egg whites (185 gram in weight)

185 gram castor sugar

4 teaspoons white cornflour

1 teaspoon white vinegar

# See note below

Preheat oven to 150 Celsius.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks and weigh them.  (I used the yolks to make Zabaglione)

Here I used 5 egg whites with a total weight of 185 grams.

Put these into your mix master and blend at high speed for about 3 minutes, or until soft peaks form.

Measure out an equal amount of castor sugar (185 grams) and add 1 tablespoon at a time to the egg whites. 

Do this at about 30 second intervals to ensure the sugar is incorporated, until all of the sugar has been added.

Make sure there is no sugar stuck to the inside bowl, you want it all mixed well.

Continue to beat on high for another 3 minutes.

Rub a little mixture between your fingertips to make sure all of the sugar is "dissolved" in the egg mixture.

Take out bowl, add 4 teaspoons cornflour and 1 teaspoon white vinegar and gently fold through.

Place on paper lined tray and place on the bottom shelf of the oven.  

Cook with only top element on, or as with my oven, I can cook with fan only (NOT fan forced but just fan).

Rotate tray after 20 minutes  Bake for approx 40 minutes total until the outside is a light golden brown and the inside is still soft.

Remove tray from oven and let pavlova cool on the bench.

When cool - Decorate with whipped cream and fresh, seasonal fruit.

Here I used just picked passionfruit, strawberries and bananas.

#  Note:  If using 4 egg whites, approx 150 grams, add 150 grams castor sugar, 3 teaspoons cornflour and                 1 teaspoon vinegar, cook for approx 35 minutes.

Buon appetito, Enjoy Merryn

Preserved Chilli Peppers in Brine

Chilli Peppers in Brine

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

I just love this nursery rhyme from childhood.  The beautiful alliteration is quite catchy and repeating the rhyme is enough to make you smile, a big happy smile :D

Funnily enough my parents ate quite bland food.  Fish or meat with 3 vegetables almost every night.
Both of my parents are steeped in English background.  My mother is a descendent of Matthew Everingham who was on the First Fleet, so I often joked to my friends that we were brought up on bread and water.

Actually, it was more like Sunday roasts with baked vegetables or freshly caught fish with oven baked chips and salad.  I vividly remember the first time I had garlic bread at a friends' house and marvelled at the amazing flavour.  Chilli, not very hot, was enjoyed at the same friends Italian family restaurant and had such an impact on me.

I was mesmerised!  These wonderful flavours had been hiding from me for all of my life.
Since then, my husband says that I am still making up for the lack of heat in my early years.  I love chilli.
I love garlic and chilli, together or apart.  If I have a sore throat the first thing I reach for is a spoonful of harissa or sriracha  to numb my throat and kill the germs (it certainly makes me feel better anyway).

Hence, we grow chillies, of many shapes, sizes and heat strength.
To eat, puree, cook, dry, freeze, give away, jam or to bottle.

This is an easy recipe for bottling whole chillies and I hope you too have the pure enjoyment of chilli peppers.

Leave the chillies whole, wash them and leave some stem on, about 1cm if possible.

Bring salted water to the boil and blanch the chillies in batches, for 1 minute, then remove, place in a colander and refresh with cold water.

Sterilise your jars by placing clean jars into a cold oven, turning the oven to 150 degrees celsius and when it has reached temperature., turn the oven off and let sit for 10 minutes.
Put the lids into a jug of boiling water and let sit 5 minutes, then carefully remove with tongs.

 Bring the vinegar to a simmer in a saucepan, adding the spices and stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Take the sterilised jars from the oven with oven mitts, placing onto a tea towel on the bench so they don't crack on a cold surface.   Place the whole chilli peppers in the jar, then pour the brine solution over the top completely immersing the chillies in liquid.  You will find after 5 minutes that you need to add more brine as the air pockets in the chillies are filled with liquid.  Put the hot jar lids on and seal, label and let sit for 1 month before consuming.  This recipe will last for 2 years (if you don't eat them all first).

Pickled Chilli Peppers in Brine

600g fresh long chillies
2 tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon black mustard seeds
10 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
500ml cider vinegar
500ml white vinegar

Extra salt for boiling water

Rinse chillies, leaving them whole, then boil for 1 minute.  Remove and refresh in cold water.
Add all brine ingredients together and bring to a quick boil, stirring just until the sugar is dissolved.
Place chillies in hot sterilised jars, pour brine solution over until completely covered.
Seal and wait at least 1 month before consuming.
Buon appetito!

Home made Sriracha

Stunning Sriracha made at home

Fermented Chilli Paste  

Sriracha is a very versatile, long lasting, hot and delicious fermented chilli paste.  

During the warmer months we have an abundance of chillies and after chilli jam, bottled whole chillies, dried hanging chillies and simply frozen chillies are processed, there is still an abundance of these gorgeous, fiery red chillies.

After reading The Hungry Tigress  http://hungrytigress.com/2012/10/fermented-sriracha/  post on Sriracha (pronunced 'see-ray-shah') I was inspired to make some of this delicious fermented chilli paste.
I weighed 650grams of freshly picked hot chillies for this recipe then washed and dried them.

After cutting off the stem and removing any soft chillies, I put them in the blender to chop them.

When they were processed finely, I added three cloves of minced fresh garlic and 2 tablespoons fine sea salt.

This is how they look at the start of the process.
Cover with plastic film, leave at room temperature and stir once or twice each day for 5 - 7 days.

After two days, they look a little more dull.

After four days, they appear less shiny.

At the end of seven days, at approximately 27 degrees Celcius each day, the Sriracha looks like this :-
and has a slightly sour smell.

At this time place the chillies into a sieve and extract as much liquid as possible from them by pushing down on the chillies to remove the juices that have been extracted.

 Then place chillies into a food processor with 1/4 cup white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar.

Process until a paste forms and store in a sterilised jar in the refrigerator.

This paste will last for months and is useful for many purposes.  

Add Sriracha to mayonnaise for a tasty condiment.  

Use alone with barbecued grilled meats for a hot flavour burst.  

Mix a little with scrambled eggs before cooking.  

Use in marinades for chicken with soy sauce, garlic, shao hsing wine and sugar.

Mix with butter and freeze in a log shape to offer with grilled steaks.

Add to fried rice.

Use in place of sambal oelek in recipes.

The uses of Siracha are endless and you will appreciate a jar, or two of this in your kitchen, and at work, as well as in your mother's kitchen for when you are visiting.