Pavlova

I recently learned this is a popular dessert in New Zealand. It may have even originated in Kiwi country. It's a giant meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit.


I read cookbooks with the same voracity as a 13-year-old boy consumes pulp fiction, and have seen recipes for lots of different versions--passion fruit, raspberry, pomegranate, guava. Today Florida strawberries are in season and plentiful, so that's what we had. You can even miniaturize them, plopping down small, 3-inch rounds instead and choosing different fruit toppings to suit the individual eater. This might be a better option in the future since 4 of us could only finish half of the behemoth pictured above. And once the whipped cream is piled on, it doesn't look like it will hold its cripsy integrity for 24 hours.

Making a pavlova is easy and most can be done ahead of time. I cooked the meringue earlier in the day (but theoretically could have made it decades ago), whipped up the cream a few hours before dinner along with the strawberries and sauce, and assembled everything after the meal in about 2 minutes. The meringue bakes such that the center is chewy and lovely, almost like a marshmallow, while the edges are crisp and dissolve as soon as they hit your tongue, like a delicious, sugary cloud-pillow. It's not alarmingly sweet if you are easy on the sugar in the whipped cream and fruit. Since the strawberries were tart, I added some sugar, lemon juice, Grand Marnier, and let them sit for a few hours. I also made a strawberry sauce to drizzle over that was a happy accident. I left some strawberries on the stove with sugar, lemon juice, and Grand Marnier. And then completely forgot about them while I did laundry. The result was a reduced, thick, pungent, slightly tart sauce that balaced the raw sugar and alcohol taste of the uncooked, macerated strawberries. Not bad.

Here is the recipe I used. It's in How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. The mini version is in the same book. But really, any recipe would be similar. If you want to be very authentic, look for a version from New Zealand's Edmonds Cook Book. Nigella's serves 10-16 people depending on greediness. One could easily halve the recipe and be fine for 4 people.