Melbalova, Pavlova, and Stuff

For someone avowedly not into Pavlovas, I certainly seem to have been making a lot of them recently.

For starters, I sold my first Pav, thanks to OJW for the order....He ordered a pav for a birthday, but later on text me to say that he decided to give it to his girlfriends instead. Isn't that sweet. I hope it wasn't coz the tectonic plates in the pav shifted, causing a massive landslide. I have found that since I use fresh cream for the pavs, the cream tends to melt rather quickly if not refrigerated well.

I like to make them in two discs, coz I find the meringue very sweet, and the sandwiching of the two discs gives me a chance to try with various fillings. I used to use the same lemon curd as I did for lemon meringue pie, coz it's a good way to use up the egg yolks, but found that some people are averse to sourness. Anyway, for this virginal commercial Pav, I used fresh whipping cream. The yellow bits were mango, for color, as OJW did not like the smell of jackfruit.

And recently, again, at a friend's Mid Autumn Festival Party, I decided to bring a predominantly yellow Pavlova, since it is the Moon Festival as well. I remember my late ancestors praying to the moon...I can't remember it's significance.

Alright, what do you get when you combine one of my favourite desserts, a Peach Melba, with a Pavlova? A MELBALOVA. (the song, Mr Boombastic suddenly plays in my head. Mr Lova Lova)

Which is what I did for this one here. I made a creme patiserrie, using the egg yolks, and used peaches as the main fruit.

It was a smashing success with the dinner guests, but with dinner guests, you can never really know if they're being polite or not. However, the same problem, the creme patisserie was melting rather quickly. Perhaps it wasn't beaten stiff enough, but by the end of it, whatever left of Melbalova was swimming in a sea of pastry cream, fruit and meringue.

As we've had our Pavs served in a far more distorted fashion before, I have resigned myself to the function over form theory.....WMW very brutally told me, "your desserts taste good, but fail in the looks department".

I've always had a phobia of burning custards, because that's how my custards usually end up, BURNT. And making pastry cream (creme patisserie) involves patiently stirring the custard in a pot over a low fire. However, once you succeed, especially when using real vanilla pods, it is a dark day when you have to resort to instant custard again.

After tweaking a bit, here's my creme patisserie recipe:

300ml milk, brought to a light boil, with the vanilla seeds and pod split.

3 yolks + 1/3rd cup sugar, whisked together.
2-3 tbspns cornflour added to the egg mixture. This will yield a lovely pale yellow custardy looking batter.

Pour a bit of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisk together to stabilise. Slowly pour in the rest, constantly stirring.

Put back the entire mixture into the saucepan, and heat over low heat, until the mixture thickens.

You should get a gloriously yummy thickish sauce like the one below. At this stage, this can be used as a yummy topping on anything, really, apple pie, cake, trifle, or eaten just like that.

To finally transform it into a thicker cream, fold in 1 cup of whipped cream (whipped till thick), and lo and behold, a yummy, natural pastry cream. Oh, of course, refrigerate the custard mixture before incorporating the cream.

One of the best ways to use pastry cream, I reckon, is to stuff them into choux pastry. While my choux may not be as nice as Beard Papa's, the pastry cream certainly is comparable, and the entire taste is rather good, if I may say so myself. I served this at home group, and one of my friends took a bite from her husband, saying they'll share. After one bite, her eyes lit up, and she said, "yummm", and went to get her own. (she didn't know I made them).

So there you go, a good way to maximise your eggs....separating the whites from the yolk.

When The Fatboybakes Falls Sick......

I have always prided myself on almost never falling sick. Even after my trans Malaysian Qing Ming tour, where we suffered the effects of Yeet Hei (Heatiness, equivalent to consuming 20 durians), I fought off the impending cough by pumping myself with liberal doses of vitamin C, fruit juices, ( a healthy cocktail of carrot, celery, bitter gourd, orange juice, every morning, freshly made in juicer) and looked like I was about to emerge victorious. Meanwhile the nefarious army of germs were regrouping, like the orcs of Sauron, as I basked in my temporal victory, and even made a pavlova to celebrate.

This was on the Tuesday night. I even went to the gym, for Body Combat. The family ooh-ed and ah-ed, (the adults only, the kids looked at the fruit and went, EUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH), when I brought this out for dessert. I am confident in saying that since making the one for Lemongrass, I am now confident I have mastered the art in making a decent Pavlova nest, crispy and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, almost marshmallowy, but lighter. Initially the stars did not seem aligned for this dessert to happen. Blueberries had shot up in price, nearly doubling (to RM22 a punnet) since two weeks ago, (and people complain about 20 sen in hike per kg for noodles), organic passionfruit was nowhere to be found, leaving the option of those expensive shrivelled types, which cost RM6 each, ..... and the base of the meringue nest broke.

But good deeds beget good karma, and as I trotted to Bangsar Village again, later in the afternoon, to check for Lemongrass if they sold bulgur, (for tabouli), I found the passionfruit I was looking for, and the stars looked aligned again.

So, after a hearty family dinner, a good workout, glorious dessert, I plonked myself in front of the TV, relegating the parental duties of homework assistance, reading to the kids etc, to their mother, who does it so much better. Also, I feel, the father participation should be occasional, so as to make it "special", and not taken for granted. Ya wat, it's like Unkaleong who always jual mahal for invites, so when he DOES show up, people think its a big deal.

I digress. As I was in this happy state of affairs, little did I know that this little army of cretinous bacteria were regrouping, and at about 10pm, launched their attack. Charrrrrrrrrge, I coulda sworn I heard them say.


Suddenly clutching my heart.... okay, maybe not that dramatic, suddenly, that Grease Song ran through my mind...
I got chills.
They're multiplyin'.
And I'm losin' control.
'Cause the power
you're suplyin',
it's electrifyin'!

Badabush, it hit the way the opposition hit the National Front on March the 8th. I started shivering, and thought I had been teleported to a winter in Siberia. It's a horrible feeling.

By midnight, my temperature had risen to 39.5C, and I administered some panadol, ....it was dark, they could have been the ones for menstruation for all I know....

The next morning, visit to the doctor. Antibiotics. Continued sleeping. Total hours in bed = THIRTY SIX. Gosh, I never knew I was capable of that much sleep!!!!! Did Lemongrass, whom I chat with REGULARLY on MSN even bother to sms to find out why I was unannouncedly missing in action for that entire duration? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

By Thursday evening, I was returning to some semblance of normality, and as I hadn't eaten for the last 36 hours, I suddenly felt a craving for THIS:

BUTTERCAKE!!! Bizarre, don't ask me WHY!!!! I just had to have cake. And nothing the the aroma of golden churn wafting through the oven to make me feel that I was alive again....the sun was breaking through the dark clouds of Mordor, as the orcs were slaughtered by the forces of Good.

I have to say, the buttercake, with Golden Churn, was absolutely yummy. The others in the household, deprived of my delightful company for the last 2 days, delightedly chomped up the cake, which was finished in no time. (it did last a day la).

Friday, I was about 80% there, and so, for bible study, as an offering of thanksgiving.... I decided to swamp by cell group with food, spiritual and physical. Have always wanted to try this recipe from the Golden Chocolate Book, ORANGE CHOCOLATE SQUARES.

It's only today that I realised there's a blood pressure monitor in the background. Anyway, to cut a long story short, PTOOOOOOOOOOOOOI, its a horrible recipe. Okay, granted I didn't follow it to a T, but in fact, the original recipe would have been even WORSE, I reckon!!!

So, to really potong steam, DON'T EVEN BOTHER trying it. It ranks right up there with Lemongrass's baking disasters of late. At least her mitosised choc chip cookies tasted okay. These look okay, but taste horrid. HORRIBLE. The son took one bite and spat it out. The adults were a bit more polite, and said, "not that bad la". (which is the Adult equivalent of going "Ptoooi")

But the saving grace were these babies. My favourite, Pigs in Blanket. Seeing as to how I had spent a lot of hours curled up in a blanked recently, it was a dish after my own heart.

The name is inspired by Nigella Lawson, but I didn't follow her recipe this time. Instead, I used a cream cheese based pastry, (usually for Rugelach or cream cheese spirals), which is lovely, light and aromatic. See, I do feed them well. (my cell group).

Anyway, I think I'm almost fully recovered, except for this slight cough I cant seem to shake off.

How Does A Ballerina Stay Slim?

According to urban legend, the dessert Pavlova was named after famed ballerina, Anna Pavlova....go read it on Wikipedia yourself. Since I am not into ballet, I don't know who the heck Anna is, and couldn't care less, I just wondered if a dessert were named after me, what would it be? Probably something REALLLLLY fattening, rich, artery clogging, orgasmically good, (ahem)....quite the antithesis of a Pavlova, which is basically air trapped in egg white. A Pavlov, on the other hand, would imply salivating at the ring of a bell.

Anyway, I found myself staring at 6 egg whites, after making some tiramisu, and vaguely in the recesses of my alcohol destroyed brain, I recalled Lyrical Lemongrass saying she loved Pavlovas. Egg white, pavlova, egg white, pavlova. A strange connection was forming as the wheels in my head spun, and I thought, ah, why not. My last attempt had been an unmitigated disaster, the meringue was soft like a pillow, and the whole thing was like a giant, marshmallow that consisted of an entire sugar cane plantation.

As I was going out for Good Friday service, and drinks thereafter, (take care of the life hereafter followed by drinks thereafter....a good philosophy of life), I had to rely on the maids to follow my instructions for turning off the oven, and I really had to leave it to chance as I wouldn't be around to rectify any shortcomings.

Thanks to a tip given to me by Masterbaker, Nigel of JHP Fame, I told the maid to leave the meringue IN the oven overnight, and not to open the oven door at all, after switching it off. the next morning, as I arose with the mother of all hangovers, I was inordinately relieved to see that the pavlova was crispy on the outside.

So, here's what you do.

6 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon vinegar

Beat the egg whites on slow speed until white and frothy, and gradually add in the sugar and cornflour, increasing the speed gradually, and finally add in the vinegar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks means if you turned the bowl upside down, the meringue wont fall out and when you lift the beaters, a peak will form, that doesn't wilt like a flower in midday summer sun.

Spoon onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper if non stick, in whatever shape tickles your fancy. I did one flat 8" disc, and one 8" diameter nest.

Bake in slow oven, 120C, for 1½ hours. Turn off oven and leave in oven as long as possible. (overnight in my case)


Filling:

2 cups whipping cream, whipped to stiff consistency. (careful, there's no turning back from overbeating your thing)
Optional, some sugar to sweeten the cream, but bear in mind, the pavlova is sweet.
Fruits of your choice, in my case,
1 punnet driscolls strawberries, RM23.90
1 punnet blueberries RM14.90
1 punnet jackfruit RM4
2 organic passionfruit RM5 (Cheaper than the imported passionfruit which are about RM6 each...the ones that look like withered testicles)

I sandwiched a layer of cream and strawberries between the disc and nest, and chucked the rest of the cream and other fruits into the nest. The result,....ta dah.
(Pictures are courtesy of Lyrical Lemongrass, linked on flickr, so Gal From Abu Dhabs... dunno if you can see)







It was a hit, if I may say so myself. [Patting self on back]. As Malays would say, enter basket lift oneself.