The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop - Pav-Melba

Well here I go, my first blog hop! I am glad to be a part of this and I sure am looking forward to hopping around and checking out all the amazing pav's that my fellow bloggers have created. 

I decided to meld another classic dessert (Peach Melba) with my pavlova for a couple of reasons; the first being that I just simply had to get cracking into the peaches that I had sitting in the fruit bowl, there is only so long these furry little guys can be used as an asthetically pleasing kitchen display. The second reason is that I thought it would be fun to top a classic Australian* dessert with a spin on another dessert that is not classically Australian, but rather named after a classical Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba. According to Wikipedia, Peach Melba was created at the Savoy Hotel by French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier when Nellie performed Wagner's opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden in London. 

Traditionaly, once the peaches are poached, they are served with rasberry coulis, I'm sorry Auguste, I am just not really a raspberry coulis kind of a gal, I decided to go with fresh raspberries. And I am glad that I did, instead I decided to top the whole sunset coloured creation with a reduction from the liquid that my peaches poached so happily in. 

Are there any lessons learnt from my pavlova creating experience? Why, as always, yes!

1. Listen when Stephanie Alexander tells you to leave the pavlova in the oven after baking it - leave it until the whole thing has cooled down and, for heavens sake, don't peek at it, not even once, even though you thought it would be OK to continue to peek at it after doing it the first time. It just gets worse, pavlovas are way too sensitive to be ogled until they are ready to be dressed. 
2. Don't whip the cream too much so that you have butter, but maybe whip it enough so that if you take it outside to photograph on a sunny day, the whole thing doesn't begin to descend down the plate in a tragic, fruity landslide**.
3. When you poach the peaches in their boiling hot wine and vanilla liquid, maybe don't go prodding them with your finger to see if they are done, poke them with a knife. It's OK, the peaches like it, your fingers on the other hand, will not. 

* I am aware that there is a grey area as to where the Pavlova originated from, but if New Zealand hadn't beaten us so horrifically in the rugby world cup semi's, I may have felt differently about sharing this dessert with them. Yes, this is a gastronomical protest, one month later.

** This was evident if you were able to see the pav from the other side in the lead photo. I didn't want to frighten you. 

Pav-Melba, or Pavlova with Orange Blossom Cream, topped with Poached Peaches, fresh Raspberries and Syrup


Pavlova Base:
Recipe from Stephanie Alexander's, The Cooks Companion
4 Egg Whites at room temp
Pinch of salt
250g castor sugar
2 tsps corn starch
1 tsp white wine vinegar
A few drops of good vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper and draw an approximate 20cm circle onto it, this is where the pav will bake.
2. Beat the egg whites and salt until you have stiff peaks
3. Beat in the sugar, a little at a time until it is fully incorporated and you don't have any graininess to the mixture. The mix should look stiff and glossy now.
4. Sprinkle the vanilla, corn starch and vinegar over the mix, fold to combine.
5. Dollop the mix onto the tray and smooth over the sides and top with a spatula.
6. After you put it in the oven, immediately reduce the temperature to 150C for 1/2 an hour. If the pav has browned a little, cover it with some foil, loosely.
7. Reduce the temp again to 120C for another 45 minutes.
8. Turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven until the oven has cooled entirely. 
9. Transfer to a plate or cake stand to dress with the cream and topping.

Orange Blossom Cream

250ml whipping cream

1 tbs orange blossom water

1 tbs icing sugar

1. Combine all ingredients and whip until firm but not too stiff. Smooth out over the top of the pavlova and put in the fridge to chill

Poached Peaches with fresh raspberries and syrup topping (variation of Peach Melba)

6 ripe peaches
1 1/2 cups of dry white wine
1 1/2 cups of water
1 fresh vanilla bean
1/2 cup of sugar

1. Half the peaches, remove the stones and set aside, leave the skin on.
2. Add the water, sugar and wine to a heavy based pan
3. Split the vanilla bean, remove the seeds with the blunt edge of a knife and add both to the pan.
4. Add the peach halves, facing down into the liquid and bring to the boil for 5 minutes.
5. Reduce the heat to medium/low and simmer with a lid on for 10 minutes before carefully turning the peaches over for a further 10 minutes.
6. Carefully remove the peaches and chill in the fridge until cool enough to pull off the skins which should be easy after poaching.
7. Turn the heat to high and boil the syrup until you have reduced it by 2/3
8. Take off the heat and put in fridge to cool down.
9. Slice the peaches into wedges, arrange on cream on top of the pav. Arrange fresh raspberries amongst the peach slices.
10. Drizzle with the syrup.
11. Enjoy with a glass of your finest bubbles.

Now, hop, hop, yourself on over to all the other wonderful pavlova creations in The Australian Pavlova Blog Hop!

Crab Linguine with Chilli and Watercress

When I was young, my Dad's side of the family used to have (in my opinion) the best Christmas lunches. I'm not talking about the company because that would be too hard a decision, I loved alternating between Mum and Dad's side of the family and spending the day with my cool, older Sydney cousins on Dad's side one year, and then my fun, closer in age cousins in Orange the following year. What made the Sydney Christmas lunch the best for so many years? The seafood.  
In my opinion we had a better array of crustaceans than the Prawn-tastic Buffet at the casino. We didn't pay much attention to the traditional Christmas fare, however there was always the cursory cold ham that would be nibbled on at the end when all the seafood had disappeared, and no doubt would be more appreciated in the coming days after on sandwiches. In the months leading up to Sydney Christmas, I would sit and think about the amazing food we were going to devour; lobster, prawns, freshly-shucked oysters (au natural, thank you very much) and the best thing of all, mud crab. We wouldn't eat seafood like that again for another 2 years. My brother and I loved it when it was Dad's turn to deal with the mud crab. He would arrive home with a large, white Styrofoam box and would place them on the kitchen table. We would hang around the box, eyeing it off and listening intently for the squeaking of the legs as they tried to make their escape. Then carefully Dad would remove them one by one from the box and we would watch them crawl across the kitchen floor for a few minutes before Dad would wrap them up in newspaper and pop them in the freezer "to go to sleep".

The next day, I always remember my Dad and my uncle boiling up the crabs in a large pot on the BBQ and enjoying "a few" beers while they were at it. I think they enjoyed the cooking of those crabs and lobsters just as much as eating them on Christmas Day. 
Now we are all older and those Sydney Seafood Christmases are a happy distant memory, I have been feeling the need to get a crab fix. I am not really the type yet (yet, my friends..the word is yet) to go boiling up a giant muddy on my own, crack it open and then pick out the meat. Just like my fear of roasting my first chicken, I don't want to screw it up. Screwing up the cooking of a crab is far worse than screwing up roasting a chicken. 

So I got my hands on some beautiful freshly picked blue swimmer crab meat. I wanted to make something simple, something that wouldn't take away from the sweetness of the meat. I decided to toss some of the crab through hot linguine and together with a sprinkling of chilli flakes, some peppery watercress, it made a fine dish to quell my crabby needfulness. This is not an overly saucy pasta dish, but once you add some of that important pasta water to the ingredients in the pan, you will find that every strand of linguine is coated with flavour. The main tip? Make sure you have big chunks of crab in there.
Any leftover crab can be mixed with a little mayo and lemon juice and then spread on a crusty baguette and topped with some watercress for a very posh lunch at work the next day!

Crab Linguine with Chilli and Watercress
Serves about 4 
1 packet of linguine
approx 400 g of freshly picked crab meat
good handful of watercress
Small about of olive oil
about 2 tsps of butter
about 2 tsps of dried chilli flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup of lemon juice
good slug of white wine
1/4 cup of pasta water (the starchy water that is left when the pasta has boiled)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water.
2. While this is happening, add the oil, butter, garlic and chilli to a pan and fry over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. 
3. Add the lemon juice and fry for a further 5 minutes
4. Add the white wine and continue to simmer this until the sauce has reduced a little.
5. Add the pasta water and continue to simmer until you have a desired consistency
6. Turn the heat to low, add the pasta then the watercress and crab meat. Toss to combine.
7. Serve immediately. 

Key Lime Pie

I have a friend called Sarah who hails all the way from North Carolina in the USA. She moved all the way down to Sydney for love and for love she is going to stay. 
With her she brought the most fantastic and delicious Southern recipes with her and, lucky for this Littlest Anchovy, she shared them with me! Mouth watering dishes like pulled pork, ham biscuits, pumpkin pie and now this. Whenever she has had her family to visit, they have brought with them hard to find ingredients so that she can continue to please her fiancé and friends with down-home Southern goodness. Yeah, we'll keep her!
Many a time I have requested Key Lime Pie and through my tenaciousness one day Sarah presented me with a box of Graham Crackers and a fun bottle of (how awesome is this) "Nellie and Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice".

The only time I had ever heard about Graham Crackers were in the 'Baby Sitters Club' books that I used to read as a kid where they would make S'Mores at summer camp after a day of pre-teen angst and, well, babysitting. And as for Key Lime juice, I think I had a Key Lime flavoured lip balm at some stage of my life...

According to Wikipedia, Key Limes are found mainly in the Florida Keys. They are small, yellow in colour and highly aromatic. The flavour is more tart and bitter than the regular limes you find in the fruit shop which to me is perfect to cut through the sweetness of the condensed milk used in the filling of the pie. Now, check out my Graham Cracker pie shell.

Now for a moment of truth: this was the third pie shell that I made. The first, I burnt. The second, I forgot to add the beaten egg white to the filling after I had poured it in the shell. So that is my box of crackers gone. Sarah was kind enough to flick me a few to photograph for this post when I brought the pie over to her and her fiancés house on the weekend. They were also kind enough to let me set up a mini photo shoot of the pie on their balcony. I paid them in pie. 

It is not unlike a lemon meringue pie in looks, but the flavour is unmistakably unique. Still, you can achieve a very tasty lime pie using lime juice and maybe throw in a teaspoon of lime zest to up the tang factor. Naturally, we don't have Graham Crackers readily available at your local Woolies, so try using Granita biscuits as a good substitute.

The recipe came from Sarah's copy of Someone's in the Kitchen with Melanie: A Southern Collection of Timeless, Treasured Recipes by Melanie Reid Soles

Mmm mm, now that's good eatin'!

Key Lime Pie

The recipe below was made, step by step from: Someone's in the Kitchen with Melanie: A Southern Collection of Timeless, Treasured Recipes, by Melanie Reid Soles however I did adapt it to suit Australian measurements and temperatures.

You will need a 22cm pie dish. 


For the base:
8-10 graham crackers (sheets of 4 small ones) OR 1/2 a packet Granita biscuits
6-7 tbsp butter, melted - OR about 5.5 Australian tbsp
1-2 tbsp sugar (optional)- OR 1.5 Australian tbsp


Pre heat the oven to 190*C
Break the crackers up and add them, along with the butter and sugar to a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs and the butter is fully incorporated into the mix.Spread the biscuit mixture evenly into pie dish, pressing down into the base and on the sides of the dish and then bake at 190*C until edges are beginning to brown.  Take the shell out and set aside to cool and harden.

For the filling
4 eggs, separated, put one of the whites aside from the rest
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz) OR 400 ml in Australia
1/2 cup key lime juice - Same in Australia
6 tbsp sugar - OR 4 3/4 Australian tbsp
1/2 tsp cream of tartar- Same in Australia

1. Combine condensed milk, 4 egg yolks and lime juice.  
2. Beat 1 egg white until stiff peaks form and fold into mixture. 
3. Pour the mixture carefully into the pie shell. 
4. Now for the meringue: Beat 3 egg whites until you have stiff peaks and then gradually add the sugar and the cream of tartar while beating.  Cover top of pie with meringue and using a fork, make "waves" in the meringue, these will become brown in the oven.  
5. Bake at 180*C for 20 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned.  
6. Chill for at least 8 hours or even better, over night. 

Cold Soba Noodle Salad

Um, so I am not sure if any of you (Sydneysiders) have noticed lately, but it is November and it is like being stuck in a bamboo steamer. It looks like it is going to be a long, hot, steamy summer and I am not in the mood for hot, heavy meals any more. I want the following adjectives to describe my meals for awhile; fresh, crunchy, cool, tangy, juicy, and maybe a just a little bit spicy.

There is no need for comfort food for now. It is all about eating light, flavoursome foods that make you feel happy that summer is nearly here.
This salad does exactly that. I have had a packet of soba noodles sitting in the pantry for longer than I care to leave soba noodles (they are one of my favourite ingredients: served cold with dipping sauce), but I wanted more, more of those adjectives up there.

As I type this the sky has opened up and provided much needed relief. This is a familiar feeling to me; revelling in the feeling of plunging  myself into water, and then switching to wishing and hoping for a storm, to bucket down and cool everything off. 

But I digress. The dressing on this salad was not something I was used to having with soba noodles, but seriously, do yourself a favour and give it a go, it will make you feel happy, just as I do right now, listening to the rain watering all my plants and cooling everything off. 

Cold Soba Noodle Salad

adapted from this recipe

1 packet soba noodles

1 cooked chicken breast, shredded.

I large red chilli, seeds removed, julienned

1/2 bunch of corriander, stems finely sliced and leaves roughly torn

Good handful of raw snow peas, juilienned

2 shallots finely chopped

1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds, reserve some for garnish

For the dressing:

zest and juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tbsp honey

3 tbsp tamari

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp mirin

1. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl, whisk together and set aside
2. Cook the noodles in salted boiling water for 4 minutes or until al dente, then drain.
3. Add all the chopped vegetables and chicken to the noodles, toss to combine
4. Then add the dressing, toss to combine.
5. Set the salad aside in the fridge to cool 
6. Garnish the reserved sesame seeds before serving.

Blood Orange, Mint and Campari Granita

Yes, I see that summer stone fruits are now in season. Yes, I know how wonderful they are and how most Australians wait with bated breath for the first mangos of the season. But, no, I am not done with blood oranges. Yes, I am metaphorically clinging on to the section that holds the blood oranges in the fruit shop, screaming wildly to the startled shop assistants; "Leave me with them, I still have time! There is still time!"

Why do I have such an obsession over a simple piece of fruit? Because to me it is simply not a simple piece of fruit. Not only do they look gorgeous and interesting, but they taste like they have been injected with raspberries. Well, anyway, that is what I think of when I eat them and with raspberries at the price they are at now...well, that is just a whole can of worms that I don't care to open and I am sure the imaginary fruit shop assistants don't want me to get started on that either (I've put them through enough).

And on that note, we gracefully segue into my latest blood orange creation. Blood Orange, Mint and Campari Granita. The weather is warming up and there is no escaping it. Given that, it is best to be prepared with lovely alcoholic dessert to greet you at the end of the day. There is Blood Orange juice, there is mint and there is Campari. I don't know what else to say about this, it almost brought tears to my eyes when I tried it on a hot day here in Sydney (and its only Spring!). I am glad I have loads left in the freezer; it will prevent any attacks of madness in the imaginary fruit shop - for the foreseeable future, anyway. 

Blood Orange, Mint and Campari Granita
Adapted from " How to make a Granita" at Taste.com.au


Juice of around 6 Blood Oranges plus zest from 2 of them
100 g sugar
1/4 cup Campari
Approx 8 large mint leaves - reserve 2, finely chopped for garnish

1. In a saucepan and over a medium heat, add the juice, zest, sugar, Campari and mint leaves and stir for about 10 minutes until all the sugar is disolved.  Then set aside to cool.
2. Strain the mixture into a shallow container, then cover and freeze for one hour.
3. Using a fork, stir the ice crystals around the container and then put it back in the freezer for 1/2 an hour. 
4. Repeat stirring up the ice crystals every half an hour, 3 or 4 times.
5. When you are ready to serve, fork the crystals until it resembles what you see above. Return the granita to the freezer for an hour. 
6. Serve topped with the finely sliced mint.
7. Stores well in the freezer for when you need it the most. 
8. It wont last long though, trust me.