The Pavlova Challenge

I am proud to say that I successfully made my very first homemade pavlova for our Le Wolfe Magique Christmas celebration.

In my mind a Christmas meal is just not complete without a traditional Kiwi pav. Crisp on the outside, soft and marshmallowy in the centre then piled high with freshly whipped cream and fruit. Yum!

Ironically I used an Australian Woman’s Weekly recipe purely because you bake the pavlova on a plate. A genius idea which eliminates the potentially risky step of transferring the pav from the baking tray to the plate.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons cornflour

5 egg whites

1¼ cups caster sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour, extra

300ml cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 punnet strawberries

1 punnet raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a large, round ovenproof plate with melted butter, leaving a 3cm border. Sift cornflour over greased area.

2. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until frothy and soft peaks have started to form. Gradually add the sugar (I started with 1 tablespoon at a time until half was gone then added 2-3 tablespoons at a time), beating well until dissolved between additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Use a large metal spoon or spatula to fold in extra sifted cornflour.

 3. Pile the mixture into the centre of the prepared plate. Use the back of the spoon or spatula to spread out into a circle, making a shallow well in the centre.

 4. Reduce oven to 100°C just before putting in the pav. Bake in the lower half of the oven for 1½ hours  or until dry and crisp to the touch. Turn off the oven and let cool with the oven door ajar.

5. To serve, whip cream and vanilla together until soft peaks form. Spread over the cooled pavlova, top with strawberries and raspberries (of course you can decorate with any fruit you like).

For the original recipe, visit http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/food/8174360/classic-pavlova-baked-on-a-plate.

Lentil & Kumara Pie

 
Happy Friday everyone !! I LOVE Fridays but they are also my cooking night at home.. This is never an easy thing in my house as I currently live with my family who are all on a Palaeo/Primal mix diet. This means they do NOT eat sugar & simple carbohydrates, PLUS on top of this my sister is currently breast feeding my handsome 3 month nephew and she is dairy & gluten free! PLUS just to keep on going we have been eating a LOT of meat all week so I decided to try do something vegetarian...

So I want to share will y'all my Kumara & Lentil pie (Kumara instead of potato because potato is not a primal vegetable, meaning it is not in its original form).

I have a family of 6 and we eat quite big portions so keep that in mind if you are going to try this recipe. Normally I just guess proportions of different ingredients but I tried my best to put them into metric amounts here!

There are really 2 parts to this recipe so I will put them separately...

Serves 6 - 8 Adults
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 30 mins
Photos below to help instruction :)

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce:
1 Big Onion
6 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp of Rice Bran Oil (or Grape seed oil)
1 800g Can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp of Honey
1 tsp Mixed herbs

Method:
1. Dice the onion & crush the garlic - Chuck in a pot with the Oil and saute lightly
2. Add the tomatoes and remaining ingredients and cook on medium temperature till bubbling lightly.
3. Take off heat and blend with a stick blender or whatever you have till it makes a smooth yummy sauce.

Set this aside and start on the pie!

Base:
1 Big Onion
3 x 300g of canned lentils
1 tsp Dried sage
1 tsp Salt
3 cups of the tomato sauce (above)
1/2 bag of baby spinach

Topping:
3-4 Large Kumara
2 Tbsp of sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbsp of whole grain mustard
2 tsp of Tumeric (My fav spice at the mo!)
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup Rice milk (Or any milk if your not dairy free!)

Method:
1. Peel and chop the kumara and put to boil till soft enough to mash
2. While the kumara is boiling, drain & wash the lentils and place into large mixing bowl
3. Dice onion very finely and place in mixing bowl
4. Add all remaining base ingredients to mixing bowl and mix till evenly spread
5. Once kumara is boiled, drain and add all topping ingredients to pot and mash till smooth
6. Add base ingredients in a large oven proof dish and carefully spread the kumara mash on top
7. Put in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees C) for 30 minutes.
8. SERVE!

NB: If you are not dairy free add cheese to the top for a yummy twist! I added some grated cheese on top of just half the pie and grilled it for 5 mins at the end :)

Blogged by: Megan