Pavlova--YUM!!!

soooo good!

That is all I need to say. So delicious, light creamy, bits of crunchy from the meringue with the bright and sweet tastes of the fresh berries. What can be better.

Been wanting to test this recipe. I was thinking that I would maybe make mini ones for the restaurant. I needed to see if it would hold up, how long it would keep and if anyone would like it. I needed an audience to test beside me and WG. 

Then my audience arrived this month. Friends taking their daughter back to college, staying at the house as their home base. And foodies on top of it, perfect!

The pavlova was the finishing course of 4 course meal:

• STARTER: grilled tomato salsa and prosecco
• SALAD: panzanella salad and champagne
• MAIN: grilled rack of goat and shrimp and red wine
• DESSERT: pavlova with lilikoi mousse, sweeten whipped cream, blackberries and raspberries

Will post more about this meal but this post it's all about the sweets and I wanted to share this recipe. Great presentation and so delicious. You will make your guests very impressed and happy.

Used the Ina Garten's Mixed Berry Pavlova recipe. I didn't think the oven was hot enough and baking time seemed too short because I didn't think the meringue wasn't crisp enough. With further research, I've found some other recipes that I may try this again. One from Smittenkitchen.com, that took me to this one from SimpleRecipes.com.

Here's some pictures of my pavlova. The meringue cake can be made ahead. It takes the longest time. But what I did was make it in the morning and let it sit until my guest arrive and put it together right before serving. 

the meringue cake

I had 2 layers on top of the meringue cake. The center layer was lilikoi mousse that I made up with some leftover lilikoi syrup for another recipe [fail] and blackberries and raspberry. Top layer was whipped cream with the rest of the berries.

I whipped up a cup of cold heavy cream with 1/4 of sugar, till I got stiff peaks. Watch out you don't make butter. Then I put half of it in another bowl and added the lilikoi syrup. The lilikoi syrup I have was from a failed attempt from this recipe http://userealbutter.com/2015/01/28/blood-orange-pate-de-fruit-recipe/. I was trying to make an orange passionfruit version on my first try and it didn't set which left me syrup. If I made the syrup from scratch, I would make up as simple syrup and add the juice and reduce to it became syrup-y. You don't need that much to flavor the whipped cream. I probably added about 1/4 to 1/3 cup. It's mostly to taste.

My friend and her daughter assembled the pavlova. They lovingly distributing the berries on each layer. But if you are lazy like me, you can plop the lilikoi mousse on the meringue cake. The berries on top of mousse, the whipped cream on top of the berries and drizzle he  lilikoi syrup on top of all of it.

all put together

with the drizzle of lilikoi syrup

The five of us tried our best to eat all of it but we couldn't. The leftovers [for me and WG, twist our arms] was eaten the next day, not as good texture-wise, a smig soggy but taste-wise still delicious. Try it! You and your guest will not be disappointed.

Kind of a Citrus Day

Been looking for new and interesting jam recipe and I found this marmalade recipe I thought I'd try out, Cara Cara Pineapple Marmalade from Spectacularly Delicious. Sound like great combination and it probably look great because of the Cara Cara oranges. Cara Cara oranges are kind of coral color inside, sweet and easy to peel. 

This recipe didn't seem that hard to do and it didn't have an overnight soak so I decide to try it out this morning after a batch of Kiwi Apple Jam and some Apple Bread Pudding. While the bread pudding was in the oven I started to prep the oranges. 

Peel sliced and skinned oranges ready to be process

It seems like a lot of peel and was worried that it would be too bitter but this was my first try with this recipe so I was trying not to stray too far. I boiled peel twice as the recipe said. Then on to the skinned oranges and pineapples

processing the pineapple chunks

I processed the skinned orange but didn't get as much as the recipe mentioned but they recommended to add as much sugar as the processed orange, which was 3.5 cups. I also process the my chunk pineapple a bit to break it down to be more like crushed. I had 15oz chunk pineapple so that what I used.

cooking down to thicken up

Tossed everything in the pot brought up to boil and turn down to simmer and skimmed the scum of the top. I thought it may not be sweet enough but I was mistaken. I add juice of whole lemon to level off the sweetest. 

Beautiful color

It had a nice flavor, not a lot of pineapple, could add another 1/2 15oz can to bump that up. There was a lot of peel but it didn't make it bitter because the pre-boil but I think it was a little too much and would eliminate peel from 1 orange. It made 3 pints and 1 half pint. A definitely make again recipe.

I guess I was feeling very ambitious and made a batch of orange curd. I had three navel oranges that I wanted use up. I zested and juiced the oranges while the marmalade was simmered. 

Waiting for marmalade to be done

I used my favorite Ina Garten's Lemon Curd recipe, the one I use for my lilikoi, lime, and most recently raspberry curd. It is so easy and fast. The oranges gave me slightly over 3/4 of cup of juice and I decided to use all it in the curd. It came out beautiful as usual and gave me 1 pint and 1 half pint. 

too beautiful to give away

Last week, while my old friend, J from Hawaii came for a visit, I decided to test out an idea I got from pinterest to make mousse with the lemon curd from The Kitchen McCabe. Instead of lemon, I used that raspberry curd I made. Add a lemon-y white cake and vanilla bean swiss meringue butter cream to finish it off.

Needed a vehicle to test out my raspberry mousse

I think I'll make orange mousse for WG as he seems to love that stuff. Maybe adjusting the the cake above to be orange instead of lemon and test it out on my office mates this week. 

Raspberry and Lilikoi! Yum!

So good!

Can't believe how great these are--Raspberry and Lilikoi Bars. Used Dorie Greenspan's Raspberry Lemon Bars recipe, I substituted my lilikoi curd instead of lemon curd. I went a little crazy with the raspberry but wanted to use up what I had left. 

For lilikoi curd, I used Ina Garten's Lemon curd recipe [I posted about it here.] substituted lilikoi pulp [I got it frozen, can't grow it here in NJ--:(], I used 3/4 c of pulp and added 1/8 c more of sugar. It's such beautiful yellow color. Smells and taste great. Definitely worth making for a gift. 

I used about a cup and half of curd which is pretty much a whole recipe of curd. This is why they are so delicious. 

Payment in food

Before I forget, Thank you so much C's Dad for all the work you did at the house. We totally appreciate it. And to C's Mom thanks for loaning out your handy husband on this trip. And one last thank you to C, C's Mom, C's Dad and B for the pillow to calm my hot flashes. It's keeping me at a steady coolish temp throughout the night.

I love to cook for people who love to eat. And I had the perfect house guests for it. 

All of my cooking came about by a visit from C, C's Mom, C's Dad and B. They were in town to get C situated with her car and apartment. I asked the very handy C's Dad if he could help me out with a few projects around the house if he had sometime. In payment, I would cook up some meals for them.

C, C's Mom and B were off on an adventure exploring Lambertville, New Hope and Princeton for the day and while C's Dad and I tackled the gym. Pictures of the gym are here. And what we found in the process of the setting the gym up, inspired our dinner for the  night. GRILL! 

This grill was sitting in a box in our garage for I don't know how long.

A Vat of Lemon Curd

Well, it is citrus season [I started this post a while ago when it really was citrus season] and I needed to use up some Meyer Lemons that I had, so why not make 1 1/2 recipe of  Ina Garten's Lemon Curd. It so easy and delicious. Who cares that I have already have a pint in my refrigerator. 

I ended up with total 4 1/2 pints and 4 little jars of curd. I used a bottle for the cookies below and keep 1/2 pint for myself for another attempt at the Black Sesame Chiffon Cake and some macrons. And the rest of the curd will be for friends.

I'm going to try and make some lilikoi curd using this recipe. Stay tune.

Both WG and I love cookies with jam in it. Been dying to try out this thumbprint/Sable cookies from Lottie + Doof with some leftover whole wheat flour and walnuts. And I thought the lemon curd would go great as the filling. This recipe gets a thumbs up. It's perfectly sweet and such great texture. I will more of this. Wish I took a picture. They were very picture worthy. Next time.

But what I really want to use the lemon curd for is a Chai Spice cupcake with lemon curd filling and cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It's one of my favorite cupcakes [I really want to make a layered cake with this recipe but the customers just seem to like the red velvet].

Tah dah! Chai Tea cake with lemon curd filling and lemon cinnamon buttercream. I avoided a decorating disaster, buttercream too hard from spending too much time in the refrig to firm up. Took apart once, to level off layer 1, sort of. This is why I don't enjoy decorating cake. Gave up to idea of frosting the top, buttercream just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. Made a ring of flowers to hold the lemon curd in the center. I went around a couple times, started to like the look--like a pikaki lei.

Pretty good save. But I have bring it in to work one day late. Forgot to put it in the car. Oh well, Happy Belated Birthday! Hope people like it.

A Bunch of Energy

So far this year I've had a bunch of energy and I've been putting it to good use. Besides the usual baking and jamming for the restaurant, I've been recipe testing and knitting my way through my yarn stash. I guess it doesn't hurt that it is bitterly cold outside and all of these tasks are prefect for a cold day. Here's a couple of recipes I've tested that came out great.

Recipe Testing

{Savory} Tried out two recipes from http://nomnompaleo.com/. No, I'm not on the Paleo diet. These recipes are great and really worth trying out. 

Slow Cooker Kalua Pig

A pile of shredded goodness

I know you can't beat the really thing but when you live thousands of miles away from Hawaii, you got to go to the next best thing. All done in my crock pot in 12 hours. Of course, I started it at 8:30am so it was done at 8:30pm. But my house smell delicious. And guess who came home and ate a bunch of it. I made it again and have a container in the freezer. I even made Kalua Pork and Cabbage with the little bit of leftovers that I had. Hmmmm. So good. 

Crackin' Chicken
I forgot to get a picture of this but this is a must try if you like crispy crunch chicken. A bit messy as the grease pops as the chicken is cooking. I had to scrub and wipe down my stove after. [I'm off to the dollar store for a splatter guard--totally worth the dollar]. I even made a small batch of the ghee to cook the chicken in. Very addicting.