Double Chocolate Pavlova

Pavlova is a meringue, cream and fruit dessert that originated in Australia. It’s named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and was invented when she visited the land down under in 1920.

This recipe is rich and delicious, with sweet, velvety chocolate cream smothering the light chewy disks of chocolate meringue. The tart bite of the berries is just icing on the cake, so to speak. I decided to make individually sized pavlovas rather than one large dessert, but you could easily alter this recipe to make one big one.

The recipe for the meringue comes from the blog What Katie Ate, altered slightly for an American audience.

I decided to switch up the regular pavlova thing, though, and try pastry cream instead of whipped cream, a lighter choice because it’s made with milk rather than 35 percent. And fear not, just because it’s lighter, it doesn't taste any less decadent. Chocolate pastry cream is like chocolate pudding, thick, sweet and delicious. 

Another reason I chose pastry cream over whipping cream was to use up the six egg yolks that were left after making the meringue. The Kitchen Geeks hate waste and this chocolate cream recipe calls for exactly six yolks. Pretty sweet coincidence...pardon the pun.

Click here to read some important meringue-making tips before you begin.

Ingredients
For the Meringue:
6 egg whites
1 1/3 cups white sugar
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
50 g of good-quality chocolate chopped into small pieces

For the Chocolate Cream:
2 ½ cups of milk
2 tsp. vanilla
6 yolks
½ cup sugar
4 tbsp. flour
4 tbsp. corn starch

Fruit, whichever combination you like, cleaned and cut

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whip the egg whites until they reach the soft peak stage, either by hand and whisk or with an electric mixer. Slowly add the sugar, and continue beating until the mixture is stiff and glossy. You’ll know it’s done when you can hold the bowl upside down without spillage.

Step 2

Sift in the cocoa, and fold in the vinegar and chopped chocolate. Mix until just combined.

Step 3

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop even portions of the mixture onto the tray, evenly spaced out. Six or eight per tray, depending on how big you want them. Put a little butter on a small flat spatula and flatten the blobs into disks a little less than an inch thick.

Step 4

Reduce the oven heat to 275 F, and place the baking trays in. Bake them for about 40 minutes, or until they have are crisp around the edges, which will have little cracks. The top will be dry, but the inside will still be soft. Turn off the oven and allow them to cool inside with the door slightly ajar.

Step 5

Heat the milk and vanilla over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble around the edges. While the milk is heating, mix the egg yolks with the sugar. Stir the flour and cornstarch into the yolk mixture to form a paste. Once the milk is hot, pour it slowly into the paste, mixing constantly to avoid curdling.

Step 6

Add the mixture back into the pan and heat it up on medium, stirring constantly until it thickens. It’s done when the consistency is like mayonnaise. Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the chocolate, mixing until smooth.

Step 7

To assemble, place a meringue disk on a plate, add pastry cream, then fruit, top with another disk, more cream and fruit. Decorate with a little icing sugar and shaved chocolate if you like.

Tips:

To store the chocolate pastry cream until you’re ready to assemble, place plastic wrap directly on its surface and put it in the fridge. When you’re ready to assemble, stir it thoroughly.

Meringue Tips

Meringues are foams that combine stiffly beaten egg whites, sugar and an acid. The consistency of a meringue depends on its sugar content and how it’s cooked, and it can range from soft to chewy to brittle. 

It’s typically a topping for pies, as in lemon meringue pie, but it can also be more cakelike and used as a base for a dish like pavlova.

Some important points to keep in mind when making meringue:

• Fat interferes with the formation of a good foam, so keep fat away at all costs. Never use a plastic bowl for whipping egg whites. Fat clings to plastic, and no matter how well you’ve cleaned that bowl, chances are some grease remains. Always use a glass or stainless steel bowl for making meringues.

•  Yolk contains fat, so don’t let even a drop of yolk get in your egg whites. Break your egg whites individually into a separate bowl to ensure each one is clean before you combine them in your larger bowl.

• Leave the egg whites at room temperature for about half an hour before beating them; cold egg whites don’t beat into a foam as easily.

• Whip your egg whites into soft peaks before adding the sugar. Adding it in the beginning can double your whipping time. The sugar molecules get in the way of the egg proteins, and it takes longer for the proteins to find each other and form bonds. Ah, that sounds so sweet, doesn’t it?

•  Why add vinegar? Acid helps avoid lumpiness, loss of water and collapse. Scientifically speaking, by adding acid, you’re adding positively charged particles, or hydrogen ions, that hop onto charged portions of the proteins and leave them uncharged. Electrically neutral proteins are less likely to react with other proteins. In other words, vinegar = good.

Beet Chips

I love beets. They have such an earthy flavour and sweet taste. And beet chips are the bomb.

For this batch, I used red beets, but you can also try candy cane or yellow beets, which are less messy to work with.

My kids even love beet chips. We dip them in tzatziki with some sliced cucumber and sugar peas for a healthy, tasty snack.

If you're using a mandolin to slice the beets, be very, very careful. My neighbour sliced off the tip of her finger with one of those bad boys earlier this year.


Ingredients:
2 large beets
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste

Step 1
Trim the beets, if necessary, and peel using a regular vegetable peeler.

Step 2
Slice the beets into rounds as thinly as possible. You can use a mandolin (but be careful), a regular sharp knife or a vegetable peeler if the beets are on the small side.

Step 3
Toss the slices in olive oil. I also wiped a thin layer of olive oil on the baking sheet to make doubly sure they wouldn't stick. Toss them in a bit of salt and place them in a single layer on a baking tray. They can be close together, but don't overlap; they will shrink quite a bit.

Step 4
Place the tray in a 375 F-degree oven until they're crispy and delicious. Check for doneness after about 15 minutes.

Quick Tip: Cutting Onions Without the Tears

The most annoying part about cooking with onions is the eye irritation and resulting tears. Blech.

Here's why: when the onion is sliced, cells are broken, and a compound called propanethial-s-oxide is released as a vapour. When this vapour comes into contact with your peepers, it's converted into a form of sulphuric acid, which produces that stinging sensation and makes your eyes water.

To minimize tears, chill the onion in ice water for half an hour, or in the fridge for a few hours beforehand. Then, work quickly, cleaning the chopped onion off the board often. Once the onion pieces warm up, the waterworks will begin, so vamoose!

Some sources recommend actually cutting the onions underwater, but that seems awkward. They're slippery little buggers even out of water. But if you feel up to it, by all means, give it a go! Please be careful, though.

Also, using a very sharp knife will limit the cell damage, and there will be less vapour released.

You can also try keeping the root in tact while chopping, as it contains the highest concentration of that annoying tear-inducing compound.

If you're not afraid of looking like a complete dork, there are two other suggestions you can try:

• Wear goggles.
• Place a slice of bread between your teeth, so it's half sticking out of your mouth. This will supposedly catch the fumes.
• Even better, stick the bread in your mouth while wearing goggles (and send pictures!).

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How to Make Awesome Marinara Sauce

Use fresh tomatoes in season, otherwise canned tomatoes work well.

Marinara, aka tomato sauce, is a multi-purpose sauce used for pastas, pizza or other such yummy delicacies as chicken or veal parmesan or, my personal favourite, meatball sandwiches.

I always have some on hand, mainly because I hate the premade jarred varieties, which tend to taste metallic and just plain yucky. I prefer a sweet, tangy tomato sauce, and this recipe fits the bill.

Fresh tomatoes are all well and good when they’re in season. But for convenience, I use either a jar of strained tomatoes with nothing added but a bit of salt and some basil. Or a good quality can of whole tomatoes, which tend to be better quality than their diced or crushed counterparts.

This makes enough for a lightly sauced pasta, with enough left over for pizza. If I’m not planning to make a pizza within a few days, I store the leftovers in the freezer.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 jar of strained tomatoes or a can of whole tomatoes, juices drained
1 tsp. granulated sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil

Step 1

Add oil to a pot over medium meat. Once oil is heated, add the shallot and cook for a few minutes, stirring it to avoid burning. Add the minced garlic, and stir it in, allowing it to heat for 20 seconds or so. 

Step 2

Add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper, and bring it to a slow simmer. If you're using the whole tomatoes, crush them with clean hands before adding, or you can use a potato masher once you add it all together if you don't mind a chunky sauce. Allow it to simmer for a half hour or so. Add your finely chopped basil once you’ve removed it from the heat.

Tips
If you decide to go the fresh tomato route, cut them in half and add them with the garlic. Don't remove the jelly, seeds or skin to start, as these components hold the most flavour. Instead, after they've broken down and reduced adequately, strain the sauce through a food mill or sieve to remove the seeds and skin.

Going the fresh tomato route, if you want to reduce cooking time, halve the tomatoes and predry them in a warm oven beforehand. Because tomatoes are watery, if you don't reduce the sauce's water content, it'll separate into thick and thin portions.

Quick Tip: Cutting Soft Cheeses

Soft cheeses like Brie, Camembert or goat’s cheeses are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. They make a great addition to pizzas, grilled cheese sandwiches or as part of a quiche, to name a few applications. But cutting into soft cheeses can be a messy job, and often ends up looking like a clump of soft goo. So what’s a girl to do?

Stick said soft cheese in the freezer for about fifteen minutes before you’re ready to cut it, and presto, you’ve got a harder soft cheese, and great sliceability.

If you’re a cheese purist, however, and are concerned about the short freezing process purging some of its moisture, use a piece of dental floss to slice through. It’s not unlike the wire a cheese monger will use, and will give you a clean cut. Just avoid the mint-flavoured floss...

Quinoa: A Primer

Quinoa means "mother grain."

Quinoa, also referred to as vegetable caviar or Inca rice, is a grain native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Despite being a relatively new addition to the North American diet, the people of the Andes have consumed it for over 5,000 years.

Quinoa, it seems, is all the rage these days. It’s being touted as a wonder grain all over the media for its high protein and amino acid content. And if that’s not enough, when compared to wheat, barley and corn, its official rivals, quinoa is lower in sodium, and higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc, and it’s gluten-free to boot!

Quinoa is used for flour, soups, breakfast cereals and alcohol. Most of the quinoa sold in the US is in grain form that needs to be cooked. Despite its prevalence in the media, however, many of us are stumped as to what to do with it. Its very exoticness (yup, that’s a word) makes it intimidating. Well, fear the grain no more, here’s a basic primer.

To Cook:

Before cooking, you’ll want to rinse it. Cover 1 cup of quinoa in a bowl and add enough water to cover it. Gently rub the grains in your hands to remove the saponin, a bitter outer coating. Drain it into a fine mesh strainer, then repeat if desired. Most quinoa is pre-rinsed, but it doesn’t hurt to do it a few more times.

To cook quinoa, bring two cups of water to a boil. Stir in the rinsed quinoa, reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed. Let it sit for at least five minutes, then fluff it with a fork.

One cup of cooked quinoa contains 155 calories, 30 g carbs, 3 g fat, 5.5 g protein and 3 g fiber. 
  

Mix it with any combination of veggies, dried fruit and vinaigrette you like to make a salad. Or, like rice, you can pile a delicious stir-fry on top and eat it that way. The possibilities are endless.

To Make Quinoa Flour:

Wash the seeds, then place them in a heated skillet, stirring constantly until they’re dry. Let them cool, then process in a blender until it reaches the desired flour-like consistency. Two-thirds a cup of seeds will yield about 1 cup of flour. Store the flour in an airtight container in the freezer for up to four months. You can use the flour to replace part of regular flour in muffins, quick-breads, pancakes, etc.