A good pavlova is perfection, but your baking doesn’t need to be.
“It’s the dessert of the no-fuss New Zealand nation,” insists Jess Murphy of Kai restaurant, a Galway destination with a Michelin Green Star for sustainability. “And if it doesn’t work out, you can turn it into a beautiful Eton mess. Cover it with cream. If it is wonky, you can style it out.”
Murphy's winter pavlova is the third recipe in her fuss-free Christmas menu, which begins with Bertie and Niamh's Inis Mór crab with brown bread and continues with roast spatchcock turkey with soda bread sauce.
Pavlova is way easier to make than people think, she says. “All you have to do is make sure there’s no fat in the egg whites when you make it. So everything’s clean; your egg white is clean and off you go. Add your sugar slowly so it builds up. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down and none of it falls out. That’s how you know it’s whipped enough. Then put it in a really low oven.”
Murphy makes hers in advance and keeps it in the spare room, away from the dogs and cats. Then, on the day, she whips the cream. “Whipping cream is kind of your ‘me time’ on Christmas day to get away from everybody.”
It’s one of her three go-to desserts for Christmas; the others are trifle and tiramisu.
“You can prepare them all in advance,” she says. “Don’t be freaking out trying to make a Bake Off-style showstopper on Christmas morning. My tradition is actually to buy a trifle from Cafe Rua in Mayo. If you’re making tiramisu, you can use artisan coffee, from someone like Cloudpicker, and a beautiful Irish-made vodka, like Dingle Vodka.”
All you need is cream
For Christmas, make a seasonal switch for your pavlova topping. “I use winter fruits. There’s lots of pears and apples in season, so let’s just use seasonal produce from the island of Ireland,” Murphy says.
“I used roasted pears for this one. I roast them earlier in the day so they are nice and cool to just dicky on top of the pav. Then I’ve a jar of beautiful buffalo milk dulce de leche, which is the most stunning thing,” she says.
“If you like caramel, this is the caramel for you. It’s so good. It’s pre-made, it comes in a jar, you buy it in Sheridans. Pick up your cheese and your caramel in one go. Once again, take away the stress of it. Then all you need is cream.”
Say cheese
Finishing the Christmas day meal with a cheese board is customary for Murphy (who once worked as a cheesemonger in Sheridans) and she is seen here with Finbar Deery, head of retail at Sheridans Cheesemongers.
“An Irish Crozier Blue is a beautiful soft blue. That’s a crowd-pleaser that everybody would like,” she says of one of Deery’s picks below for a Christmas evening cheeseboard. “Then we also have the Templegall, which won the Supreme Champion at the Cáis awards.”
Deery’s ideal cheeseboard caters to a range of tastes, beginning with the pyramidal Pouligny Saint Pierre, a goat’s cheese that, he reassures, isn’t too goaty. Mont d’Or features on his cheeseboard, too – as it’s only in season for a few months each year, Christmas is a great time to indulge.
For fans of blue cheese, he also recommends Crozier Blue, a sister cheese to Cashel Blue. This sheep’s milk cheese is made in Tipperary and has a salty, punchy flavour. Carrig Bru is a mild cow’s milk cheese aged with beer and is great to cook with. For those fond of Alpine-style cheeses, the award-winning Templegall with its nutty taste is the one to pick.
Late on Christmas evening, Murphy will be making a gooey cheese toastie using a cast iron grill on her Neff induction hob. “Induction is perfect,” she says. “You go from zero to hero in seconds. And Mont d’Or season is phenomenal – if you know you know. It’s the ultimate French fondue cheese.”
Of her easy, cheesy toastie, she says, “I’ve just tarted that up a bit. It’s another crowd pleaser. You can have that with a glass of sparkling wine or a glass of perry and it makes everybody feel comfortable.”
Pavlova with dulce de leche and sherry roast pears
INGREDIENTS
Pavlova base:
- 6 egg whites, at room temp
- A pinch of salt
- 300g caster sugar
- 2 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Roast pears:
- 4 Conference pears
- 45g butter
- 100g Muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 120 ml Pedro Ximénez sherry
- 120 ml water
To decorate:
- Dulce de leche
- Whipped cream, to taste
- 150g walnuts
- 4 pomegranates, 2 de-seeded and 2 quartered
METHOD:
To make the base:
- Heat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and mark a circle about 20cm diameter with a plate
- Place the egg whites with salt into a clean bowl and beat with a mixer
- Slowly add the sugar with the beater running
- Beat for 10 minutes at high speed until the meringue is thick and glossy with stiff peaks. At the very last mix whisk in the corn flour and apple cider vinegar
- Use a big spoon to drop dollops of meringue into the circled area of baking paper. Form it into a circle of meringue and make swirls with the spoon on the top rather than flattening to a neat tidy disc
- Pop in the oven at 140 for around 80 minutes
- Turn off the heat, and leave the pavlova to cool in the oven.
To make the pears:
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius
- Peel, core and halve the pears
- Add butter to a heavy oven-proof pan, and add pears face down. Add sugar, lemon juice, sherry and water, and heat in a saucepan over a medium heat for five minutes
- Transfer to the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until pears are tender.
To serve:
- Decant the dulce de leche into a microwave-proof dish and heat until pourable
- Lightly whip cream
- Adorn cooled pavlova with the whipped cream, sprinkle on the walnuts, add the roasted pears and drizzle the dulce de leche generously over the top. Lastly, add the pomegranate seeds on top and decorate with the pomegranate quarters.
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