Steemit Iron Chef 2018 - Act 02 Round 04 - Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas
Birds and animals love them but so do humans! They come in the most gorgeous hues - red, blue, black, yellow, orange, purple as well as white, and are used in kitchens for cooking and baking; desserts, cakes, jams and jellies, sauces for sweet and savoury dishes, to name a few. Some are sweet, some are sour, but they're all packed with flavour and most are a super food. They do not have a stone or a pit, yet are full of soft pips and seeds. Of course there are the poisonous variety and it is marvelous how wildlife instinctively know which ones are edible and which are to be left alone! They're much cleverer than us humans :)
Of course I'm talking about berries, so no guessing what the theme for @progressivechef's Steemit Iron Chef 2018 - Act 02 Round 04 is - it's BERRIES!
I will be using Strawberries as these are plentiful at the moment and bring to you my Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas.
An interesting little tidbit about the Pavlova. This dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova; consists of meringue with a crisp crust, light inside and topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit or berries.
The light and airy Swiss Vanilla Meringues were piped into little basket shapes onto roasted slivered Almonds, resulting in a delicious nutty base for the melt in the mouth Meringues.
Strawberries were halved, cut to resemble little Strawberry hearts, then dusted with castor sugar and left to soak up the sweetness.
Thick dairy Cream was whipped with Vanilla seed and a little castor Sugar till thick and fluffy, then piped into Meringue baskets.
Topped with Strawberry hearts and you're done; a sweet and simple favourite from yester-year which never fails to please!
A quick little bio on this duo - Strawberries and cream have been part of Wimbledom tennis since it's inception in 1877. Strawberries were the food of the aristocrats and Cream of peasants, so combining these two foods were seen as a bringing together of the rich and the poor.
These heart shaped berries were also seen as a likeness to the goddess of love, Venus.
Ingredients:
- 3 Egg whites
- 375ml Castor Sugar
- 1 Vanilla Bean
- 100g Roasted Slivered Almonds
- 250ml Thick Dairy Cream
- 1 Punnet of Strawberries
Roasted slivered Almonds placed in small round shapes on baking paper.
Meringue piped on top.
Showing off the lovely crunchy roasted Almond base.
Filled with light and airy rich dairy Cream, topped with Strawberries; these little Pavlovas disappeared way too fast!
Why I chose Strawberries - We have an abundance of strawberries in our fresh produce stores throughout the year, but not very much else as far as berries go at the moment as we are well into winter.
Our garden dilemma - We planted strawberry plants a while back and the plants are looking good and multiplying, but the monkeys trooping through our garden eat the strawberries before they mature; we will have to build a little greenhouse over our planters to protect them!
A quick look at the making of my Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas.
A huge thank you to @progressivechef and all the sponsors for this amazing contest, I learnt a lot about berries this week!
Hope to see your entry here on Steemit Ironchef 2018!
Thank you for stopping by; comments, upvotes and resteems all much appreciated :)
Copyright @lizelle - All Rights Reserved
Such an amazingly well written food post my friend! You are doing great, keep it up!
Thank you for the contest @progressivechef!
Omg , Mouthwatering! And now I'm hungry again.
Gorgeous presentation as well 😍
Upvoted again ❤️
My friend how are you? How is grandma? in venezuela there are no berries just strawberries so your recipe today is lovely for me, one more week of contest @progressivechef despite their occupations does not leave aside the wonderful contest you are my spoiled always in that contest
Hi @jennimorillo, thank you so much for the compliment! Mom is doing well, her hand is healing nicely! I don't know how @progressivechef manages to still run this with his new job! Enjoy your weekend :)
Beautifully displayed @lizelle :) Looks absolutely delish!
Oh it was very delish, disappeared way too fast, thank you for your awesome support :)
Great recipe! It looks so good! I definitely want some of that!
They were really delicious, only thing is they disappeared way too fast 😉 Thanks for your support :)
Strawberries are my favorite and pairing them with rich cream, sweet meringue shells and crunchy almonds, you can't beat that. I wish I could eat them off that cute heart shaped plate. Thank you for the history behind the pairing of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon. You have my vote! Good luck @lizelle.
Ah thank you for your awesome support and comments @loveself, really appreciate it :)
Pavlova is literally one of my favourite desserts, so delish! The almonds are a really good addition :-)
It's one of my favourites as well! Thank you for your support @foodflaneur :)
woww @lizelle! I trully love your post, looks amazing! Your writing is full of character, there is sense of humour ! The composition of this post is awesome! Well I am very much inspired by you to go and learn how to bring dynamism into my writing! thank you for sharing out such a great and inspiring post .. love and light
Ah thank you for that @andabout, your posts are lovely, not much to learn there! There's 2 other awesome contests you should check out- @cookwithus's #cookwithus & @jaybird's #steemitsandwichcontest, both give great support and have a really nice community spirit :)
Oh thank you so much @lizelle for sharing it! I will definitely will explore, I so much would love to be part of a lovely community :D lots of love and light
Thank you, blessings to you as well 😊
Great presentation @lizelle! I love pavlovas. This is so nice with the toasted almonds and strawberries!
Thank you @chefsteve, appreciate your comments!
Love it😍 my wife will try the recepie... will get back to you🔥
Thank you, look forward to seeing them, enjoy :)