Scary Kitchen Task

Sunday is our fancy meal of the week. The guests have just arrived on Saturday evening and we’ve feed them well that first night but Sunday lunch is a big deal. We start at 7 in the morning and work hard until the meal goes on the table at 1. Some times Anja has decided who will make what and sometimes she gives us a choice. This morning one of my choices was the make the meringue for the pavlova.

I decided in the moment to do something that scared me. Why not try something I’ve never done with a kitchen lifeguard to catch me if I failed. I chose the pavlova. What a task!! Remember I am making dessert for 70 people. Because of the volume required I’d be making two industrial size bowls of meringue. First step separate 36 eggs, 18 in each Hobart mixing bowl. Make sure not to get any shell or egg yolk into the mix. Sounds simple enough. But It took a lot of concentration and resulted in very sticky hands.

Next step whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. This will take ages in the Hobart mixer running at top speed. When the peaks form add a mountain of sugar one spoon full at a time. The bowl is getting fuller all the time as the mixture grows.

Now, divide those two huge bowls of meringue into seven very large prepared pans waiting with parchment paper. It is stiff remember, when it’s plopped out in the paper it will just sit there. I had to spread it out in a pleasing looking layer.

The final steps were to whip cream and slathers that on top and then cut each of the large trays into a dozen pieces. We served in to a rhubarb compote on the side, apparently not everyone loves rhubarb!?

The photo above shows the fruits of my labors. After an hour in the oven the meringue came out. I didn’t get a final shot of the finished product but that’s okay. It does not cut will and looked a bit of a mess. However as my mom always said, “If it tastes good, present with confidence.” This tasted very good! In fact I got some applause when I egged them into by telling everyone I’d made dessert. Fun times!