Individual Strawberry Pavlovas

Overview

In previous years, our group of friends were known to rent a house away from the city and spend the weekend eating and lounging around. We would take turns cooking for each other. Knowing that my ability to cook was, shall we say, far from amazing, I would volunteer to "cook" desert.

In my eyes, desert is the best place to start when learning how to cook. You wont go hungry if you screw up because you have already eaten.

It is from these trips away that "Individual Strawberry Pavlovas" was born. This decadent desert soon became my signature dish. Its not a cheap dish, but its a quick and easy crowd pleaser.

Ingredients (Serves 6-8)

• 1 packet of individual pavlova shells ( usually come in packets of 8-10 )
• 1 punnet of fresh strawberries
• 1 250mL carton of cream, whipped until stiff
• 4 tbs of chopped peanuts
• 1 small bar of plain chocolate ( to garnish )
  
• 4 tbs of berry Ice-cream/Pancake Topping ( see notes )
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

1.		Draw a zig-zag on your plate with the berry sauce
2.		Place a pavlova shell on top of the zig-zag
3.		Place a large dollop of cream in the middle of each pavlova shell
4.		Chop each strawberry in half and place the halves on the vertical sides of the cream as if to provide walls so the cream doesn't fall out
5.		Pour some of the wild berry topping on top of the cream and strawberries (let it run down the sides).
6.		Sprinkle chopped nuts over the top of the sauce
7.		Dust the top of each desert with icing sugar
8.		Grate chocolate over the top. (Tip: if you want long chocolate shards use room temperature chocolate and grate down the long side of the bar, for short scrapings use refrigerated chocolate and the shorter edge of the bar)

Notes

If you cant find the berry topping, go to the canned fruit section and buy a can of mixed berries. Put the juice aside and spoon the berries into a blender and blend for a few seconds. Add the saved juice to the blended berries until the desired consistency is achieved. In my opinion this tastes better than the ice-cream/pancake topping!

Zucchini flowers stuffed with moroccan spiced chickpeas

serves 4

150g butternut pumpkin, chopped
300g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons currants
4 red Asian shallots, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons coriander leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons parsley leaves, chopped
12 zucchini flowers with stems attached

Garlic and lemon butter
100g ghee
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice


Place the pumpkin pieces in a steamer and cover with a lid. Sit the steamer over a saucepan or wok of boiling water and steam for 5-8 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft. Transfer the pumpkin to a bowl, allow to cool and then mash well with a fork.

Meanwhile, coarsely mash the chickpeas in a separate bowl. Add the currants, shallots, cumi, cinnamon, lemon juice, coriander and parsley and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fold the mashed pumpkin through the mixture until well combined.

Carefully remove the stamens from inside the zucchini flowers and trim the ends. FIll each flower until almost full, then gently twist the flower times to secure the filling. Lay the stuffed flowers in the steamer so that they fit snugly in a single layer.

Meanwhile, to make the garlic and lemon butter, melt the ghee in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and saute for 2 minutes, or until the garlic starts to turn golden brown and the butter is frothing. Add the coriander and cyenne pepper and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the lemon juice.

Put three stuffed zucchini flowers on each plate and drizzle with some of the hot garlic and lemon butter.