Nigella’s perfectly pert Pavlova (and Delia’s glue potato)

When I was private chef to the arms dealer I made meringues every week.  In a busy kitchen they are a God-send as they can be made in advance and then later assembled into something stunning and delicious within minutes. Coffee meringue, toffee meringue, chocolate meringue or plain old Pavlova – meringue is always a crowd pleaser.

I haven’t made meringue at home since I’ve had my Rangemaster so I thought  I would test out the gas oven side (it features a small electric oven and a larger gas one) with a Pavlova.  I had a gander at both Nigella’s and Delia’s Pavlova and decided to plump for Nigella’s because it sounded so very wrong.  Delia’s was very simply 3 eggs to 175g golden caster sugar then pop in an oven pre-heated to Gas 2/300F/150C and immediately turn down to Gas1/275F/140C., cook for an hour then leave to cool in the oven.  That’s more or less what I’ve always done but with a bit longer cooking time.

This is what Nigella had to say.

4 egg whites (with pinch of salt)

250g caster sugar

2 teaspoons cornflour

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

few drops vanilla extract.

BUT THEN  she tells you to pre-heat the oven to Gas4/350F/180C before turning down immediately to Gas 2/300C/150C when you put the Pavlova  in.  Cook for 1 1/4 hours then leave to cool in oven.  Gas mark 4 – that said ‘weepy’ to me but I took a chance anyway.

 

Here’s the 4 egg whites which I mixed with just a bit less than Nigella’s recommended 250g of caster sugar.  I think 220g is perfect and, like Delia, I prefer the golden caster sugar.

Mix slowly at first then build up the speed until you have a very stiff meringue.  Gradually beat in the sugar.  Then, with the whisk running slowly, add the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla.

 

I think a Pavlova always looks better as an oblong rather than a circle.  Bit more elegant, don’t you think?

It needed an extra 15 mins in the oven but came out perfectly.  It was marshmallow and crunch and no hint of weeping or wet dog.  You know hat I mean by wet dog, don’t you?  When it tastes like the smell of a dog that’s been out in the rain.  Nigella uses only passion fruit for her Pavlova.  I love passion fruit.  When I lived in Capetown my preferred tipple was gin with with passion fruit juice (or granadilla, as they say) lots of ice and a hunk of lime. Nigella says you must not be tempted to add any other fruit.  What?  Passion fruit with raspberries is jut divine.  How can Nigella disagree?  I always use frozen raspberries for Pavlova as they seem to be less seedy for some reason and often have a better tang to counteract all that sugar and cream.  Mmmmmmm.  The best thing about Pavlova is that you have to eat it all up, really fast before it dissolves.

 

So then, after feeling I had neglected Delia on the meringue front I thought I should choose something unlikely from one of her books for a main course.  I don’t think I’ve cooked anything from a Delia book since I was private chef to Lady Elizabeth.  Lady E loved all things Delia.

I found a thing called Aligot which is, allegedly, a French thing. Steamed floury potatoes (King Edward) are whisked with butter, slow cooked garlic and a mountain of grated cheese.  I looked at the recipe and thought, “Hmm, doesn’t whisked potato = glue?”  I can tell you now that yes, it does.  But this was cheesy glue and cold cheesy glue at that because after whisking in that cheese mountain how could it possibly still be hot?  So I popped it in a bain Marie and it became warm, cheesy glue. Delia says that  Aligot is traditonally eaten with rump steaks marinated in red wine, garlic and Worcestershire sauce which has to be complete poppycock because I’m sure the French have never heard of Worcestershire sauce.  Anyhow, even though I thought, “Bloody hell, that’s a lot of Worcestershire sauce”  I still went ahead and did it.  You’re not getting the recipe for either of these dishes because they’re just wrong. Sorry.  But I will give you a couple of pictures.  Look how 70’s that plate of food looks!  I am just so retro.  The steak was incredibly tender from the marinade, I’ll give her that much.  Note I have hidden the Aligot potato underneath the watercress.  And made a couple of roasties as I just knew the Aligot would be horrid.  We live and learn.