Vanilla Pavlova with Chocolate Mousse and Fresh Berries

March 18, 2011March 17, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 5 Comments

I made this pavlova for my best friend and roommate Brittany’s birthday. She just turned 20 on St. Patrick’s Day, but is wise beyond her years.

Pavlova5 — Birthday girl Brittany, rocking a very Lara Croft-esque outfit (Nat lurking in the background)

But before I start, I believe the majority of you will need me to define “pavlova.” And by that, I mean you’ll need Wikipedia to define it. So here we are:

“Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. Colloquially referred to as “pav,” it is a cake similar to meringue with a crispy crust and a soft, light inner.”

So basically it’s a light, heavenly dessert with an initial crunch and a satisfyingly chewy middle. Delicious.

I have fond memories of many a dessert eaten in Ireland visiting my dad’s family (yes, this is how I’m attempting to tie this in with St. Patrick’s Day). Whenever there was any sort of a fancy or important event, like my Nana and Pop’s 50th wedding anniversary, my talented aunt and godmother Ann would make pavlova. She made the best pavlova I’ve ever tasted. Alright, so technically I didn’t have a lot to compare it to, but I just remember it being good. Also, back then I was a picky eater, so anything that a younger Hilary declared delicious must have been extraordinary. Ann would always pile whipped cream and strawberries on top, adding to the already decadent value of the cake.

I decided to do the same, except with chocolate mousse and a variety of berries.

When Britt originally asked me to make pavlova, I was incredibly worried and hesitant. I’d heard several a pavlova horror stories, many of which involved the delicate pavlova shell simply shattering (this partially happened to me). On the day that I was making it, I ran into my friend/foodie extraordinaire Ella who gave me some helpful tips. These tips included things like make sure there is not a drop of egg yolk in the egg whites, dry your bowl completely before using it, etc. etc. If you’re reading this Ella, please know that I took your advice extremely seriously, and that I full on give you credit for this pavlova being a success.

It turns out it wasn’t really that bad to make. Sure I had to turn our powerful oven down to a mere whimper of the recipe’s ordered temperature (it was in at 150 degrees fahrenheit), but other then that, everything went off without a hitch.

Mixing egg whites with sugar is really quite a phenomenal experience. Seriously, it is magic. How can two seemingly simple ingredients create such a marshmellowy smooth cream? It’s wonderful, really. I am stunned and humbled everyday by the power of desserts.

Anyways, the recipes I used to make the pavlova and chocolate mousse and down beneath the pictures. The only thing I would have changed would have been to make my pavlova larger in height, versus diametre. This would have lent itself more to that chewy pavlova centre I made reference to earlier. You want all that you can get of that good stuff.

PS: Be gentle with this one. Pavlovas are all about precision and carefulness. I kept the finished pavlova in my bedroom so it wouldn’t face torture in our shared dining room. Promise me you’ll keep this in mind.

Source, vanilla pavlova: Phe.MOM.enon (note: I didn’t use her mousse recipe)
Source, chocolate mousse: Joy of Baking

Grilled Chicken and Red Pepper Sandwich with Brie

March 16, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

I finally got sick of eating sesame seed bagels with strawberry cream cheese. After a day of March Break tour guiding yesterday, I was famished and knew I needed to make myself something delicious and nutritious for supper. I haven’t cooked in a little while and it seemed as though I was a little out of practice with this whole meal decision thing. Because of this, I wandered around the grocery store for a torturous amount of time, pondering what it was that I wanted to eat. Now that I look back, the answer was so simple.

I wanted a sandwich.

I’ve been craving a gourmet sandwich ever since I made my mom the pear, ham and gruyere sandwich over reading week. As I walked up and down the deli aisle of the grocery store, I was practically drooling in anticipation. But what would I put on my sandwich? Since I’m not a fan of duplicate blog posts, I needed to make something dramatically different than my mom’s fruity fare. So I improvised. I was getting a huge chunk of brie anyways (because I eat an unhealthy amount of cheese), and decided to build my sandwich around this. Add some grilled chicken, red pepper and leftover red onion and voila! I’m a master sandwich maker (no sexist jokes, please). Also, the only protein I’ve eaten in what seems like weeks has been cheese, so it was nice to have some chicken in there. Finally, I had some parsley leftover in the fridge, so I decided to throw that in for fun. I popped the entire sandwich in the toaster oven for a bit and everything got heated, melty and ultra flavourful. I’m almost salivating just thinking about it.

The recipe is under the pictures, ch-ch-check it out!

Continue reading →

Salmon Kedgeree

March 13, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

The best leftovers in the universe.

As you can probably tell by the massive gaps between recent posts, I’ve had a crazy busy March so far. I seem to have started off my 21st year of life with a bang, and in the past weeks have managed to plan a six week trip to Europe (more to come on this later), meet some journalism idols while working at the Genie Awards, and do a variety of other extra curricular activities. At the same time, the upcoming weeks will be a challenge. There are huge assignments due, a March break tour guiding schedule at school, and television newsroom days. I’m tired, I’m really, really tired. I have gotten involved in way too many things this year and they’ve finally started to catch up with me. I hate to say this, but I think I might be taking a bit of a blogging hiatus, or at the very least I won’t be able to post more than twice a week. Summer, where are you?

On a positive note: daylight savings time was early this year, which means the season of outdoor food photography is upon us! My poor patio has been neglected from photos for months now, and is begging for a little attention. Also, I am interning at the National Post in Toronto for all of April so I’ll be getting the chance to have an amazing journalism experience, explore a new city, and hopefully cook loads. I can’t wait. AND Britt, my other friend Freya and I found the GREATEST house for next year that is so close to school. There’s lots to look forward to post-March.

Anyways, here’s this salmon kedgeree dish I made a few days ago. It’s great for anyone who loves curry and spice (warning: you and your kitchen will smell for days afterwards). My craving for salmon lined up perfectly with it going on sale at the grocery store. Don’t you just love it when things just work?

PS: Wikipedia tells me that kegeree is supposed to have egg. I disagree/didn’t have time to hard boil eggs before class.

Source: Canadian Living

Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

March 9, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 5 Comments

This soup was my lifesaver early last week when I wasn’t able to chew anything. Although I am (thankfully) now fully recovered from my wisdom teeth operation, this soup was a delicious way to enjoy my liquid diet meals. Also, the only reason I decided to stop relying solely on mushy foods was because I really wanted chicken wings on my birthday…is this bad?

I’m typing this post right before I have to rush off to class, so I’ll be fairly quick about it. Ever since I discovered that I love sweet potatoes, I have been looking for an excuse to include them in everything I make. This soup was the perfect way to do this and, although I ate probably 1/4 of the potato before it even made it in the soup pot (roasted sweet potato = heaven), what was included added a lot of flavour and contributed to the overall consistency.

This might be the last hot soup I make for awhile, since the winter months are speeding towards the end. Who knows though, if Ottawa weather keeps acting the way it is I might just have to extend my winter cooking until the end of March. Fingers crossed that this is not the case, I want to start taking food pictures outside again!!!

PS: Ha! Just realized that the first picture looks like a soupy sunset.

Source: Canadian Living

America the Brave Cake (aka Christine’s birthday cake)

March 7, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 5 Comments

This is probably the first and last time I will ever get to make a Fourth of July cake. Or at the very least it will definitely be the last time I make it in March.

As you saw in my last post, my good friend Christine recently celebrated her 21st birthday (we were very nearly birthday twins, but she beat me by a day). In honour of this USA-coming of age and her partial American heritage, she had a “Legal in America” theme, and with such I was required to prepare for my first ever all-American themed bash.

America the Brave Cake4 — The birthday girl, looking fab (as usual)

I am not one to take party themes lightly. I knew I had to bake something extra impressive for Christine and her birthday, since she has so patiently sat through stories of a variety of my cakes, cupcakes and cookies, without getting to eat a bite. Hopping around on the Internet one night, I stumbled on this really cool cake concept on a blog called “17 and Baking.” First, HOLY, this 17-year-old (Elissa) is a baking/blogging rock star. She’s been featured on loads of websites, shows and EVERYTHING and she is still only in her teens. I graciously bow in her presence. Also, she’s a j-school student and half-Asian. Other than the fact that she is way more awesome at the aforementioned two things, we seem very similar. Anyways, the inside of her cake looked like an American flag, and I fell in love. Check out the link here (I would feel bad posting one of her fantastic pictures on my blog).

As wicked as Elissa’s cake looked, her instructions were a tad time-consuming, and were not ideal since I had left the making of this cake until the morning of the party (all before I rushed to class at 11:30 a.m.). And so, I decided to tone down the American hype just a bit and go with a checkerboard-like pattern, still embracing the good ol’ red, white, and blue of our neighbouring nation.

If you ever plan on making coloured cakes, you MUST invest in gel food colouring. It is amazing. Great, great, magical stuff that makes colours more bright than traditional food colouring ever could. My cakes looked like colourful sponges that would be used in a kindergarten classroom. After my initial disturbance by seeing such brightly hued cakes, I decided that regardless of their wonky colour, they would still be delicious. Also, I LOVE that I’ve conquered my kitchen’s oven. Not to brag or anything, but these cakes were perfectly baked…

Disturbingly bright cake colours, mid-frosting

FINALLY (I seem to be using a lot of unnecessary caps in this post, I’m channeling my inner Kanye West blogger apparently), white chocolate icing is really yummy. I added twice as much chocolate as the recipe (see below) requested, and am so incredibly happy I did. It was like eating a creamy chocolate bar. Yum.

I officially award this cake the “most badass birthday cake award” and feel like I have finally topped (or at least tied) my pool party cake. What comes next? I’m thinking a rainbow cake (this girl is also 19, apparently I’m really far behind these talented American teens).

Enjoy the pictures and, I guess I have to say this, god bless America!