Dear LPG, 

If someone asked me what a Pavlova was I would not have had any difficulty in describing it, but I found producing one a bit more of a challenge.  You would think that if you have mastered the art of separating an egg, this should not have presented a problem to any cook but, for me, there were a few challenges to overcome.  

Once separated, how hard can it be to whip an egg white you might ask?  I tried to do it with my food processer for a while and that fell flat.  Then I battled with a hand whisk but it did not take me long to work out my right arm’s staying-power was not up to all that effort.  In the end, my old fashioned hand held electric food whisk did the trick.  

There is a definite art to spreading the meringue out on a baking sheet and   I have definitely not mastered it.  The recipe indicated that it should be thinner in the middle than round the edges and I think I took that instruction a bit too literally.  I was not sure what ‘heavy cream’ was and plumped for a mixture of double and clotted which resulted in an extremely thick concoction, and when I tried to spread it over the meringue, it cracked quite a bit and I learned how delicate a thing a meringue can be, but you can get away with a lot when you smother something.   I think my taste test crew agreed that it tasted OK, and when covered with a load of cream and fresh fruit,  it even looks OK until you slice into it.  That is when the cracks really begin to show…

I am going to attempt to put Japan under the spotlight next month.  Most people know what sushi is but I have to admit to never having really tried it so far.  From what I have heard there is not a lot of cooking involved so what can really go wrong?

CB, Lewisham 

CB shares sushi recipes and folding methods…

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