Pepper Pavlova with strawberries and basil syrup
I’m very sorry for the slight absence recently. Lots of things happening (some good, some bad). As you can see I’ve been busy doing some coding. I decided to give my blog a little “facelift” and decided to host the site myself which has given me the plus of being able to add more images. Let me know what you think.
Roland Garros just finished in Paris which means Wimbledon is just around the corner. And Wimbledon means strawberries and cream. It’s an absolute “must eat” at the tournament. You usually end up eating them while you’re waiting for the rain to clear. If you’re lucky you might get Cliff Richard doing an impromptu performance 
I’ve eaten strawberries and basil before and they go very well together. I recently read that pepper supposedly brings out the sweetness in strawberries. So, I was looking of a way of bringing everything together and thought of a pavlova (partly because I have copious amounts of egg whites leftover every week, any recipes with egg whites welcome 
). If you want something more classic just leave out the pepper and replace the basil with mint (or leave it out altogether).
Pepper Pavlova with strawberries and basil syrup
Meringue
3 egg whites
150g sugar
2 pinches of freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 120°c. Whisk the egg whites, add the sugar and pepper halfway through. Beat until stiff. Place 2 large tablespoons of the meringue mixture on the baking paper lined tray. Make sure you leave some space between each meringue. Bake for 30 minutes and then switch the oven off and leave until the oven is cold. I tend to make them the night before and leave them to cool overnight.
Garnish
2 tbsp of chopped fresh basil
A handful of small fresh basil leaves, decoration
50g sugar
50ml water
1 punnet of strawberries, washed and quartered
250ml whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
Place the sugar and water in a pot and bring to the boil. Shred the basil leaves (save a few small ones for decoration), add to the syrup and leave to infuse. When the syrup is cool, add the strawberries. Gently mix together. Whisk the cream and sugar until stiff.
To serve: Take a meringue, heap some cream in the middle and pile the strawberries on top and garnish with a basil leaf.
Leave a Reply