Steemit Iron Chef 2018 - Act 02 Round 04 - Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas

Birds and animals love them but so do humans! They come in the most gorgeous hues - red, blue, black, yellow, orange, purple as well as white, and are used in kitchens for cooking and baking; desserts, cakes, jams and jellies, sauces for sweet and savoury dishes, to name a few. Some are sweet, some are sour, but they're all packed with flavour and most are a super food. They do not have a stone or a pit, yet are full of soft pips and seeds. Of course there are the poisonous variety and it is marvelous how wildlife instinctively know which ones are edible and which are to be left alone! They're much cleverer than us humans :)

Of course I'm talking about berries, so no guessing what the theme for @progressivechef's Steemit Iron Chef 2018 - Act 02 Round 04 is - it's BERRIES!

I will be using Strawberries as these are plentiful at the moment and bring to you my Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas.

An interesting little tidbit about the Pavlova. This dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova; consists of meringue with a crisp crust, light inside and topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit or berries.

The light and airy Swiss Vanilla Meringues were piped into little basket shapes onto roasted slivered Almonds, resulting in a delicious nutty base for the melt in the mouth Meringues.
Strawberries were halved, cut to resemble little Strawberry hearts, then dusted with castor sugar and left to soak up the sweetness.
Thick dairy Cream was whipped with Vanilla seed and a little castor Sugar till thick and fluffy, then piped into Meringue baskets.
Topped with Strawberry hearts and you're done; a sweet and simple favourite from yester-year which never fails to please!

A quick little bio on this duo - Strawberries and cream have been part of Wimbledom tennis since it's inception in 1877. Strawberries were the food of the aristocrats and Cream of peasants, so combining these two foods were seen as a bringing together of the rich and the poor.
These heart shaped berries were also seen as a likeness to the goddess of love, Venus.

Ingredients:

• 3 Egg whites
• 375ml Castor Sugar
• 1 Vanilla Bean
• 100g Roasted Slivered Almonds
• 250ml Thick Dairy Cream
• 1 Punnet of Strawberries

Roasted slivered Almonds placed in small round shapes on baking paper.

Meringue piped on top.

Showing off the lovely crunchy roasted Almond base.

Filled with light and airy rich dairy Cream, topped with Strawberries; these little Pavlovas disappeared way too fast!

Why I chose Strawberries - We have an abundance of strawberries in our fresh produce stores throughout the year, but not very much else as far as berries go at the moment as we are well into winter.

Our garden dilemma - We planted strawberry plants a while back and the plants are looking good and multiplying, but the monkeys trooping through our garden eat the strawberries before they mature; we will have to build a little greenhouse over our planters to protect them!

A quick look at the making of my Strawberry Almond Meringue Pavlovas.

A huge thank you to @progressivechef and all the sponsors for this amazing contest, I learnt a lot about berries this week!
Hope to see your entry here on Steemit Ironchef 2018!

Original Content by @lizelle
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