Isabella May's Blog, page 11
June 11, 2017
The Past of the Pavlova
With a book called, ‘Oh What A Pavlova!’ and an author blog to boot, naturally I just had to write a post about this delicious and somewhat unique dessert.
It’s hugely popular in Australia and New Zealand, but did you know how it came to get its name in the first place? Well, it was actually titled after one Anna Pavlova, the Russian ballerina, and appears to have been invented in her honour around the time of a dance tour to either country back in the 1920s… making it almost 100 years old.
*I feel a celebratory National Pavlova Day coming on in approximately three years!*
But the meringue based dessert, as is often the case with all things culinary, has some competition when it comes to its origin, with Australia and New Zealand often battling it out – in a friendly way, one would hope! – for ownership. In fact, in 2008, author Helen Leach went as far as to publish ‘The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History’, an action speaking louder than perhaps her words. Yet since then, historians have also found links to the pudding having potentially been created in the USA, in an attempt to recreate a German recipe of earlier times.
I think just about the only thing we can all agree on is it is absolutely irresistible!
A traditional pavlova should have a meringue base with a crisp crust and a soft fluffy middle bit. It is typically finished off with whipped cream and fruit such as berries and/or kiwi. Unsurprisingly, it remains hugely popular today in both New Zealand and Australia, particularly for celebrations such as Christmas and holidays, perhaps in part because it is so easy to assemble.
In its honour, here is an equally simple recipe:
Ingredients:
250g caster sugar
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (the real stuff tastes infinitely better)
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
475ml whipping cream, whipped up and ready to go
1 mug full of mixed berries (but you can substitute for whatever is in season/whatever takes your fancy!)
Method:
Switch the oven on to 150 C / Gas mark 2. Pop some baking parchment on a baking tray. Draw a circle of approx 23cm on the parchment.
Beat the egg whites in a large mixing bowl until they are stiff – but do go careful not to overdo this as they could dry out! Add the sugar, little by little, beating continuously until the mixture has thickened up and is looking glossy. Carefully fold in the lemon juice, vanilla extract and cornflour.
Next it’s time to spoon the mixture inside the circle on your parchment, spreading it towards the outer edge a little. If this is done correctly, it should leave you with a slight depression in the centre (of the pudding that is!)
Now pop it in the oven for about an hour and once it is ready and the little peaks look stiff, bring it out and cool it on a wire rack.
Here comes the fun bit: put the meringue on a plate and fill the centre with whipped cream, then top with fruit.
But rules are absolutely there to be broken, so feel free to jazz this up in any way you like. You could drizzle with chocolate sauce, top with caramel and banana, sweeten your whipped cream, add a little honey. The variations are endless. The most important thing is to enjoy!
June 2, 2017
Meet The Author: Eli Carros…
– Welcome, Eli Carros! Please tell us a little about your debut novel, “The Watcher”.
Hi Isabella, thank you for inviting me to your lovely blog. Mind if I sit down and have a bit of cake or something? I hear you make a lovely Pavlova…
– Cake is a given in any of my Q and A’s, help yourself to a slice of Death by Chocolate… well, we are talking about crime.
– What inspired you to write “The Watcher”?
My book, The Watcher was inspired by a couple of things, London, where I worked and lived for over seven years, and my fascination with disturbed minds, in particular psychopaths. I’ve long wondered what it is exactly that makes a psychopath, why they are unable to empathise like the rest of us. I also wondered whether a psychopathic nature is predestined; are they that way from birth for example, or does nurture, emotional abuse and neglect, formative life experiences, and the environment they grew up in play a larger role?
-When you are a nice person… (which we are sure you are!) how easy is it to get into a bad person’s head?
I think part of my interest in individuals that lack empathy comes from the fact that I’ve always been a bit of a social activist. From as long as I can remember I’ve firmly believed in equality and fairness for everyone on this planet and I still constantly wonder why the heck we haven’t got it yet. I’ve toughened up a bit now but I used to be so sensitive, it got to the point where I was literally burning up with anger every day at all the injustice that goes on in this world.
It seemed to me that the psychopathic attitude society encourages sometimes, that winner/ loser and me, me, me thing doesn’t help. Also when you have a society that’s a bit like that, plus certain individuals who are always going to be wired to be more selfish than the rest of us, then you have a recipe for disaster in certain cases because malignant individuals will be embraced sometimes instead of shunned like they should be.
But as well as that, I must confess, I’ve also been rather intrigued by the other, those things us (fairly) normal folks would never dream of doing, or ever remotely want to. It’s like a guilty fascination, we humans have, we do like to explore the dark side, perhaps to reinforce quite how abhorrent it is. I think that’s why so many people read serial killer novels and the like, because it’s just so alien to them, it’s like a peek into a strange, new twisted world.
– Which crime writers have you been inspired by over the years?
I love Patricia Cornwell, she’s the definitive Crime Queen and Mark Billingham and Harlan Coben are my Crime Gods. All of those writers know how to keep a reader up all night turning the pages. I also greatly admire Steven King for his vivid imagination and immersive character portrayals, and for his admirable work ethic, which I could never even hope to aspire too, I’m far too lazy.
– Can you give us any clues as to what you are working on next?
I have another serial killer novel in the pipeline, it’s currently marinating in the planning stages. I like to sketch out a loose chapter by chapter outline before I start and get the characters firmly nailed down, so that’s where I am at the moment. This one’s very different to The Watcher, just as twisty and turny but a brand new antagonist and protagonist, and a whole new story. As soon as The Watcher’s launched, I’ll turn my attention fully to that.
– Favourite cake?
Victoria Sponge actually. It’s a massively underrated cake but when done well, nothing can beat a light, airy and creamy good ole Vic Sponge and a cup of Earl Gray in my opinion.
-Ohemgee, I totally agree with you there, but I’d probably be substituting the Earl Gray for good old regular Tetley.
– Favourite place you have ever visited anywhere in the world?
I have several, I love Puerto Banus in Spain, with all the boats and the lovely waterfront. In the UK I love Oxford for its history and architecture and Glastonbury in Somerset for its picturesque scenic beauty. I also love Toronto, the people are great and the museums and culture is absolutely thriving.
– Okay, now I am ever so slightly freaked out at the synchronicities… my debut novel is based in Glastonbury… and I currently live about 20 minutes from Puerto Banus!
– Your one piece of advice for anybody writing in your genre?
Don’t reveal everything at once. Make sure you keep the suspense going. When you know how to do that, it’s half the battle.
The Watcher releases June 21st from Crooked Cat Books and will take you behind the eyes of a master predator with a deadly secret and into the mind of the harried detective who must stop him. Find out more at https://facebook.com/elicarros or stay updated by signing up to the mailing list at www.elicarros.weebly.com
May 29, 2017
Music brings Characters to Life!
So, I’m 76,000 words into my second novel and, once again, music has wormed its merry way back into my characters’ lives. But how can it not? It has certainly provided the backdrop to many a scene in ‘Oh What A Pavlova!’, which releases in (eek) September/October – in fact editing has now officially begun… And although I didn’t start writing my second book with any preconceived lyrical ideas in mind, what do you know, they spilled themselves out on paper anyway!
And I think that’s a really good thing. When we’re writing about a time or a place, it’s hard not to travel to that era or setting courtesy of a song or an artist. Right now in the novel I have *almost* finished (edits aside…), two sisters find themselves in a decades long riff because of a certain musical icon. You’ll just have to read the book later to find out who and why!
But this has opened up into a little subplot all of its own, quite unexpectedly, I could never have predicted it. That’s what I love about the way music invokes creativity. It’s fresh and it’s exciting! I’m always in awe of how a quick rummage through my CD collection can take me on a journey, bringing life to the outline of a novel which previously only sat in my head, making the characters more rounded and believable, usually more silly and spontaneous too.
Of course, flitting back again to my first novel, ‘Oh What A Pavlova!’, when you are basing part of a story in Somerset – or Glastonbury to be precise, you could hardly pass up the opportunity for a chapter featuring the Glastonbury Festival. And so there are always the obvious ways that we can spice up the characters’ surroundings and emotions, decisions and fate. But it’s perhaps the words of a song which add even more to this; the lines of a powerful song that swirl round and round in somebody’s head as they are subject to yet another unexpected lunge from their partner in the kitchen… all because they cooked the dinner late/dared to put a piece of lettuce on the plate; the lilting melodies that paint a picture of their momentary freedom when they are driving solo in their car; temptation and lust as a certain tune belts out on the dance floor. And then there are the artists, solo and in groups, who whisper straight to your characters’ souls, hinting at what their next direction in life should be.
All of this can add an extra dimension to any story – long or short, making it easier for the reader to engage, literally taking them from their armchair/bed/train seat to the scene of the crime/passion/bid for independence.
All too often we are warned as writers not to date our work, to omit the contemporary sign posts, make the story something almost neutral, so we could pick it up in a decade’s time and not feel it had had its day. But I disagree. More than anything, when we liberally scatter, when we bread crumb (in the case of ‘Oh What A Pavlova!’ that would be the music of the ‘naughties’), we are also creating social history in literary form, documenting the highs and the lows of that period in time.
And in an industry that is swamped with celebrity writers, dictated by social media following, as well as a set of unspoken publishing rules that must be adhered to until the end of time in order for a manuscript to even be read, these rebellious little nods at diversity are priceless, helping writers to find their unique voice in a very crowded field!
Which is now making me think of Glasto all over again… and how much I would LOVE to be there this year…
