Pavlova?
26 September 2024
Dear Diary,
I wanted to make a dessert inspired by the desert rose also known as the Kudu.
A pretty pink flower right? but replicating it in dessert form is ….. tedious.
picture source: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/desert-rose/caring-for-desert-rose-plants.htm
The reason I was researching on the desert is because now that I am at The Prince we are doing modern arabic cuisine. Firstly, I have no clue what do Arabs eat. I have zero clue what they like. when you throw the word ‘Arabic’ to me, I honestly think of ‘Aladdin’ as the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe I can make a genie dessert in the future? HAHA
I started brain storming and more of less revolve around the golden deserts. I am 1000% sure that the desert is not the only thing the Middle East have to offer to the world, but since it was so big of my thought process I didn’t think I should discard the idea of making a desert themed dessert.
So what’s there to a desert? Well, sand. and more sand. maybe a few camels walking around leaving footprints and maybe the rare sight of an oasis in the middle no where but 99% its just golden dust. Maybe there are plants in the desert but all I could think of was the prickly cactus. Randomly I came across this pretty pink flower named the kudu and apparently its a desert flower. That’s it! I don’t need to dig any further. is it really found in the desert? I decided to leave that as a mystery for me to find out if I ever plan to visit any deserts.
Rose water is a pretty big stable ingredient that one can find in all across the Middle East. I wasn’t going to be so predictable and add rosewater and call it a rose dessert. It’s just simply boring. Firstly, how can I make the dessert look like a rose in the end? I could use a mould or be adventurous and hand pipe flowers. I tried making buttercream roses in the past they were pass-able. I ever made some gum paste and fondant flowers, they were pretty however, I don’t think they were edible at all. (even tho fondant/gumpaste are edible, but would I eat a whole chunk of fondant after an entire meal? Hell no.)
As you can see, this was back in 2021 where I attempted fondant rose, took me 1.5 hours on one rose it was nuts.
I thought how about making a pavlova? Instead of piping with buttercream, maybe I could try piping with meringue. Never tried, never know. I tried the technique of painting the side of the piping bag pink to create that pink to white effect of the desert rose.
It was fun to make but unfortunately, after piping heaps, the meringue was just too thick for guests to crack into the dessert. It was also really awkward to pipe on the dome mould with 5 other domes blocking your way. I couldn't bear to cut my mould up. It was just not happening today.
I was at a small lost at this point, I was sure I want to make a pavlova which was cream on top of meringue. That’s it! Cream on top. Decided to go with a stable vanilla Chantilly recipe that wouldn’t melt so quickly while piping, especially I have really hot hands for a pastry chef.
In the end I decided i’ll not make the rose with the pink essence. it just wasn’t a very consistent idea.
The Pavlova
The flavour aspect of the dish was supposed to be raspberry and vanilla which did happen. Underneath the vanilla whip was a small dome of raspberry cremuex which I froze and used as a base for me to pipe the rose. I didn’t have a piping nail in which I replaced with a skewer laying around in the kitchen.
For the bottom part of the dish which was an inverted meringue dome, it was filled with a surprise element of raspberry and capsicum sorbet. Capsicum was just found in the chillers of our kitchen which also happened to be naturally red. I thought why not, they should compliment each other well. It did surprisingly.
This dessert got approved immediately and lucky me I found my next special dish for valentines day next year.
Honestly I didn’t feel like it was completed. when it got approved, I was like “really? don’t you think it needs a sponge or a different sauce?…etc” I don’t take compliments well I supposed. I had to serve it up a couple of times and hear actually compliments from guest to know that it is okay.
Im still trying to love I what I do. Don’t get me wrong, I freaking love what I do interns of the process of creating. but I have to learn to love the end product and when to stop. most of the time I just thinking of other elements to add to it or change up the plating instead of being satisfied. I feel that it is not necessarily a bad thing to feel this way but one day it will bite me in the butt for my fickle mindedness and low confidence in what I make.
Raspberry Pavlova components
Vanilla Chantilly cream
Raspberry cremux
Raspberry and capsicum sorbet
Meringue
Raspberry sauce
