Pavlova Torte with custard creme - a star on Xmas Day

Hi 

Back again in food mode  - finally!   

I'm going to attempt to recreate this for Christmas Day.  I must admit that it was a star 2 years ago!!! 

So I'll make the pavlova  on Wednesday and leave it in the oven overnight, to crisp up ready to dress on Xmas Day.  Ideally, the magical custard creme will be created, ready to join the two layers, after it has been combined with some greek yoghurt.  

Thankfully we can always rely on amazing fresh fruit to add the final touch.  Clara 

When cooked properly, the outside of the meringue shell will be crunchy, with a marshmallow-like texture on the inside.  

Pavlova has become a star of Australian Christmas desserts.  It was invented in the 1920s or 1930s, and is named for the Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova.  Sources, however, are in dispute over whether the dessert was actually invented in Australia or in New Zealand.  It can be served with whipped cream and fruit or alternatively, with custard or lemon curd made from the egg yolks.

Because pavlova is made primarily of egg whites and sugar, it is a relatively light and low-calorie dessert.
It is possible to prepare pavlova a day in advance of serving, if you leave the meringue shell overnight in the oven after turning off the heat. When the cake has been decorated with whipped cream, it can be left in the refrigerator for a day or two; however, it will lose its crunchiness as the moisture from the cream soaks into the meringue shell. The following version uses a custard creme as a topping and to join the two layers.

Pavlova Torte
Serves 10
8 egg whites
300g (11/2 cups) caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Fruit of choice for topping and serving on the side - strawberries, kiwifruit and passionfruit pulp are favourites but I added raspberries and blueberries for extra colour and flavour.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.  Line 2 baking trays then draw a 22 cm disc on each piece of paper.

Using  an electric beater beat egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form.  Gradually add sugar, 1/4 cup at time until thick and glossy.  Beat in the cornflour and vinegar.

Spoon the meringue evenly between the prepared discs; with the intended top one, use a small spoon to form little peaks around the edge of the pavlova.  Bake for approx an hour, until pavlova is dry to the touch.  swapping the trays halfway through cooking.  Turn off oven, leave door ajar and leave pavlova to cool completely, overnight if desired or store in an airtight container.

Custard Creme
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup thickened cream  or Greek yoghurt
Whisk egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and cornflour until smooth and creamy.
Place this mixture into a saucepan, gradually add milk, whisking until smooth.  Stir over medium heat until custard thickens.
Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Custard will be quite thick in consistency.
Remove from heat, pour into a separate bowl and cover the surface of the custard with glad wrap.  Allow to cool to prevent a skin forming on the top.
Fold in cream or Greek yoghurt.
 Join the two layers with custard and spread it on top layer.  top with your fruit of choice.

Dancing with Strangers

1788…
From Middle Head, the journals tell,
natives pointed Hunter’s party
 to the ideal place to land.
It was about Balmoral that Bradley wrote,
“These people mixed with ours and all hands danced together.”

Extract - Through the Heads to BALMORAL





Did you know that Antony Symons has created a wonderful sculpture called Dancing with Strangers? It pays tribute to the historical occasion on 29-jan-1788 when a group of Gamaragal hunters, armed with spears, signalled to a long boat under the command of Captain Hunter to land on a beach at Middle Head.

The Gamaragals knew Middle Head by the name of Cubba Cubba or Gubba Gubba, depending on how people wrote down the unfamiliar sounds made by First Australians who were living in greater Sydney on the day when 11 ships, flying the British flag, sailed through between North Head and South Head, turned left, then turned right at Bradleys Head and eventually dropped their anchors in Sydney Cove.

The exact location of this first contact between the British invaders to Sydney Harbour and the First Australians, whose ancestors had been in the greater Sydney region for at least 40,000 years, is not known definitely. But the reading of entries in logs and note books written that day indicate that the location is the north facing beach now known as Cobblers Beach.

Less likely, alternative locations are: 1) the southern end of Balmoral Beach, which is also labelled as Hunters Beach in early maps of the Middle Head coastline 2) Obelisk Beach on the east side of Middle Head, or at very long odds 3) Chowder Bay, which the First Australians knew as Goree.

To find out more about this sculpture and it's anticipated relocation -  visit:-

  www.cubbacubba.net.au 

A Glimpse of the Future at Middle Head?

Rally against inappropriate development at Middle Head

A Glimpse of the Future - Cremorne 10 years hence.  1893
Mitchell Library - State Library of NSW

Cremorne Point was one of the first, to be saved from industrialisation and development in the 1890’s, followed by other foreshore areas.

Looking for coal with the diamond drill bore 1891
Mitchell Library - State Library of NSW

"We are fortunate in having many acres of natural bushland, much of which would have been cut up for housing projects years ago had it not been for the military reserves.  These areas are no longer essential to our defence and, if we keep complaining long and loudly enough, they will no doubt be eventually returned to us in the form of a national park."  Tales of Old Mosman- Don McLaren

The area's beautiful location and geology resulted in the peninsula being pursued for land development and mineral exploration.

‘The story of Cremorne Point, following European settlement, is a tale of land grabbing, developers' greed and a winning campaign to preserve the foreshore of the peninsula.”

Margaret Park    The Heart of Cremorne Point.

“A very valuable discovery of coal was made last year at Cremorne, Sydney Harbour, by means of Government diamond drill at a depth of 2,929 feet.

At that depth a seam of good steam coal was struck 10 ft 3 ins in thickness. The opening of a collier, on the shores of Port Jackson will prove an additional attraction to large ocean going steamers.

A public outcry protesting against the industrialisation of Cremorne Point and a celebrated law suit, ensured that the 100 feet of reservation around the point was preserved from developers, and mineral exploration.”
The English Mechanic and World of Science 1894

While the Mines Department supported the scheme, the Lands Department refused permission to erect the necessary coal wharves, forcing  Sydney Harbour Collieries Ltd  to find an alternative site at Balmain.

Extract from 'Mosman Meanders & foreshore flavours' 

 

SMH article  - 2/1/13

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/activity/great-outdoors/grand-vision-is-a-sight-to-see-20130101-2c3xl.html#ixzz2GoKdKbwV

Mosman Foreshore

In 2006, the navy opened up the grounds of HMAS Penguin, allowing the completion of the walk from Chowder Bay across Georges Heights to Middle Head, and down to Balmoral beach.

It is now possible to walk all the way from Cremorne to the Spit, mostly on bush tracks.

The trail stretches for 10 kilometres and takes in some of the most stunning vantage points for Sydney Harbour. But as local author Claire Mitchell details in her new book about the walk, Mosman Meanders and Foreshore Flavours, there is much more to the walk than just heart-stopping vistas.

Mosman might be home to lawyers and bankers these days, but in the 1860s it drew a more bohemian crowd. From the early 1860s, several pleasure grounds were established on the foreshore of Mosman that attracted big weekend crowds. They arrived by boat at dusk to dance, drink and stroll through themed walks, ride carousels, or play skittles and other games.

The first of these was at Cremorne Point and by all accounts its "Ball Masques", illuminated by 5000 lamps and Chinese lanterns, were spectacular. But, by 1862, the event had turned into the Victorian equivalent of a rave party, judging by the description in the Herald:

"Its Ball Masque by moonlight were scenes of licence and vulgarity – the larrikin element too much to the fore."

Fairyland at Clifton Gardens, the most popular, opened in 1863 and Balmoral Gardens boasted a 24-metre roofed dance floor.

The foreshore of Mosman also attracted artists and writers, who rowed across from the city to set up camp in the bush where they could relax and paint en plein air.

Artists Julian Ashton, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and cartoonist Livingston Hopkins of the Bulletin congregated at these all-male camps.

The most famous was at Balmoral and is marked with a plaque.

Another, Curlew Camp, was at Sirius Cove and is marked by a faded inscription in a rock, which is dated 1890.

By the 1870s, the military had claimed part of Middle Head, Bradleys Head and Georges Heights to protect Sydney from the Russians. Stone fortifications, gun emplacements and tunnels can still be explored at Bradleys Head, though other fortifications at Georges Heights are off limits.

Legislation passed in 1903 allowing public bathing led to the construction of swimming enclosures at Balmoral and Clifton Gardens.

The final stretch of the walk from Chowder Bay to Balmoral Beach was opened in 2006, when the navy provided access through HMAS Penguin. There is a spectacular staircase through an angophora forest to Balmoral Beach.
 

But can you match our history, Bondi & Manly?

 



 

Extract  -  North Head - Guardian of our Harbour                 
from 'Balmoral Picnic'

"You've stood guard against the vagaries
of an ocean, heaving fitfully
between your sandstone headlands.
With South Head, you define and defend
the entrance to our harbour.

 Ideally placed, your timeless view
leads the eye and imagination
from our harbour to the open sea.
In between, Middle Head
still networks our defence.
.....

You witnessed the DNA of Colonisation;
Through your great gateway
you saw all the ships
that passed through,
voyaging to the distant world and back.

1788…
From Middle Head, the journals tell,
natives pointed Hunter’s party
 to the ideal place to land;
It was about Balmoral that Bradley wrote,
"These people mixed with ours and all hands danced together."

1788 …
Sydney,  a container for those condemned
"For the term of their natural lives".
Leg-irons and lash – conditional pardons;
their labour  advanced and
developed  a new colony.

1791…
‘Came the rough and bearded whalemen
In ships  from the southern seas’…
‘We saw sperm whales in great plenty!’
It could be said, ‘The colony rode
to wealth on the whale’s back.’

1801…
“The foe – They come! They come!”
Imperial rivalries and wars
Brought invasion scares,
 arcs of fire, fortifications;
Your  cliffs  became ‘Fortress Sydney’.

1878
Following settlement of foreshores;
 you heard current land-owners’ protestations
on repossession of these shores;
to be dedicated as Public Reserve
 to us all -  for eternity. .....

1890’s…
Streeton and Roberts, “pulled through the lazy green water
 and lunched in the shade and in the open air”,
to join their fellow artists under canvas-
in camps set up by Hopkins and Ashton.‘Til matrimony claimed their souls.'
.....
1862…
 Sydney ferries, on your watch
conveyed picnickers and excursionists
in their hundreds,  to Balmoral Gardens
Men in suits and tall hats,  women in
 crinolines with parasols overhead;

‘Refreshments, dancing saloon, boarded floor
with splendid band engaged.’
 But larrikin London costers in pearly coats
 became  ‘A blot upon the healthful
enjoyment of the picnic’.

1912

Sea and sand between toes  represented  freedom …
then  a century of repressive restrictions
until modesty maintenance moved on
to,  ‘Shall be clad from neck to knee’
and the victory of all day surfing.



1922…
The Evening News reported,
‘The old place of quiet waters and rustic gums
is  gone forever.  The trams did it. 
Not a square inch of sand  untrampled -
‘Balmoral is alive!’

1923 - 1950
Order of the Star of the East Amphitheatre  
built to view the returning  Christ
walking on the waters through your rugged  cliffs;
Replaced by a red brick citadel.
‘Suburbanisation had conquered all’        .....

1929 - 1932
 ‘The Great Depression’ seized the world.
An ‘economic ogre’ crippled industry,
threw workers to the streets -
and having vent its worst fury,
lingered in the shadows until WW2.


Hardship endured;  depression employment
yielded   Sydney Harbour Bridge -
Balmoral beautification scheme; 
 Rotunda, Bathers Pavilion, Promenade.
‘Concrete mad’, they all said.
.....
1945…
Gaff-rigged ketch, Kathleen Gillett’,
first of many to begin the race
past your cliffs, bound for Hobart.
Sailing and water sports became the
forefront of post-war revival.
.....
2014 TO ETERNITY
Children play in rockpools;
early morning swimmers brave the chill;
we all enjoy the picnic;
Your rocky timeless heights stand firm  
 eternally   -   as   guardians to us all.

Claire Mitchell 2013
'Balmoral Picnic' is scheduled to be released as an E-book in Spring.