Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Cooking Time : 1 hour + cooling time 2 hours

Serving : 10 members

Description

Meringue with fresh fruits and musk melon sauce . The initial days of watching master chef Australia where I got to here about pavlova . Having no sense of google or access to Internet , used to wonder what pavlova was ??? All I could see and guess was a mass of white, airy , light , crisp crusted sweet thing eaten and devoured by the judges in master chef Australia . I came across a recipe in one foodie magazine where there was a recipe for meringue and it was mentioned that pavlova’s are meringue based desserts and a national dish to Australia and New Zealand where they serve it for their festive and holidays seasons mostly during summer with fruits . Now the next question in mind what’s meringue ??? Well to just put of the craving and greed in me to know what pavlova or meringue tastes like , I had to give this dessert a try . Started , didn’t have many ingredients that the original recipe demanded but made changes with availability of my pantry and went ahead . Served to all at home and waited for comments . No comments at all for the first 2 minutes .. All busy digging into the dessert . I had my first spoon full and I was like hey this tastes like the macaroons we get in Tuticorin . The great Pavlova and meringue that haunted my mind for so very long was just the usual Tuticorin macaroons that i have in my store room always to entertain sudden guests . The most exotic thing was finally some thing that I have at home always , laughed to myself silently thinking how dum I am :-)) .

Ingredients for meringue

Fruits : peel , stone and chop to serve as you wish.

Can use any other fruit of the season instead.

Ingredients for Melon sauce

Method for Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 140 degree Celsius . Line a large baking tray with non – stick baking paper ( can use foil paper instead ) . Whip the egg whites , salt and sugar together with the help of an electric egg beater until stiff peaks are formed .
2. Sift in the icing sugar and cornflour , continue to whisk for 3 to 4 minutes . The mixture must be stiff and has to have a shine to it . Finally add vinegar and vanilla essence .
3. Spoon the meringue mixture on the lined baking tray , making a big , deep , shallow dent in the middle with higher than the centre walls all around to hold the fruits inside . Bake for one hour until set .
4. Be careful with the colour as it has to remain white . Switch of oven , open the oven door and leave the cooked meringue to cool for one hour . Remove and cool completely .

Method for musk melon sauce

1. Whip the cream to stiff . Blend musk melon and icing sugar to a smooth and runny . ( do not add water ) mix the whipped cream along with the musk melon juice .
2. Set aside in the refrigerator .

To assemble 

1. Assemble just before serving . Pile the cut fruits mixture into the shallow dent of the meringue in the centre .
2. Drizzle the musk melon sauce and serve immediately .

Notes

1. Make sure the meringue is white in colour and does not crack . ( mine cracked and got a light brown colour as well .. Bad day I guess )
2. You can make the meringue a day before ( that’s what I did ) . Store in air tight container with the base sprinkled with corn flour , place the meringue and top with tissue paper . Then close with the air tight container lid and store .
3. Chopped fruits can be dipped into sugar syrup to avoid discolouring of the fruits .
4. Assemble the meringue together just before serving .