Relocated to Copenhagen...

So, it's been almost a year since we packed up our belongings into 28 boxes and shipped them from Hokkaido Japan to COPENHAGEN DENMARK!  We lived almost 4 years of our lives in the Northern island of Hokkaido, Japan.  And what an amazing experience and opportunity that was, the lessons we have learnt, the things we have seen and of course the wonderful people we have met on this journey.

But we now find ourselves in Copenhagen.  I am working at Noma, and Kim has something big that will start this coming Summer.  We are loving life in Europe, but we have been so very busy getting settled in and of course with work.  We have not forgotten about the blog, and just now uploading and getting on top of our photo situation so posts will sporadically appear again...  There is still so much when we look through the photos, Australia, Japan, Denmark and a few places in between.  The posts will be completely random, and of course may not reflect our current location.  There is just so much we have seen and eaten in the last 12 months.

This is the little place we are calling home.  It's right in the middle of the city, has floor to ceiling windows a great big living area, courtyard and pokey little kitchen that we have been enjoying the abundance of European produce in (oh my, did somebody say cheese!? bread!? small-goods ? ....  how we missed you in Japan!).  It really is a small world, as this constant journey we are on brings us yet again to the other side of the globe.

Bloody good pavlova

Here's a pretty mean looking pavlova Kim whipped up one night for staff meal.  A pretty fine job done with a complete lack of fresh fruit.  There was whipped cream, Organic Niki cherries, some tinned peaches we found lying around and some frozen mango puree.

Bloody good!  But took us about 3 days to eat as it was bloody huge!

Staff Meal Pavlova

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

few drops of vanilla extract

1 tsp white vinegar

2 tsp cornstach

1 cup, + 2Tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

Cream

Tin of peaches found lying around

Frozen organic Niki cherries, thawed and pitted

Frozen mango puree, thawed

or any other fruits you have lying around

1. Pre-heat oven to 175C.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  

2. Put egg whites and salt into kitchen aid mixer on medium and beat for a few minutes, or until light and foamy.  Increase speed and beat for a few more minutes until you have firm peaks.

3. Gradually add the sugar while still beating.  Continue mixing for another 5 minutes or so until it's nice and shiny.

4. Sprinkle the vinegar, cornstach and vanilla over the whites and gently fold in.

5.  Place the mixture onto the parchment lined tray and smooth over with some sort of flat implement.  

6. Place in oven on middle rack and then close the door.  Immediately turn down to 150C and bake for 1 hour.  Then turn off the oven, resisting the temptation to open the door.

7. Ideally, you would then like to leave the pav. in the oven for 4 hours to dry out.  We didn't quite have that luxury of time, so our pav had about 10 minutes.

8.  In the meantime, beat some cream.  Sweeten a little with sugar and vanilla.

9. Slap on the cream, then artistically decorate with your chosen fruit.