Bacon and Raspberry Pavlova

Not in the same dish - that would be a bit too Regret Rien, but a couple of unhurried dishes since we're stuck at home. Plus the eldest boy is obsessed with meringue, so how hard could it be?
I tend to avoid puddings because they seem to be cheating rather than cooking - bung enough sugar, cream, fruit, chocolate together and how can it fail to be delicious.

Do a bit of research on meringues from the venerable Katie Stewart's Complete Cookbook and follow it to the letter - scald the mixing bowl, wipe with lemon and separate the whites the night before when disaster strikes. Separating the final egg old school using the half shells when the tiniest bit of yolk escapes. I'm frozen in dread like the scene in 28 Days when the drop of blood falls in Brendan Gleeson's eye. I try and remove the miniscule contaminant but know deep down that things are careening out of control. But I'm damned if I'm throwing out 4 egg whites and starting again. You can take the boy out of Scotland...
I return to my comfort zone by soaking the marrow fat and split peas for the bacon soup.

I'm a bit obsessive about soup, often basing meals on what soup can be made out of it, sometimes even making the soup before the main dish has been eaten. Tomorrow's plan is for a traditional Irish bacon and cabbage, with pea and ham soup on Leftovers Monday.

Next day it's back to the meringue and I get the eldest to whip the eggs. They seem to wipe up okay, so I decide to gild the lily a bit and add ground almonds and cocoa powder to the egg whites.  I try and forget about the yolk but it's there at the back of my mind.
Now I need to make it into a nest somehow. Hmm.  Make a vague attempt at this in a well greased spring loaded cake dish.  In hindsight those peaks aren't very stiff are they?

Put it in the oven for 1.5 hours at 150C, and this is what comes out after a further hour drying off in the oven:

Okay, we seem to have lost the nest, but it looks and feels okay. However, it is firmly glued to the base, so I have to saw it off with a bread knife:

Hmm, Eton Mess anyone?

While this culinary disaster is unfolding, the main course is proceeding much less dramatically.

Bacon done, peas nice and mushy and sweating off some turnips (swedes) with onion and garlic. NB the bacon is on the bone, a more conventional Irish bacon joint would be boned, but I like me stock, so there is a bit of extra work defleshing the joint

before it's bones and stock meet up with the peas and veg for their party in the pan

So that's Monday taken care of, time to get back to today's dessert. This time smallest boy is enlisted to whip the cream, enriched with juice from the defrosted raspberrys. I cut a whole in the middle of the meringue and fold the crunchy bits (and discard the overly chewy bits) into the cream which goes into hole. Then topped with the drained rasps and a soupcon of grated dark chocolate. Except smallest boy got carried away and it's quite a lot of grated chocolate.

Okay, so I have issues with presentation. How does it eat?
Alright I guess - the kids love it but you wouldn't want to be seeking to impress more discerning critics.
The meringue is heavy, that sliver of yolk had it's effect alright. Also, the grated chocolate plus the cocoa powder was just a bit too much chocolate, if such a thing is possible.

Ah well, I still have banoffi pie as my go to desert.