Strawberry Pavlova à la Moon

Preheat the oven to 103–110 °C. Cover a baking tin with parchment paper. Beat the egg whites and sugar until you get stiff peaks (this usually takes 10 minutes). Add the lemon juice and spread the mixture into the tin. Place it in the oven and keep it there for 80–95 minutes. The meringue is ready to be used right after it is taken out of the oven.

First prepare the ice cream base. Take a heavy-bottomed pan and a bowl that would later fit the pan. Put plenty of ice and cold water in the bowl (this will later be used to cool the ice cream base). Combine milk, whipping cream, sugar, and egg yolks in the pan. Place it on the stove and heat the mixture over medium heat. Stir gently and continuously with a whisk. The eggs will start to cook at about 75 °C. When the mixture starts to thicken, it is time to watch it even more carefully. Stir until the mixture achieves the thickness of thin sour cream, remove it from the stove and immediately put it in the bowl of ice and cold water. Purée the hulled strawberries in a blender. Combine the cold ice cream base and strawberry purée. Add the vodka and lemon juice (the vodka will prevent the formation of ice crystals in ice cream) and pour the mixture into an ice cream machine. Follow the instructions of your appliance.

Halve the vanilla pod lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and add them to the vanilla sauce along with the pod. Let it set for at least 1 hour.

Scoop some strawberry ice cream on a cold plate, pour the vanilla sauce on top, add the meringue and fresh strawberries. Garnish with peppermint leaves.