• Turn the ice cream machine and blast chiller on to pre-chill. Warm the sous vide machine to 85°C.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 75°C.
• For the Lemon Verbena Meringue, half fill a medium saucepan with water and place over high heat.
• Combine the caster sugar and egg white powder in a medium bowl and whisk. Add the egg whites and whisk to combine. Reduce the saucepan to low heat for a gentle simmer. Place the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water. The bowl should not touch the water.
• Whisk the meringue mixture constantly until the sugar has dissolved totally and the mixture has reached 73°C.
• Transfer the meringue mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.
• Add the citric acid, lemon verbena flavour drops and lemon verbena powder to the meringue and whisk until stiff peaks form.
• Scoop three quarters of the Swiss Meringue into a piping bag, reserving one quarter to make the discs.
• Place the dome moulds on the scales. Cut the tip off the piping bag and pipe 15g of meringue into each semi-sphere mould, over the inside walls in a spiral. Place the moulds on a flat oven tray.
• Using the back of a dessertspoon spread the meringue against the inside sides and base of the moulds to make a thin, smooth and even shell.
• To make the meringue discs, place a silpat mat on a flat oven tray. Place the plastic 2cm disk stencil on top and use a medium offset palette knife to spread the reserved meringue into the holes.
• Using a small sieve, dust the extra lemon verbena powder over the meringue discs. Remove the stencil.
• Bake the meringues on the middle shelf, with meringue disks underneath for 3 hours or until completely dried out. Allow the meringue to cool.
• For the Lemon Verbena Milk Infusion, place the milk in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the fresh lemon verbena leaves. Transfer the milk and leaves to a ½ size deep gastronorm and chill in the fridge for 1.5 - 2 hours to infuse.
• For the Lemon Verbena Cream Infusion, place the cream in a medium saucepan and bring to 80°C over high heat. Add the fresh lemon verbena leaves. Transfer the cream and leaves to a ½ size deep gastronorm and chill in the fridge for 1.5 - 2 hours to infuse.
• For the Pear Sorbet, combine the caster sugar and Stab 2000 in a small bowl then set aside.
• In a medium saucepan combine the water, trimoline and glucose and bring to the boil over high heat.
• Slowly add the Stab 2000/sugar mixture to the water mixture whilst whisking to avoid lumps.
• Keep whisking until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the saucepan to medium heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat. Using a stick blender, process until well combined. Pass the sorbet mixture through a fine sieve into a ½ size deep gastronorm.
• Place the sorbet mixture into the blast chiller for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, for the Lemon Verbena Jelly, combine the gelatine leaves and 90g cold water in a medium bowl. Submerge the gelatine and set aside to bloom.
• Meanwhile, combine the caster sugar and 62g water and in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
• Drain the bloomed gelatine, squeezing in your hand to remove all the excess water.
• Add the bloomed gelatine to the sugar mixture and stir until dissolved.
• Add the elderflower cordial, lemon puree and lemon verbena flavour drops and stir. Transfer the jelly mixture to a ½ size deep gastronorm and chill in the blast chiller until cool.
• Meanwhile, for the Pear Sorbet, when the sorbet mixture is cold, place 200g in a medium bowl. Add the xanthum gum and process with the stick blender to combine.
• Add both the purees and the liqueur. Process once more with the hand blender to emulsify.
• Transfer the sorbet mixture to the ice cream machine and churn until softly frozen. When softly frozen, transfer the ice cream bowl to the freezer and freeze until required.
• Meanwhile, for the Lemon Verbena Jelly, make sure that the mix is cool. Add the lemon verbena powder and stir through.
• Spray a 16x26cm, 3cm deep oven tray with canola spray and pour the jelly into it. Chill the jelly in the fridge for 30 minutes or until set.
• Meanwhile, for the Pear Puree, peel the pears, remove the core and thinly slice.
• Place the pear, ascorbic acid and stock syrup into a sous vide bag and vacuum seal to 30cm length, ensuring the liquid isn’t sucked into the machine.
• Flatten contents of the bag on the bench to an even layer. Place the bag in the sous vide machine and cook at 85°C for 25 minutes or until the pears are tender.
• Meanwhile, for the Compressed Pear Pearls, combine the stock syrup, liqueur, lemon puree, chardonnay vinegar and lemon verbena leaves in a food saver vacuum pac container.
• Peel the skin from the pears and using a 12mm Parisian scooper, scoop the flesh to make 16 small pearls.
• Place the pear pearls into the verbena syrup, place the lid on top and compress using the vacuum pac machine until the green indicator on the container indents.
• Chill the compressed pear pearls in the syrup in the fridge until required.
• For the Pear Puree, process the pears and the cooking liquid in the Thermomix, until smooth, scraping down the sides. Place a clean Thermomix jug onto scales and pass the puree through a fine sieve into the jug. Record the weight of the puree.
• Place the jug back into the Thermomix machine and warm to 100°C on speed 2.
• Calculate 1.5% of the total puree weight. Add that quantity of Gellan F to the puree mixture.
• Process at speed 4, 100°C for 10 seconds. Stop and scrape the lid and walls of the Thermomix with a spatula to make sure that the Gellan F is incorporated into the puree. Continue to process the puree on speed 4, 100°C for 2 minutes or until smooth.
• Add the puree to a ½ size shallow gastronorm and spread into a thin layer. Transfer the tray to the blast chiller and leave for 5 minutes or until set to a firm gel.
• Break up the gel, return to the Thermomix and process until smooth. Add the water and process to combine. Place the puree into a vacuum machine bag and seal, removing excess air.
• Transfer the puree to a squeeze bottle and chill in the fridge until required.
• For the Lemon Verbena Jelly, once set, cut into 5mm cubes. Reserve in the fridge until needed.
• For the Lemon Verbena Milk Infusion, pass the milk infusion through a fine sieve into a medium bowl, pressing the leaves to make sure that all the milk has been drained. Set the infused milk aside. Discard the leaves.
• For the Lemon Verbena Cream Infusion, pass the cream infusion through a fine sieve into a medium bowl, pressing the leaves to make sure that all the cream has been drained. Chill the infused cream in the fridge until required. Discard the leaves.
• For the Crème Patisserie, combine 500g of the infused milk and the lemon zest in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Gently warm to 65°C then remove saucepan from the heat.
• Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar, flour, cornflour, lemon verbena powder and lemon verbena flavour drops in a medium bowl.
• Temper the egg/sugar mixture by adding 200g of the heated milk to the bowl while whisking.
• Add the tempered egg/sugar mixture into the saucepan of remaining milk and whisk to incorporate.
• Return the saucepan to medium heat and gently bring to the boil. Cook, whilst stirring with a heatproof spatula for 2-3 minutes until the mixture coats the back of the spatula.
• Transfer the crème patisserie into a shallow metal ½ size gastronorm and cover the surface with plastic wrap.
• Place crème patisserie into the blast chiller for 5-10 minutes to cool then transfer to the fridge and reserve until needed.
• For the Lemon Verbena Cream, combine the gelatine leaves and cold water in medium bowl. Submerge the gelatine and set aside to bloom.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine 400g of the Lemon Verbena Cream Infusion and the lemon verbena flavour drops. Whisk by hand until thickened to a loose dollop consistency. Chill in the fridge until required.
• Drain the bloomed gelatine, squeezing in your hand to remove all the excess water.
• Place 100g of Lemon Verbena Cream Infusion into a small saucepan and warm over low heat. Remove saucepan from the heat and add the bloomed gelatine, stirring until dissolved.
• Place the Crème Patisserie into the bowl an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until smooth. Reduce to low speed and slowly add the gelatine mixture. Whisk briefly to incorporate.
• Transfer the Crème Patisserie to a shallow ½ size gastronorm and place in the blast chiller for 5-10 minutes to cool.
• Transfer the crème patisserie into the clean bowl of a stand mixer. Fold the whipped Lemon Verbena Cream Infusion into the crème patisserie.
• Place the Lemon Verbena Cream into a piping bag and chill in the fridge until required.
• For the Pear Disc and Soaking Syrup, combine the water, syrup and ascorbic acid in a small bowl and whisk until the ascorbic acid dissolves.
• Using a mandolin, slice the pear into 5mm thick slices. Use a 2.5cm round cutter to cut 20 small discs. Transfer them to the syrup and chill in the fridge until required.
• When the Meringue Domes are cool, use a microplane to lightly grate the rounded base of the meringue dome to create a flat and stable base. Lightly grate the top edge of the dome to create a flat edge. Place Meringue Domes in an airtight container with silica beads.
• Transfer Apricot Nappage to a small glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

To assemble the dessert:

• Place a 10cm round cutter in the centre of the plate. Place a 5cm ring covered with cling film in the centre of the 10.5cm cutter. Brush the space on the plate between the two round cutters with the Apricot Nappage.
• Dust the Nappage with Lemon Verbena Sugar through a small fine sieve. Use a clean dry pastry brush to clean the plate outside the 10.5cm cutter. Carefully remove the cutters. The final product should resemble a ring.
• Place the Meringue Dome on a clean set of scales. Inside the walls of the Meringue Dome, pipe 25g of the Lemon Verbena Cream, leaving a centre cavity. In the middle, add 15g of diced Lemon Verbena Jelly, 5g of Pear Puree, 8 Pear Pearls and 1 scoop of Pear Sorbet. Pipe 25g of Lemon Verbena Cream around and over the Sorbet and other fillings to cover.
• Lift the Pear Discs from the syrup. Cover the cream with pear discs and meringue discs, starting at the top edge of the Dome and alternating until reaching the top of the Cream.
• Pipe a small amount of Lemon Verbena Cream in the centre of the sugar ring. Place the meringue dome on top of the cream.
• Garnish with small fresh lemon verbena leaves between the Meringue and Pear Discs.