Spiced Peach Melba
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5-15 minutes (plus cooling time)
Serves 6
- 3 large white peaches, peeled
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 star anise
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 clove
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1 tablespoon icing or confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1.5 cups ice cream, thick cream or natural yogurt
Step 1 - Simmer the sugar, water, star anise, cinnamon, clove and vanilla for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Cut peaches in half - you don't need to remove the pip now if it is hard to get out, it comes out easier once they are cooked but remove them if they come out easily.
Step 2 - Simmer the peaches in the syrup for anywhere between 5-15 minutes. This really depends on the ripeness of the peaches. For ripe ones, I've simmered them for as little as 5 minutes but these were really quite crisp so this was closer to 15 minutes. You don't want them to fall apart though, you just want them to be luscious but not crisp or hard. Chill completely (strain and reserve syrup for drinks). I usually do this the day before and then assemble these on the day to save time.
Step 3 - Blend the raspberries, sugar and water until you get a raspberry sauce. You can choose to strain this to get the pips out if you want or not, it's up to you (and I tend to err on the side of lazy figuring that pips must be good for you).
Step 4 - Dollop some ice cream, cream or yogurt in a serving glass. Then place one peach half on top of this. Spoon the raspberry sauce over it just before serving.