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AAF’s Recipe of the Day

Summer’s best dessert: Peche Melba, a classic dessert, invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London to honour the Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba (1861 - 1931) the daughter of a Portugese fisherman (a little known fact). It combines two favourite summer fruits: peaches and raspberry sauce accompanying vanilla ice cream. Yum!

He had heard Nellie Melba perform at Covent Garden one night and was inspired to create a dessert just for her. Rumour had it she loved ice cream, but did not dare eat it often, believing it would affect her vocal cords. Escoffier created a sauce of raspberries, redcurrant jelly, sugar and cornstarch. In Peach Melba, the ice cream, being only one element in a whole, would not be as cold and thus not harm her vocal cords. He served it at a dinner she was hosting, presented in an ice sculpture of a swan inspired by the performance of Lohengrin he had seen.

50gr granulated sugar, 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, 1 pint water, 4 ripe white peaches, unblemished, 250gr raspberries, Vanilla ice-cream, a pinch of flaked almonds.

Bring sugar, vanilla bean and water to boil in a small saucepan, stirring. Poach the peaches for 10 minutes or until tender, then remove. Boil the syrup for 5 minutes until reduced by half. Set aside to cool.

Peel the peaches, cut in half and remove the stone. Whiz the raspberries in a blender with 100mL of the sugar syrup, then push the puree through a fine sieve and chill (that’s how coulis are made). To serve, cut the ice-cream into four 3-4cm deep slices and use a 3cm circular pastry-cutter to make four rounds. Place each round on a chilled, shallow dessert plate, arrange half a peach cut-side down on top, and pour the raspberry puree over the top and add the flaked almonds (optional). You can serve this with lots of raspberries on the side, and almond bikies.