French · Dessert
Peach Melba
Escoffier's homage in its pure form — poached peaches, raw raspberry coulis, vanilla ice cream; nothing cooked that shouldn't be, nothing added that needn't be
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Ripe yellow peaches — 4
- Water — 800 ml
- Caster sugar — 240 g
- Vanilla pod — 1
- Lemon juice — 20 ml
- Raspberries — 300 g (250 g for coulis, 50 g to serve)
- Icing sugar — 30 g
- Vanilla ice cream — 500 ml
- Flaked almonds, toasted — 25 g
Method
- Cross-score the peach bases; blanch 30 sec; ice; slip off the skins.
- Simmer water, sugar and split vanilla 5 min; add peaches; poach at 85 °C for 8–12 min until tender at the stone.
- Cool peaches in the syrup; halve and stone when cold.
- Coulis: blend 250 g raspberries with icing sugar and lemon juice; pass through a fine sieve. NEVER cook it — Escoffier's own rule.
- Chill coupes.
- Build: two scoops ice cream, two peach halves cut-side down, coulis poured generously over.
- Fresh raspberries and almonds to finish.