Poached Apricots

Ingredients

• 4 whole apricots
• 50g sugar
• stalk of lemon grass or  4 -5 lemon verbena leaves
• juice 1 small lemon
• individual portion wrapped vanilla ice cream

Method

Stir 50 g of sugar into 500ml water in a saucepan.  Bring to a simmer, stirring until dissolved then boil.  Now add some lemon flavour: either a whole stalk of lemon grass, or 4-5 lemon verbena leaves or the juice of 1 small lemon. 

Slip 4 whole apricots into the syrup, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer – the liquid should be hardly moving – and cook for about 10 -15 minutes, until they are tender. Remove pan and stand in iced water for the apricots to cool in the syrup then decant into a bowl and chill in fridge until needed.

To serve

Cut or pull the apricots into halves before placing on a slice of vanilla ice cream – the old fashioned single-serve wrapped in paper variety, on a small plate.  Drop a bit of juice around and decorate the plates with lemon or verbena leaves. 

John Hawkesby’s wine recommendations  

Bubbles
Shooting Star Methode Traditionelle 2010
Morton Estate Non Vintage Reserve Sec