Easter Leftovers

So this week I thought I would show a recipe for using up those Easter leftovers. So here it is the chocolate egg...... if there are any left overs! but this lovely dessert may just persuade your kids or significant other, to relinquish the care of the remaining egg to you, and in return you promise to give it back even more wonderful than when you received it! The other option of course is to hunt down those much reduced eggs at the shops this week, but if you really cant bare the thought of eating anymore chocolate or wrestling the kids to get their prized eggs; this dessert is equally as lovely served in a sundae glass.

So here we have it..... a chocolate egg with Grilled Nectarines, Mascarpone cream, Amaretti and Basil. This looks beautiful on a plate or in a sundae glass but is deceptively simple to make. It is also a great make ahead dessert, so with the new social distancing regulations enabling all of us to now meet with family and friends in the garden, you can make this dessert on the morning of the gathering or even the night before and pop in the fridge covered with clingfilm (or reusable alternative) ready to uncover and take to the table to serve.

Do you know what would be perfect to serve with this dessert? well a lovely chilled glass of Galleywood Sparkling wine of course ;-)

Leftovers- what always gets left in your fridge at the end of the week? are their any recipes that you would like me to try and inspire you with to use up those stragglers? I am hoping to use this blog to inspire you with some recipes that use local ingredients and products from local suppliers.

We have excellent local suppliers for all our Fruit, Vegetables,Meat & Fish as well as some local producers of flour, eggs, honey, jams, chutneys etc. As a local company supplying our product I feel passionately about supporting other local businesses who bring top quality produce and diversity to our food choices. We all use supermarkets and chain stores, but this Pandemic has hopefully highlighted to us all how important it is to support our local businesses and keep them thriving in our communities. I would hate to see a community that is only served by giant faceless supermarkets who can not offer us that personal service that our local shops and the people that work in them provide for us.

Grilled Nectarines, Marscarpone, Ameretti and Basil Sundae

Recipe

Recipes serves 4

Ingredients:

Griddled Peaches:

3 x Ripe Nectarines (or peaches)

50ml White wine ( I used our Bacchus wine)

35g Caster Sugar

25ml White Balsamic Vinegar

Mascarpone Cream:

175g Mascarpone cream

30g Caster Sugar

250ml Double cream

150ml Peach juice drink ( I used Granini brand- an ambient juice drink)

25ml White Rum

15-20 x Italian amaretti biscuits

1 x Punnet fresh raspberries

Greek basil leaves

Toasted sliced almonds

2 Easter eggs (optional can use sundae glasses)

Method:

1. Prepare the nectarines: Halve the nectarines and remove the stones. cut the nectarine halves into three (or 4 if large) and place into a bowl. Put the white wine, White Balsamic and caster sugar into a small pan and heat until the sugar has all dissolved. Pour the hot liquid over the nectarines and cover. Leave to steep for four hours (approx)

2. Once the nectarines have steeped. Pour the peach juice into a wide pan with the rum and 50ml of the nectarine pickling liquid and reduce over a medium heat until syrupy.

3. Take half of the nectarine pieces and brush over a light coating of the reduced liquid. Heat a griddle pan on a medium high heat griddle the nectarine pieces on each side until dark golden and griddled. Remove from the pan and allow to cool. Keep the remaining syrup to use later.

4. Whisk the mascarpone, sugar and double cream together ( this works best with a food mixer or electric beaters) until the mixture holds soft peaks.

Assembly

1. Put a small amount of the mascarpone cream on your serving plate or bowl and place your easter egg half on top (this will help stop it moving around on the plate)

2. Break up 2-3 amaretti biscuits for each egg shell and put inside to form a biscuit base.

3. Choose 4 of your nicest griddled nectarine slices for plate decoration and put to one side. Slice the remainder into small pieces along with the other non griddled nectarine pieces and toss in the reserved syrup. Scatter a spoonful of the peach pieces over the amaretti base of each egg.

4. Divide the mascarpone cream between the egg shells. At this point you can decide whether to smooth the top level to the chocolate shell with a knife or smooth and then pipe some dots of the mascarpone cream on the top to give you some height differences (this is what I did) If you do not have a piping bag you can just cut the corner off a plastic sandwich bag and use this instead

5. Break a few more amaretti biscuits in pieces and then take these, the peach pieces, raspberries and toasted flaked almonds and place decoratively over the top of the mascarpone cream. if you have any remaining syrup left from your peaches then reserve in the fridge until serving.

6. Put a few very small basil leaves on top of the fruit, I used greek basil which has small leaves if you can only find normal basil cut into small pieces just before serving ( you will only need a very small amount, we want a hint of basil!)

7. Decorate the plate with your remaining reserved nectarine slice a few raspberries and a whole amaretti biscuit. Store covered in the fridge until ready to serve.

8. Before serving drizzle over any remaining syrup and give a very light dusting of icing sugar

ENJOY........ with your glass of chilled sparkling wine of course! or if you really want to

turn on those summer vibes why not make a Bellini?