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Chocolate delice with vanilla cream, px roast grapes, raspberries and almonds

Peter Gordon
Peter Gordon's spectacular dessert features rich but light chocolate creams served with luscious sherry-roasted grapes and whipped cream

Chocolate delice with vanilla cream, px roast grapes, raspberries and almonds

Method

1. To make the delice: whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar until pale.

2. Place the remaining sugar in a pan with the milk and cream and bring to a simmer.

3. Pour half the hot cream over the egg yolks, whisking continuously, then return the mix to the simmering cream in the pan and cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

4. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour over the custard, mixing until the chocolate melts. Pour through a sieve into a shallow dish. Press some baking parchment onto the surface and leave to cool, and then place in the fridge to firm up.

5. To make the roast grapes: preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3.

6. Place the grapes in a ceramic (or non-reactive) roasting dish just large enough to hold them and drizzle with the PX sherry, water and olive oil.

7. Roast for about 20 minutes until the grapes begin to swell up and become quite firm. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

8. To make the vanilla cream: place the vanilla pod and sugar into a food processor and blitz for 2 minutes, at which point the sugar will be full of seeds. Store in an airtight jar. Sift 2 tablespoons of the vanilla sugar.

9. Whisk the cream with the sieved sugar to form soft peaks.

10. To serve: using 2 large spoons scoop the delice into oval shapes and place the ovals (quenelles) on a flat plate, making an indentation in the centre. Scoop the vanilla cream in the same way and place in the indentation. Place the grapes and raspberries around the quenelles and scatter with the almonds.

Cook's note
The roast grapes can be cooked in the oven at the same time as the lamb.
The vanilla sugar recipe will make more than you need. Each time you use the sugar, simply sieve the sugar, returning the vanilla bits and a little extra sugar to the jar.