Roy Creates A Peach Melba For Australia Day

This week, with Australia Day almost upon us, Roy decided he would like to cook a light and tasty summer dessert to enjoy. Normally, people have pavlova or damper, golden syrup and cream as a dessert on Australia Day, but Roy decided he would like to try something a little different. He loves peaches and rasperries, and there is no better time to enjoy them than the height of summer. When I reminded him about the dessert Peach Melba, he thought this would be perfect, using lovely summer fruit and celebrating one of Australia's important women. So this week Roy Creates A Peach Melba For Australia Day.

Although most of the children Roy knows don't recognise the name 'Dame Nellie Melba', she was actually one of Australia's most important women. She was a singer, who became a massive success both in Australia and throughout the world, singing in opera's in some of the worlds most celebrated Opera Houses. She was also the singer chosen to sing the National Anthem when Old Parliament House in Canberra was opened, making Canberra Australia's National Capital (of course, it was the English National Anthem used at the time). Nellie Melba was so well loved by people that there have been several dishes made and named in her honour. The Peach Melba, one of the most famous of these dishes, was created by the famous French chef Escoffier in 1892 or 1893. To find out more about the history of the Peach Melba, click here. The dessert has become so popular that January 13, only a short time ago, is apparently National Peach Melba Day in America! With the summer fruits being at their peak around Australia Day, it seems the perfect time for Australians to enjoy this dish, created in honour of such an important Australian.

You Will Need:

• Ripe, slipstone peaches (you want 1 large peach per person). The recipe usually uses yellow peaches, but you can use white peaches if you like. 
• 1 vanilla bean, a teaspoon of good vanilla essence or a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.
• Castor Sugar. The original recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar in 3 cups of water but Roy and I find this a little too sweet, so we scaled the sugar back to about 1/4 a cup in 1 cup of water. If you like things really sweet, up the sugar used with the peaches.
• 1 more tablespoon of castor sugar
• 1 cup raspberries (about 1 punnet) Frozen are fine This makes enough sauce for about 6 Peach Melbas.
• Juice of half a lemon
• Vanilla icecream

Method:

• Skin your peaches. If your peaches are really ripe, you might be able to simply skin them, but if their skins are difficult to get off:

         Put a cross shaped cut in the ends of each of the peaches. Put the peaches into a large saucepan, cover with boiling water and leave them for a minute. Ask an adult to help you take the peaches out of the hot water and the skins should just slide off.

• Cut your peaches in half or quarters, remove the pips and put them back into the large saucepan.

• Add the vanilla, sugar and water to the peaches.
• Simmer the peaches until they are soft but still holding their shape. How long this takes will depend on how ripe your peaches are - Roy's took about 10 minutes
• Transfer the peaches to a bowl and put them into the fridge to chill.

• Mash up the raspberries (you can use a food processor if you like, but Roy just used a fork) until they are pureed. Then, push the raspberries through a strainer to remove the seeds.

• Add the extra 1 tablespoon of castor sugar and the lemon juice to the raspberrys and stir until the sugar dissolves. Then, put the raspberry sauce into the fridge to chill.

• When you are ready to serve, put a couple of balls of vanilla icecream into a serving dish, add some peaches and then drizzle with the raspberry sauce.
• Enjoy!