Poached peaches with verbena ice-cream – by Jun Tanaka

Ingredients
(Serves four)

For the poached peaches
250g sugar
500ml water
Juice of two lemons
2 white peaches
25ml peach liqueur
Zest of one lemon

For the verbena ice-cream:
50ml double cream
250ml milk
Zest of one lime
Zest of one lemon
2g lemon verbena
60g caster sugar
3 egg yolks

Method
To prepare the peaches, put 250g sugar, water and juice of one of the lemons in a pan and bring to the boil, making a light syrup. Score the tops of the two peaches in a criss-cross pattern. Blanch the peaches in the boiling syrup for 10-20 seconds. Remove from the syrup and place in iced water. Once the peaches are cold, remove the skin, putting them to one side. Cut the flesh into even wedges, discarding the stones.

Place the peach skins together with the remaining 50g of sugar, juice of the second lemon, lemon zest and peach liqueur into a pan and bring to the boil. Cool the liquid, place in a blender and purée. Pass the mix through a sieve and mix with the peach wedges.

To make the ice-cream, put cream, milk, both citrus zests and lemon verbena in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove pan from the heat, cover and stand for 30 minutes. Whisk the sugar and yolks together till they whiten. Reboil the milk mix and combine with the yolks and sugar. Place in a clean pan and return to a gentle heat. Cook mix to 85°C, stirring constantly. When temperature is reached, pass mix through sieve and churn.

To assemble, place peaches in a bowl. Put a ball of ice-cream in the middle of the peaches. Decorate with redcurrants.

Jun Tanaka, head chef, Pearl, Renaissance Chancery Court hotel, London