Friday, January 12, 2024

Peach Melba Light

Peach Melba is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. The dish was invented in the 1890s by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honor the Australian soprano Nellie Melba.


Recipe.: Peach Melba
  • Makes: 2 servings
  • Serving Size: 1/2 cup peach slices or 2 peach halves,
    1 Tbsp jam topping, 1/2 cup reduced-fat ice cream

Ingredients


2tsp.fresh lemon juice
1/4tsp.pure vanilla extract
1cuppeach slices or
 4 halves, canned, in juice 
2Tbspraspberry jam
1cupreduced-fat Vanilla Ice Cream 

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, add the lemon juice, vanilla, and canned peaches with juice. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.
  2.  Remove the saucepan from the heat, and allow the peach halves to cool for 30 minutes.
  3. Using a slotted spoon, place the peach halves in dessert dishes. Cut into slices, if desired. 
  4. Heat the jam in a microwave-safe container for 15 seconds until melted.
  5. Top the peach slices with scoops of ice cream, and drizzle with the jam. Garnish with fresh raspberries.

In 1892, Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner's opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden. The Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party to celebrate her triumph. For the occasion, Escoffier created a new dessert, and to display it, he used an ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in the opera. The swan carried peaches which rested on a bed of vanilla ice cream and which were topped with spun sugar. 

In 1900, Escoffier created a new version of the dessert. For the occasion of the opening of the Carlton Hotel, where he was head chef, Escoffier omitted the ice swan and topped the peaches with raspberry purée. Other versions of this dessert use pears, apricots, or strawberries instead of peaches and/or use raspberry sauce or melted red currant jelly instead of raspberry purée.

Resources.
1. Wikipedia. 
Peach Melba
2. Food Network. Peach Melba, Recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson

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