Peach Melba Without the ice cream

Certain part of our bookshelf is just overflowing with cooking books, if you look in the right side under my bed you will see cooking book there ( which i read before i go for sleep)

then in the living on one side of the sofa ( i try to hide as so the guest who comes home dodn't see how messey it is on that side of the sofa) there is a lot of magazines, books, etc.... piled up.
In the toilet there is books , you clearly see which is mine.

Mine will be magazines with delcious cooking recipes, hubby's will be heavey books which i open up and close in seconds as i tell it is a bit too hard for my little brain to digest :-)
and daughter 's depends on what she has to read for school.

With all these cooking books and magazines, I still bookmark delicous recipes I see on the net.

And on one ocassion saw this super easy and beautiful looking dessert in My Cooking hut , which I fell in love in seconds. She calls it Peach Melba as she has used ice cream to serve, I didn't do it as when I made didn't have ice cream at home.

I am not surprised I feel in love with seconds with this recipe, if you see her pictures, in her blog you will also fall in love with all her recipes like me.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
White sugar, 275g ( I added less sugar)
Water, 1.5 litres ( I used less water)
Lemon zest, a few pieces
Vanilla pod (split lengthwise), 1
Peaches, 4
Vanilla ice cream, 4 scoops ( Ididn't used it as i didn't have them, next time i will make sure i have ice cream)
Few pistachios for decoration

Method:
1. Put the sugar, lemon zest and vanilla pod into a pot with 1.5 litres of water and bring to the boil.
2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the peaches. Cover with a piece of baking paper and place a plate on top, this will act as a weight and stop the peaches from rising to the surface. Gently simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the peaches and gently peel off the skin by running them under cold water. Set aside.
4. Place about 240ml of poaching liquid, some extra sugar and the peach skins into a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes or until reduced by half.
5. To serve, place a peach and a scoop of ice cream. Drizzle with syrup and sprinkle with some chopped pistachios.

Brazillian Night

My teenage daughter plays violin in the Youth/Adult orchestra and hubby conducts that Orchestra.
So every friday evening they have rehersals and when both of them comes home after the rehersals , the first question mt daughter ask is what is the sanck tonight and hubby asks is there any special drinks .......
mostly it wil be red wine, but when I am in a cocktail mood then the bottles from the shelf comeout and I will be shaking and stirring ( trying to be a real bar woman) to make some yummy cocktail.

So this is what I made on one of those cocktail mood friday evening.
The basic recipe is from the Mangaroca Batida De Coco bottle. Ofcourse when i make them the amount i use just goes up :-)

50 ml Batida de Coco
50ml Vodka
10 ml Blue Curacao

Measure everything and pour into a cocktail shaker with some 5 cube of ice. Shake them well and pour through the sieve to a ice cold Martini glass and serve.
You can garnish with what ever fruit you have .
Sendigng this to details you can find here