Poached peaches with vanilla cream & raspberry sorbet

Make the sorbet first. Put the sugar into a pan with 250ml water and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Set aside and leave to cool.

Put the raspberries in a food processor with the lemon juice and whizz to a purée. Push the purée through a fine sieve into a bowl using the back of a spoon. Add the cooled sugar syrup to the berry purée and mix until well combined. Churn in an ice-cream machine for about 20 minutes until smooth, then transfer to a freezerproof container, cover and freeze until firm (or see tip, below).

Remove 3 wide strips of lemon zest with a peeler. Put the wine, sugar and zest into a saucepan with a large base, so that the peaches can lie – more or less – in a single layer. Gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, stirring a little to help it along. Add the peaches, then pour on 375ml water. Bring the liquid to a simmer and cook until the peaches are tender. This may take as little as 3-4 minutes if they are ripe, but 15 minutes if firm. Keep checking with the tip of a knife and remove each peach half with a slotted spoon as soon as it’s tender. Transfer to a baking sheet or large plate where they can lie without touching each other (otherwise they continue to cook and become too soft). Once all the peach halves are ready, remove the liquid from the heat.

When the peaches are cool enough to handle, remove all the skins and return to the poaching liquor. Add the vanilla and the juice of ½-1 lemon a little at a time, tasting, until it brings out the flavour of the peaches but before it becomes too lemony. Reheat and allow the syrup to simmer with the skins for 20 minutes to extract more colour and flavour. Remove from the heat and set aside.

For the vanilla cream, whip the cream until it holds but falls gently. Add the icing sugar and vanilla. Taste. It’s best to make this just before you want to serve, otherwise you have to keep it in the fridge and it gets firm.

Divide the peaches between 6 plates and spoon on some syrup (discard the skins). Add a generous spoonful of sorbet and a dollop of vanilla cream, then serve.