This is a seasonal dessert for the sweet tooth, but the sharpness of the apricot brings the dish together with the addition of yoghurt to finish it off. This makes for a rich and flavoursome course, which is not too heavy to fit in!
Brought to us by Gary Jarvis, Head Chef at The Curlew Restaurant, Bodiam.
Firstly
Boil 2 tins of condensed
milk for 4 hours and leave
to chill.
For the parfait: 200g egg yolk, 50g caster sugar, 200g egg white, 30g caster sugar, 500g double cream, 60g caster sugar.
I begin by whipping the egg yolk with the 50g of sugar until thick and ribbon stage (sabayon), placing this in a large bowl. Then whip the cream to soft peaks with the 60g of sugar, fold this into the egg yolk until it develops a thick, smooth texture.
Then whisk just the egg whites alone to a meringue and finish with the 30g of sugar. This is then gently folded through the mixture. When finished split the mixture in half and leave to chill in the fridge.
Apricot purée: Using 500g of dried apricots and 1.5litres of water, a pinch of salt.
Boil this in a heavy based pan until all the water has evaporated and the apricots are soft and tender, then blitz in a food processor until smooth and thick, then leave to cool.
To make the apricot sheets, take 6 fresh apricots.
Blowtorch the skin until charred and black then scrape off with the back of a knife. Once clean, split in half and remove the stone. I then slice into thin strips and lay out flat and together on greaseproof paper, brush with a little sugar water, top with another sheet of greaseproof and gently roll so that a smooth thickness is obtained and freeze on a flat tray. Once frozen I slice into strips and remove greaseproof as required. (Keep one apricot aside to garnish the plate.)
Honeycomb: 200g caster sugar, 5 tablespoons of glucose syrup, 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda.
Bring the sugar and the glucose to the boil on a slow steady heat until all the grains have dissolved, then turn up the heat until the mixture turns amber brown colour. Then stir in the bicarb with a wooden spoon (be very careful as the mixture will triple in size and will be extremely hot.) Pour in to a deep tray lined with greaseproof and leave to cool.
Toffee Yoghurt: 100g yoghurt 75g toffee (condensed milk) Mix together till smooth.
Now with the parfait I mix 200g of the apricot purée through half the mix and set in a lined mould of choice, then into the freezer until firm.
With the other half, I crush 50g of honeycomb, mix this into the parfait, and mix also 50g of the toffee (condensed milk) once all incorporated, I set on top of the apricot parfait mix and leave to freeze overnight.
Biscuit base with 500g digestive biscuits and 200g butter.
I blitz the biscuits in a food processor to a crumb, melt the butter and mix together, then I roll this thin between greaseproof paper, freeze and cut as required.
Now to assemble the plate.
I lay my biscuit base on the plate and top with the parfait, then lay my cut piece of the apricot sheet to the left, add dots of the apricot purée, toffee yoghurt and pieces of honeycomb. Dice some of the fresh charred apricot and I add some micro lemon balm for colour and hint of lemon flavour.
Then ready to serve, enjoy.
