As the name may suggest, this dish tastes like Christmas – the compote being perhaps like the inside of a mince pie. It is inspired by Spanish cooking (the excuse required to use Pedro Ximinez, a sweet sherry as an ingredient)
You don’t need too much of the sauce, as once you’ve combined raisins with sweet wine it gets borderline saccharine. About a tablespoon’s worth should do it, unless you have the sweet tooth of a pre-diabetic infant and then I’d suggest you put your face into the compote and see if you can get a buzz off of the alcohol as well (disclaimer: lol jk I don’t actually suggest this)
The sharp, sweetness of the sauce makes the ice cream, which is already quite sweet, seem more savoury and creamier in comparison.
In terms of ice cream, we went for Movenpick‘s Maple Walnut flavour – partly because it was available, and partly because I find that the Movenpick ice creams, which were originally aimed at a trade audience – usually have a less sweet and more subtle flavour profile than some of the consumer ice creams.
Which means less of a flavour conflict with the sauce…hopefully
Enjoy!
- 75g raisins
- 100ml Pedro Ximénez (PX) sherry
- 1 scoop (to taste) of ice cream - we used Movenpick Maple Walnut
- A few raspberrys
- A dry biscuit or two
- Put your raisins and sherry into a bowl and leave the raisins to absorb as much sherry as they can over a 1-4 hours (If they're older raisins, they will absorb more sherry and so be richer than fresh/less dry ones, which retain more of their own natural juices)
- Just before you are ready to eat, take a scoop of your ice cream and put it into a Spanish terracotta dish or glass
- Blitz the raisin/sherry mix into a smooth mix using a hand blender
- Then pour this fresh blended sherry mix over the ice cream
- (optional) Now garnish with a raspberry or two (which will taste savoury in comparison) and a biscuit (the dryer the better)
- Leave a minute or two for the flavours to mingle, then eat!!!