Poached peaches

Dinner-party dessert is a tricky thing: often it seems to be a choice between impressing your guests and maintaining a healthy-eating agenda. Here's how you can do both.

If you're having guests over for dinner but are also trying to eat healthily, it can be difficult: you don't want to throw all your good intentions out of the window, but neither do you want to deprive others of dessert. While bringing a bowl of apples or a couple of bananas to the table is unlikely to impress, this recipe for poached peaches will.

Recipes: The National Eats

Last Updated: June 19th, 2011 UAE

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By first peeling the peaches and then serving them covered in an aromatic floral syrup, a simple piece of fruit becomes a sophisticated treat.

The type of fruit that you use can be varied easily (pears and baby pineapples work really well) and you could add different flavourings to the syrup (star anise or lemon zest, honey instead of the sugar, orange blossom in place of the rose water) or even poach the fruit in diluted fruit juice.

Yes, the recipe does contain a bit of sugar but bear in mind that this is being split between four people. Look at it this way: this dish is far less fattening than your average dinner-party dessert.

Serve the peaches with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt rather than cream. Not only does this help keep calories low, the tartness of the yoghurt provides a nice contrast to the sweetness of the syrup.

Poached peaches (serves 4)

Ingredients

4 peaches (try to use ones that are ripe but firm)

400ml water

75g caster sugar

2 tbsp rosewater

juice and pared zest of 1 orange

1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways

To serve

low-fat Greek yoghurt

Method

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, then remove from the heat. Fill a large bowl with iced water. Add the peaches to the pan containing the hot water and leave for 30 seconds, before transferring to the iced water. Leave for 2 minutes, then remove the peaches from the water and peel away the skin (it should come off easily).

Pour the measured amount of water (400ml) into a saucepan large enough to hold the four peaches. Add the sugar, rosewater, orange juice and zest and vanilla pod and place the pan over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then add the peaches and simmer gently for 15 minutes, basting the fruit with the syrup frequently. When the peaches are tender, remove them from the pan and set aside.

Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Cook until the liquid has reduced by half and has a syrupy consistency. Strain through a sieve, spoon the syrup over the peaches and leave to cool. Serve chilled with a spoonful of the low-fat Greek yoghurt.