Roasted Grapes from Seven Spoons: My Favourite Recipes For Any and Every Day. Copyright © 2015 Tara O’Brady. Published by Appetite by Random House, a division of Random House of Canada Ltd., a Penguin Random House Company. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Truly compelling but dead simple. Sticky fruit, warm cream, crushed cookies and booze. And it needn't be this fruit, this alcohol or even these cookies. Grab figs, strawberries, rhubarb, pineapple or sour cherries. Add herbs and spices to the fruit or the sugar – rosemary, thyme, Chinese five-spice powder and ground coriander work very well with fruit. Try other alcohols, such as Marsala, gin or liqueurs, either before cooking or at the end. Or enlist ginger snaps, meringues or sugar cookies for crunch.
Servings: 4 to 6
Labneh (strained yogurt)
Zest from 1/2 orange, finely grated
1/3 cup (75 g) packed Demerara sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 1/2 cups (590 ml) labneh
Note: If you make your own labneh, layer with sugar during its initial straining process.
Grapes
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons grappa
1 pound (455 g) seedless table grapes
Amaretti or shortbread, to serve
Method
Preheat an oven to 375 F.
To make the labneh, rub the orange zest into the Demerara sugar. Fold the labneh into the sugar mixture until lightly veined. If the labneh isn’t firm, carefully scrape it into a cheesecloth-lined strainer set over a bowl. Then cover and refrigerate until it is stable enough to form and hold a clean peak (this may only take 10 minutes or up to an hour, depending on how damp the labneh was to start with). Spread the labneh in ripples on an ovenproof plate. Sprinkle with more Demerara.
To make the grapes, thin the honey with the grappa in a large bowl. Snip the grapes into clusters and add to the bowl. Turn the grapes in the syrup, then transfer to a roasting pan with a shallow rim.
Place the grapes and labneh side by side in the hot oven and roast until the grapes start to shrivel and the labneh is set and golden, about 12 to 15 minutes. Carefully set the grapes atop the labneh and spoon the collected pan juices over all. Serve with the cookies, crushed or whole.
Excerpted from Seven Spoons: My Favourite Recipes For Any and Every Day. Copyright © 2015 Tara O’Brady. Published by Appetite by Random House, a division of Random House of Canada Ltd., a Penguin Random House Company. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.