EASTERN MESS

Enjoy Wimbledon this weekend with an Eton Mess recipe with a twist. Sabrina Ghayour’s Eastern Mess is a Persian take on the traditional British dessert, replacing strawberries with raspberries and adding a taste of the Middle East. This version is perfumed with Persian rosewater and combined with raspberries, basil and delicate pistachio slivers which give a little crunch to every bite.

Serves 6
600ml (20fl oz) double cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the seeds
scraped from 1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp rosewater
6 ready-made meringues
450g (1lb) raspberries
handful of Greek basil leaves or torn
basil leaves
75g (2¾oz) pistachio nut slivers
or chopped pistachio nuts (optional)
For the Raspberry Sauce
225g (8oz) raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar (you may need more if
using raspberries out of season)
1 tbsp rosewater
squeeze of lemon juice

* Using an electric hand whisk, whip the double cream, icing sugar, vanilla paste or seeds and rosewater together in a mixing bowl until soft peaks form. You don’t want the cream to be too loose or too stiff, so keep an eye on the consistency. With the whisk set on a high speed, it should take about 3 minutes or so.
* To make the sauce, mash the the raspberries to a purée with the icing sugar, rose water and lemon juice in a bowl until the mixture is completely smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove the raspberry seeds.
* Choose either a large platter or individual serving dishes. Now layer the cream, meringues and raspberries in the serving dish(es), drizzling on the sauce and scattering over the basil leaves and pistachios as you go. Decorate the top layer with a little drizzle of sauce and a final scattering of basil leaves and pistachios, if using. Serve immediately with a glass of Pimms, and sit back and enjoy the tennis!

Persiana is available here!