Retro Citrus
Parfait
Greetings here we are at number 30 and the last of 2025.
I had a long December working so was very glad to arrive at my parents on the 24th for a restful Christmas. January holds exciting things for me plus some glorious sunshine as I’m off to Australia next week. I lived in Sydney for about 7 months and had to make a quick exit due to Covid hitting March 2020, this will be my first visit back, it will be lovely to return and see friends, visit old spots and discover new ones.
While I’m out there Georgia Lahiff and I will be uniting once more to bring a fun range of events starting in Melbourne and also joining together with friends in Sydney, I’m looking forward to getting stuck into their Summer fruits and maybe play with some tropical flavours.
I was delighted to be featured in Toast magazine in December with a candied peel cake recipe. I got to spend a fun morning chatting with Mina Holland and being photographed by my talented friend Lottie Hampson.
As we are now into citrus season, one of my favourite times it makes me quite sad to be missing the peak of it. But fear not I have of course started my relentless candying mission and my kitchen is pleasantly sticky. For me I am always drawn to citrus at Christmas as everything is quite rich and heavy so a bit of fresh zing really brightens things up. This is why for Christmas Day dessert I am often pulled to these flavours. This year my vision was retro orange, bringing a nice pop to the end of a delicious meal.
I had to work quickly as I arrived late Christmas Eve and my dessert had to get in the freezer for the next day. I chose to create a bergamot parfait with orange granita served in a hollowed out orange. I immediately put my crafty Father on orange hollowing duty which he did beautifully while I set about whipping cream.
I first encountered citrus being used as a vessel at an Italian cousin’s birthday party when I was about 16, where they served orange ice cream in oranges and lemon ice cream in lemons. I was captivated by it, what an ingenious idea to make use of the whole fruit now you see quite a few modern interpretations of fruit filled with all sorts of desserts. But I believe it was a real dinner party favourite in the 60’s/70’s as a way to impress your guests, my Granny informed me she would regularly pull this one out.
As it is New year’s Eve and we are discussing citrus I must bring up the lemon pig, a symbol of good luck for the new year. Lemon pigs have had a bit of a comeback in recent years, before that they had a surge in the 1970’s but were originally seen in 1890’s as a craft project for children, the luck part came later. In the Chinese zodiac the pig is a symbol of wealth and good fortune and of course they are pretty darn charming.
