I’m Dreaming of a White…

(Image via:DeliciousMagazine.co.uk where a recipe can be found as well.)

… Chocolate soup with fresh, frozen fruit.

My very good friend, The Architect, can cook. It was his “white chocolate soup” that inspired this post. I was recently a guest at a “cook out.” The dinner was presented buffet style, with fish painted china, the drinks in crystal or silver, damask napkins and silverware elevated the tone of a backyard grill-a-thon. All the usual suspects were there: hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs and potato salad along with unexpected accompaniments like mozzarella stuffed cherry red hot peppers, a grilled vegetable relish and a marinated salad. And then there was this incredibly easy and elegant dessert.

This would serve about six people, unless I got to it first.

Scandinavian Iced Berries with Hot White Chocolate. (Recipe with compliments from The Architect, who stole it from J. Sheekey’s in London.)

Using a double boiler melt 2 large bars of fine white chocolate very slowly – Incorporate 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon good vanilla and one jigger dark Jamaican rum.

Use the following assortment: raspberries, black berries, pitted cherries, blueberries and green grapes. If you can find the small wild strawberries, use them as well. Freeze the berries in a single layer – on a baking sheet – to keep the berries from sticking together ; Once frozen pour the fruit into a zip lock bag and keep in the ice box until serving time.

Serving time: Place two big hand fulls of berries in a wide rim soup bowl (old Majolica plates – the dark green ones – also look splendid) and allow to rest for five minutes or so. Then drizzle hot white chocolate ( to cover) over the berries – and top with mint leaves – or a few (unfrozen/fresh) red raspberries for extra color. Add one coin silver table spoon and gobble them up quickly. Serve with cold champagne. Or a demitasse.

Bonus: it makes a great smoothie the next morning. The Architect keeps a zip lock bag of the fruit in the freezer. Substitute vanilla yoghurt for the white chocolate sauce, of course.