Nectarines with cardamom cream

The nectarines in my local greengrocer seem particularly good at the moment; sweet, juicy, ripe but firm enough to eat without getting into a terrible sticky mess.  We've been munching them like apples of late, but I thought a little added flavour might not go amiss.

I wanted to use a spice with them - the more obvious choice being cinamon or perhaps ginger, but I thought I'd have a bash at cardamom.  It worked very nicely, giving a spicy, scented background note to the nectarines.  A splash of rosewater might have worked well, but I didn't have any to hand.

You can whip the cream - as I did here - or just leave it as pouring cream, but either way I think it's important to let the cardamom perfume the cream for a while - a couple of hours at least.

Nectarines with cardamom cream

For each nectarine, use the finely ground seeds of one green cardamom pod.  Stir into a tablespoon or so of cream (pouring or whipped), cover and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Slice the nectarine and serve.

You could skin the fruit before serving (either dunk them in boiling water and skin like a tomato or if they're nice and ripe, they might even just skin with the tip of a sharp knife).  The skins on the nectarines we've been getting, however, have been thin and sweet enough for me not to bother.

If your nectarines aren't so ripe, it might be worth poaching them in stock syrup first or even baking them in the oven for twenty minutes or so. 

tags: pudding  

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