Needs No Excuse

September 6th - My son had returned from a summer in Madrid and was only home for a few days and I was longing for a sit-round-the-table-family-dinner.  Lamb was on the menu (one of my new recipes) and there on the front cover of my summer Delicious magazine was the recipe I had been waiting to make - Raspberry Ripple and Pistachio Parfait.  I'd never made a parfait before but the list of ingredients was small so how difficult could it be? Honestly - there should be a warning put on recipes - 'hundreds of bowls required', 'kitchen porter needed for mass dish wash'! Was it worth it? I hear you ask. Definitely. So here goes. The first pot is for the raspberry sauce. 100g of sugar is put in a pot with a little water and boiled and bubbled until reduced and then the raspberries added. This is then pushed through a seive into a bowl to cool with some cling film on the top. Or in my case, via another pot to reduce it a bit more (Pot count 2, Bowls 1). 2 egg yolks were put in another bowl and whisked together with a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and 50g caster sugar until thick and pale. (Pots 2, Bowls 2) The cream was then whipped until it formed soft peaks. (Pots 2, bowls 3). In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until very stiff. (Pots 2, bowls 4). The egg yolk/cream/egg whites were all mixed together and a handful of chopped pistachios added.  Then this mixture was layered with the raspberry sauce in a loaf tin which had been lined with two layers of cling film.  The parfait was then frozen for around 8 hours. When ready to serve it was sliced, topped with raspberries, some of the leftover sauce and cruched Crunchie bar.  This is to die for......