Dessert by Jordi Roca

(For 4 portions)

When master chefs give free rein to their creativity, it's not always easy for amateur cooks to follow. Patience and experience are the most important ingredients in this recipe put together for us by Jordi Roca. First make the ice cream.

For the Date Compote:
100 dates, pitted
100 ml water

Preparation:

Heat the dates in a water bath, crush them and press them through a sieve.

For the caramelized Coffee Emulsion:
20 g coffee paste (can be bought in gourmet or health food shops)
20 g cane sugar syrup
10 ml water

Preparation:

Mix the cold ingredients together until they form an emulsion.

For the Toffee Parfait
160 g sugar
400 g heavy cream, at room temperature
a pinch of salt
2 leaves of gelatine

Preparation:

Heat the sugar in a pan and stir it as it liquifies. Add the cream, stirring continually.

Dissolve the gelatine in cold water and add it to the sugar mixture, stir well and pour into a mould. Chill for several hours. When the parfait is firm, cut it into four slices.

Ice Cream made with arrope

(Arrope is an Agentinian specialty, a concentrated grape juice used to make dessert wines.)

1/4 litre milk
100 ml heavy cream
5 g milk powder
75 g arrope
65 g glucose

Preparation:

Warm the milk and cream. Mix the glucose and the milk powder and add to the milk and cream mixture, heat to 85 degrees Celsius. Allow the mass to cool to room temperature and add the arrope. Leave the mixture for 12 hours, then purée it in a mixer and put it in the freezer (at -18 degrees Celsius) until it freezes.

For the Spice Bread:

10 ml milk
1 egg
200 g honey
5 g salt
3 g cinnamon stick
2 g aniseed
2 g cloves
2 g coriander
1 g Sechuan pepper
1 g cardamon
4 g ginger
grated orange peel
15g cornflour
225g flour

Preparation:

Mix the milk, honey and spices and leave to steep. Mix the flour with the salt and the grated orange peel. Combine the two mixtures with the cornflour and stir to form a liquid batter. Add the egg, and beat until the batter is smooth. Pour into a floured baking pan, leave to stand for one hour and then bake in a preheated 170°C oven for 40 minutes.

For the decoration:

Slice candied ginger thinly, so that you have six to eight slices for each portion.

Assembly:

Place some date compote on a plate, decorate the rim with slices of candied ginger. Surround the compote with a ring of coffee emulsion. Make crumbs from the spicebread to coat the toffee parfait. Arrange the coated parfait on the date compote in the centre of the plate. Top with a portion of ice cream, and garnish everything with coffee emulsion and chocolate strands.