Peach Melba

Combine the water and caster sugar in a saucepan just wide enough to hold the peaches snugly. Scrape in the vanilla seeds and drop in the pod, add the strip of lemon peel and a squeeze of the juice, and warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar fully dissolves. Bring to a gentle simmer so the syrup is clear and fragrant before the fruit goes in.

Lower the whole peaches into the barely-simmering syrup, cover with a round of parchment to keep them submerged, and poach gently for 12-18 minutes depending on ripeness, turning once. They are done when a paring knife slides into the flesh with no resistance. Lift them out, and once cool enough to handle, slip off the skins — they should peel away in sheets. Halve and stone them, then chill the peaches in their syrup.

Blitz the raspberries with the icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice to a smooth purée — no cooking, to keep the colour vivid and the flavour fresh. Pass it through a fine sieve, pressing hard to extract every drop and leaving the seeds behind. Taste and adjust the sugar so the sauce is sweet but still bright with acidity. Chill until cold.

Chill your coupes or shallow glasses. Set a generous scoop of cold vanilla ice cream in the base of each, arrange two peach halves cut-side down over the top, then spoon the cold melba sauce over the fruit so it bleeds down over the ice cream. Scatter with toasted flaked almonds and serve at once, before the ice cream begins to soften.