Strawberries, with Chantilly cream, verbena and Mirabeau rosé gin jelly

This dessert couldn’t be more Provencal and more Mirabeau if it tried! We really hope you enjoy creating this Provençal twist on a classic English recipe. Perfect for balmy Summer evenings.

We used the first of the season’s Gariguette strawberries from the Domaine ‘potager’ vegetable garden. Gariguette are an old and much-loved French strawberry variety. There’s a lot of debate as to whether France or the UK grows the best strawberries; we wouldn’t want to comment on such a
controversial topic(!) but it’s certainly true that these are delicious and sweet.

Verveine or Verbena in English is also one of the aromas that is synonymous with Provence, so much so that Jo Malone has named a perfume ‘Verbenas of Provence’. We used Verbena from our herb garden on Domaine Mirabeau for this dish.

Ben shares his thoughts on the flavour combinations in this recipe he created, “Verbena’s lemony herbaceous almost green-tea like flavour really complements the sweetness of the strawberries. I loved playing around with our Mirabeau Rosé Gin to make this jelly, which has quite a kick and just tastes of Provence.”

We suggest pairing this dessert with a lovely glass of our Etoile – the wine’s delicate citrus notes and lovely minerality pair really well with creamy cheeses and desserts.

Ingredients

• 1 punnet strawberries 
• 250ml double cream
• 30g icing sugar
• ½ lemon, zest only

Ingredients – Verbena Syrup

• 1 sprig of lemon verbena, leaves picked (or basil or mint are nice alternatives if you can’t find verbena)
• 50g caster sugar
• 50ml water

Ingredients – Mirabeau rosé gin jelly

• 150ml Mirabeau rosé gin
• 150ml water
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 sheets gelatin 

Method

• Jelly to be made at least 4 hours before serving! For the jelly, first soak the sheets of gelatin in a bowl of cold water for five minutes or until soft. Meanwhile, heat the gin and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and honey and keep on the heat until dissolved. 
• Remove from the heat and add the soft gelatin to the gin mixture in the saucepan. It should dissolve immediately. Then pour the jelly mixture into a bowl and leave to set in the fridge for at least four hours
• Verbena syrup to be made at least four hours before serving! For the verbena syrup, put all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil, then simmer for three minutes. Once the sugar has dissolved and you have a nice green liquid, strain and cool
• Mix the cream in a bowl or in a mixer, together with the icing sugar and lemon zest, and whip until it creates soft peaks (should take around 4-5 minutes), then leave in the fridge
• To prepare the strawberries, remove the stalks and cut in half lengthways
• Once the verbena syrup is cool, pour over the strawberries in a bowl, to soften (‘macerate’) for a few hours, or overnight if you want really soft strawberries
• To serve, place strawberries in your chosen dish (we used a champagne coup), get a few pinches of the jelly and crumble over the strawberries. Add a dollop of Chantilly, and garnish with finely sliced verbena leaves.