Summary Mandarins are one of my favourite winter fruit, which grows extreme well in southern Queensland and are exported all over the world. I have created this fresh flavoured dish with the islands in mind and could see this on any fine dining restaurants menu.

Crunch base

150g plain sweet biscuits crushed

75g Butter Melted

Skin of half a mandarin very finely chopped

Place biscuits and mandarin skin in a food processor and make into a fine crumb, slowly add melted butter. Spoon the crumb into 6 dessert glasses, smooth into bottom and refrigerate while make mousse.

Chocolate Mousse

300ml cream

200g milk cooking chocolate

¼ cup mandarin juice (approximately 2 Mandarin, do not discard skin)

4 eggs separated

Whip the cream and set aside. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside. In a double boiler melt the cooking chocolate add the juice and remove from heat cool slightly. Add the egg yolks and mix well. Fold the chocolate mixture thru the cream and then thru the egg whites until all well combined. Spoon the mixture evenly into the dessert glasses on top of the prepared crumb, return to refrigerator for at least 2 hrs

Candied Mandarin Peel

1 cup caster sugar

½ cup water

Skin of 2 mandarins sliced thinly lengthways

Combine water and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until sugar had dissolved bring the mixture to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Add the mandarin peel and simmer for 3-4 mins. Remove the peel and allow to cool on baking paper.

To serve mousse place a scoop of sorbet over set mousse decorate with candied peel and some grated chocolate.

Mandarin Sorbet

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

12 mandarins, approximately

If you have a juicer juice approximately 12 mandarins to make 2 cups of juice, if you don’t have a juicer put mandarins in a food processor and blend then push thru a sieve to push thru all juice  set aside. In a saucepan combine water and sugar over a low heat dissolve the sugar then bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for a few mins. Allow to cool and refrigerated for 1 hour till cold. Once cold mix the sugar liquid with the mandarin juice put into an ice cream maker and follow the directions as per the manual. If you do not have a machine pour the mixture into a cold  shallow tray cover with cling film and put in the freezer, every 30 mins for 2 hours you must mix the sorbet with a fork to stop it from crystallising then transfer to a cold deep loaf tin or square tin cover with cling film then foil and freeze  overnight. Serves 6