Those of you who’ve been following my blog will know that I’m a rather lazy cook who is always looking to create a delicious result with the minimum of effort.

But it’s not just a matter of laziness, as I’ve been known to create dishes that take days to prepare – it’s the fact that people don’t have the time on their hands today that they did when I was growing up and I want to present delicious food ideas for busy people.

Longer ago than I care to admit, I watched my Mum bake cakes, cookies and desserts for the weekend and her only kitchen equipment consisted of a wooden spoon, large bowl and a fork for whipping egg whites into meringue on a flat plate. No wonder she had strong arms.

Anyway, here’s something that even a child (supervised) of five is capable of making. The combination of chocolate with fruit is always appealing, whether its chocolate covered dried fruits such as prunes or apricots, poached pears with a chocolate sauce… or the ubiquitous choc-dipped strawberry.

Inspired by the latter, here’s something a bit different; chocolate drenched grapes – a chilly sweet explosion in your mouth. You can use green or red grapes (I only had red in my fridge) or both, for a prettier plate. They’re best served cold in order to experience the crisp chocolate shell immediately followed by a burst of chilled grape juice. I first made this decades ago and its just as wonderful today.

CHOCOLATE DRENCHED GRAPES

(Serves about 4)

Ingredients:

1 lb (0.5 kilo) of seedless red or green grapes

1 lb (0.5 kilo) of semi-sweet best quality chocolate chips

Action:

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Cut the grapes into little bunches, rinse and pat dry or air dry (they need to be absolutely dry before dipping)

In the bottom of a double boiler (or use a bowl that fits snugly over a glass Pyrex pan so you can see exactly how the water is behaving) – bring 1 inch (25 cm) of water to a boil then remove it from the heat and tip the chocolate into the bowl or top of the double boiler. Cover this tightly with foil or a lid.

Allow to sit undisturbed for approx 12 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. Give it a good stir.

Dip each bunch of grapes into the chocolate, covering all or some of the grapes. Haphazard is fine. Place each chocolate dipped bunch onto the baking parchment and chill in the fridge until the chocolate is firm.