From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
It’s that time of year again. Palisade peaches are ripe and ready to eat. This year’s crop took a hit with a late snow in the spring, but still the stores and farm stands are full of them, though probably for a shorter time than previous years. As usual, they are deliciously sweet and juicy. I don’t necessarily need to do anything special with them – I usually just halve them and eat them with a spoon.
But when you buy a large box of them and you’re not fond of canning, it’s time to get creative. That’s why a few years ago I began to experiment and made two of my favorite things, Peach Chutney and Peach Salsa, the featured recipes tonight.
Now the strawberries…I couldn’t help it, they were sitting there, all red and fragrant, right next to the peaches. I had to buy 3 lbs. As always happens, before I can finish off all of them, they become overripe and then it’s time for this:
Strawberry Bread (recipe here). Quick, easy and oh, so full of strawberry flavor. But before things get that far, I am really enjoying just slicing peaches and strawberries and serving them together, tossed with a touch of sugar.
Back to the peaches. There are quite a few peach recipes on the blog, all of which can be found here.
Three I’d like to highlight are:
Mrs. J Makes a Peach Pie (click here), Kirk Spencer makes Peach Fish (recipe here) and finally, all the way from India, Tes’ Peach Lemonade (click here).
Tonight, besides asking what’s on your menu for the weekend, I’d also like to make a request for some gluten-free recipes. I have a couple of friends who have been asking me for some and while I have a few, my recipe box is limited. If you’d email me (whats4dinnersolutions at live dot com) your recipes or post them in the comments, I’d like to do a future recipe exchange featuring gluten-free ideas. So hit the comments with your favorite peach and strawberry treats and any gluten-free ideas you’d like to share.
And finally, here are tonight’s featured recipes:
Either of these go well with chicken, fish or pork. The chutney goes especially well with grilled pork chops.
Peach Salsa
2 cups diced peeled peaches (2 to 3 peaches)
4 thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
2 tablespoons lime juice, about 1 medium lime
1 to 2 teaspoons finely minced hot or mild green chile pepper, or to taste
1 small jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
dash ginger
dash garlic powder
1 tablespoon orange or pineapple juice
dash freshly ground black pepperMix together and let meld together for about 30 minutes or more before serving.
Peach Chutney
2 large peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped
4 green onions, chopped
½ cup golden raisins
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp ground ginger or 1 tbsp minced fresh
¼ tsp chili powder
salt to taste
small sauce panAdd all ingredients to sauce pan, heat to boiling – stirring constantly, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, until slightly thickened.
See you next week….
MikeJ
peach fish
Tom Robbins used that term in Still Life With Woodpecker. I don’t think Kirk Spencer can make one, but if he can, he’s gonna be rich.
Xecky Gilchrist
@MikeJ: Damn, I was just going to point this out… Nice catch.
Violet
I’ve had good luck with these gluten-free brownies. I didn’t have sorghum flour, so I looked around online, plus compared to the original recipe that is just below it in the same post, and decided I could use rice flour. They worked great.
The next time I made them I substituted coconut flour for some of the flour because that’s what I had on hand. They also worked great. I used walnuts one time and macadamias another. The second time I reduced the oil because while I love coconut oil, I felt they were a bit too greasy the first time.
I also used different sugars because I didn’t have light brown sugar. I used dark brown sugar and some plain sugar the first time. The second time I reduced the sugar, used even darker chocolate (I love really dark chocolate) and used sucanat for some of it. Sucanat is dried sugar cane juice.
I think they’re pretty flexible and you can mix and match the various flours and sugars and add-ins to make the brownie the way you like it. Note: they do work best when allowed to cool before you cut them. I think they’re better the next day after sitting in the fridge.
Violet
As for peaches, I love halving them, putting them on the bbq on low, until they’re just warm and have that nice grate marking across them, then serving with any or all of: butter, brown sugar, ice cream. Simple and decadent.
Narcissus
Peach Chutney
Didn’t he run for President a while back
Yatsuno
Classics are classics for a reason. Plus Nigella.
jenn
I’m pretty fond of strawberries with a touch of balsamic vinegar. Mmmm. I’ll put them on salads, or put them on top of some pastry or other.
CatHairEverywhere
I am gluten-intolerant, (had to give up gluten seven years ago) and have been fortunate enough to find a couple of blogs with very reliable recipes. There is a lot of bad gf food out there, and it was a relief to find these sites. I do follow their recipes, and especially their procedures, exactly (including weighing my flour) and I have had very good results. I use the flour blend from The Art of Gluten-Free Baking most often, as I like how it performs. I buy my flours from our Asian market, because they are very finely ground (not gritty at all) and very inexpensive. I have heard that there is a potential for gluten contamination through shared machines with the Asian flours, but I have had no problems. The Art of Gluten-Free Baking has really good cake, quick bread and coffee cake recipes. I have made her sourdough bread a couple of times and have had good results. I also really like the blog Gluten-Free on a Shoestring. She has recipes for just about anything a person could want. Her bread book is coming out in November.
ThresherK
The first time I made this I tried buzzing tapioca pearls into tapioca powder, which I did not repeat. Buy the tapioca powder; plenty of uses for it.
Alton Brown’s gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.
rikyrah
there isn’t a better dessert in the world than a well done peach cobbler.
I drool just thinking about my late aunt’s cobbler…..you’d want to lick the bowl, it was so damn good.
Ted & Hellen
I had a piece of Strawberry/Peach pie last weekend in NH that was to kill AND die for.