Just Peachy!
Someone famous once said - an apple is a wonderful thing, until you’ve had a peach. Nothing against apples, I adore them. But I double adore a peach. I think the peach is proof that God loves us so much. He created this beautiful, healthy, delicious, fragrant fruit in the most genius way possible and then said, here, enjoy this. Peaches bring so much joy!
When you get your peaches home, if there are any that need to ripen a bit, let them out on the counter until it’s perfect. Then store ripe fruit in the refrigerator. Once they hit the cold, their ripening will stop.
In my opinion, peaches' flavor is best when they are raw. So I make a fresh peach pie once or twice a season - because I never tire of eating a plain peach out of hand. For the pie, I’ll bake a pie crust and let it cool. The I add sliced fresh peaches, with the skin on, piled high. On top of that I pour over some peach jello to hold it all together. One box of jello is enough for one pie. Then I let that set up in the refrigerator and garnish with freshly whipped vanilla cream. Heaven!
Peaches do pair well with corn and jalapenos. So a fresh peach salsa with these ingredients and some tomatoes, all chopped together is a very refreshing lunch or light dinner with bread and cheese. Basically, I’ll top anything this time of year with sliced peaches: salads, toast, sandwiches, cake, yogurt and granola.
If I’m ever going to bake peaches, it’s going to be in a sweet peach corn pudding. I just use my favorite corn pudding recipe, substituting canned creamed corn for fresh creamed corn (made by cutting the corn off the cob and scraping the corn “milk” out of the cob with my knife) and I add fresh diced peaches - with the skin left on!
My main problem with the myriad baked peaches is the sugar content is so high. Peaches are sweet enough and so many peach desserts drown then in layers of various forms of sugar. It’s just so unhealthy and I can’t go there. At least in a simple baked pie you can leave out the sugar completely and it won’t affect the chemistry of the baked item.
So RUN, don't walk to get your peaches! The Freestones are rolling in this week! Here are a few recipes to try:
Market go-alongs: corn, jalapenos, blueberries, granola, lettuces, ham, pork, chicken, tomatoes.
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