Peaches
Good Humus grows 3 amazing varieties of peaches: Suncrest, Red Haven, and
Chicken Red Onions and Peaches
4 large peaches
1-tablespoon sugar
8 chicken thighs (about 2 pounds) skinned
2 large red onions, each cut into 8 wedges
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoons black pepper
1-teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 cups hot cooked couscous
Cut an x on the bottoms of peaches, carefully cutting just through the skin.
Fill a large Dutch oven with water; bring to a boil. Immerse peaches for 20
seconds; remove with a slotted spoon, and plunge into ice water. Slip skins
off peaches using a paring knife. Cut peaches in half and remove pits.
Preheat oven to 425 Place peaches in a large bowl sprinkled with sugar,
cover and chill. Combine chicken and onions in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish;
sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Drizzle with oil; toss chicken gently
to coat. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes. Combine balsamic vinegar, molasses,
dried thyme, and crushed red pepper, and drizzle over the chicken, turning
to coat. Bake chicken an additional 20 minutes. Add the peaches to chicken
mixture in dish, basting with cooking liquid. Bake an addition 10 minutes or
until chicken is done. Place 1 cup couscous on each of 4 plates, and top
with 2 chicken thighs. 4 red onion wedges, and 2 peach halves. Spoon sauce
evenly over each serving.
Yield 4 servings
Summer Peach Salsa
1 cup diced peach
½ cup diced plum
¼ cup minced shallots
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon grated lime rind
2 tablespoons lime juice
1-½ tablespoons chopped jalapeno pepper
1 tablespoon minced mint
1-tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon minced ginger
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill. Yields 2 cups.
Grilled Teriyaki Pork
Chops with Peach Salsa
4 (6oz) center cut pork chops about ¾ inch thick
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tablespoon minced shallots
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
2 garlic cloves minced
Trim fat from pork. Combine pork and next 7 ingredients (pork through
Garlic) in a large zip top plastic bag. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 4
hours, turning bag occasionally. Remove pork from bag, reserving
marinade. Prepare grill. Place pork on a grill rack coated with cooking spray:
cook 7 minutes on each side or until done, basting frequently with reserved
marinade. Serve with Peach Salsa. Yield 4 servings
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Poached Peach Cups with
Red Wine Sorbet
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup water
1 (1.5-lite) bottle fruity red wine (such as Beaujolais)
4 large peaches
1 (3-inch) lemon rind strip
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6 whole allspice
Combine first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cover
and cook 5 minutes. Add peaches, rind, juice, and allspice: reduce heat, and
simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes or until peach are tender. Remove the peaches
with a slotted spoon, reserving wine mixture; plunge the peaches into ice
water. Slip skins off peaches using a paring knife. Cut peaches in half:
remove pits. Place in a large shallow dish; cover and shill. Strain wine
mixture through a sieve lined with cheesecloth into a bowl and discard
solids. Cover and Chill. Pour the wine mixture into the freezer can of an
ice-cream freezer, and freeze according to instructions. Spoon mixture into
a freezer-safe container, cover and freeze. Spoon sorbet into peach halves.
Serve immediately Serves 8
Peach-Orange Frozen Yogurt
2/3-cup sugar
5-6 ripe peaches (about 1 1/3 pounds) skins on halved and pitted.
½ cup orange juice
2 6-ounce containers custard style vanilla yogurt
1-2 tablespoons mild honey
Combine sugar, peach halves and orange juice in 3 quarts non-reactive
saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring. Reduce heat to
medium-low and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the skins
loosen and the peaches are almost tender when pierced with fork, 8 –14
minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, slip off and discard the
skins.
Cover and refrigerate peaches and poaching liquid until thoroughly chilled,
at least 2 ½ hours.
Stir yogurt and 1-tablespoon honey into the peach mixture. Transfer the
mixture to a food processor or blender and process until completely smooth,
2-3 minutes. Taste and add more honey, if desired. Transfer the mixture to
an ice cream maker. Frees according to manufacturer’s directions.
Peach Cake
3 cups coarsely chopped peaches (about 1 pound)
½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1-tablespoon butter
1-teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg lightly beaten
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3-cup milk
Preheat oven to 375
Combine the chopped peaches, ¼ cup sugar, and lemon juice. Set aside, Beat
1.4 cup sugar and butter at medium speed of a mixer until well blended. Add
vanilla extract, almond extract, an eggs; beat well.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine
flour, baking powder, lemon rind, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter
mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix
after each addition. Spoon cake batter into an 8 inch baking dish coated
with cooking spray. Spoon peaches over batter. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake
for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with frozen yogurt. Yields 6
servings.
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PEACH GINGER JAM
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup crystallized ginger
5 cups chopped cups Peaches
1/8 allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
Mix all the ingredients together in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat
and cook until thick (about 30- 60minutes) make sure that the fruit does not
scorch. When thick, ladle into clean hot pint jars. Seal with hot lids and
screw tops. Let cool before storing
Peaches do not necessarily need to be pealed; we usually do not peal them.
Peach and Basil Sorbet
1 cup sugar
1cup water
1 bunch cinnamon basil or 1 bunch sweet basil plus 1 (3”) cinnamon stick
1 ½ pounds ripe peaches, skinned, pitted, and roughly chopped (about 1
quart)
3 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Make the syrup:
Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and place it over medium
heat. As soon as the syrup comes to a full boil, add the basil and cinnamon
stick, if using and push them under the surface with a spoon, and
immediately remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan and let the herbs
steep for at least 15 minutes. Strain.
Make the sorbet
Puree the peaches in a food processor. Add the lemon juice and basil syrup.
Freeze in an n ice cream maker according to the directions
Makes 1 ½ quarts
Peach Tart
Make a pastry and roll to the size of pizza pan, carefully put on pan. Halve
and pit the peaches and place them face down in a single layer in your
uncooked pie shell.
Mix together in a separate bowl
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Cook for 40 minutes or until cooked.
Two Crust 9” Pie Shell (This is from my mom’s best pie crust it is easy and
turns out almost every time
¾ cups butter
2 ¼ cup flour (I use 1-1/2 cups white flour and ½ cup whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup granulated or superfine sugar
¼ cup water
Mix flour and salt in a bowl then remove 1/3 cup of flour. Cut the butter
into the mixture until the flour is the size of small peas. With the removed
1/3-cup flour add the water to form a paste. Add the paste to your mixture.
Mix and shape dough into a ball, if it feels too dry and crumbly get your
hands wet and pat the ball. Cut the ball in half and roll out ¼” for a pie,
and the second half can be used for the top of the pie, or a second pie
shell.
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Peach Sangria
2 cups peaches blended
½ cup peach flavored brandy
1/3 cup lime juice
¼ cup sugar
1 bottle California Rose
Peach and Lime slices
1/1/2 cup lime flavored sparking water
Stir together juices, liqueur, and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Place
all ingredients except sparkling water or champagne in a pitcher and chill
until ready to serve
Just before serving add sparkling water
Pour over ice filled glasses and garnish with fruit slices.
English Shortcake
Years ago a little tearoom in the English countryside, Carolyn Black fell in
love with true English shortcake. Her replica is more like a scone than a
sweet biscuit shortcake.
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
2/3 cups low fat buttermilk
2 large eggs
4 cups sliced peeled peaches, plums, nectarines or rinsed and drained
raspberries, blueberries or hulled strawberries
1 cup whipping cream
In a bowl mix flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With
a pastry blender or your fingers, cut or rub butter until no pieces are
larger than ¼ inch. In a small bowl, mix buttermilk and eggs until a blended
then add to the flour mixture. Do not over beat, just mix until the flour
mixture is wet. You can lightly kneed the mixture and hand form biscuit
shapes, or put onto a cookie sheet as one big round biscuit (and cut into
wedges after it has cooked). Bake for 15-20 minutes at a
preheated oven at 350 degrees. Whip the whipping cream, chop and mix your
fruit, when the shortcake is done and cooled a bit, cut in half give them
scoop of fruit and a dollop of whipping cream. Serves 6-8
Curried Cheese and Peach
Panini
2 cups low fat cottage cheese drained
1 teaspoon curry powder ½ teaspoon ginger
¼ grated lime zest
1 stalk celery finely diced (3/4 cup)
1 green onion, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons
1 10oz sourdough baguette cut into 4 sandwich lengths
½ cup mango chutney optional
1 large peach, peeled and thinly sliced
½ cup sliced almonds (8 tablespoons)
Stir together cottage cheese, curry powder, ginger, and lime zest in medium,
bowl. Fold in celery and green onions and set aside. Split baguette lengths,
leaving one side attached. Remove some of soft center of the bread to make
room for the filling. Spread the 2 tablespoons chutney if using, on top and
bottom of bread. Fill each sandwich with ½ cup cottage cheese mixture, 4
peach slices, and 2 tablespoons almonds. Spray Panini tops with cooking
spray, coat skillet or grill pan with cooking spray, and heat over medium
heat. Place Panini in pan; weighted with smaller-diameter saucepan weighted
with 2 cans Cook 3 minutes, remove weights, flip panini, replace weight,
cook 2 minutes more, or until panini are crisp and filling is hot.
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Suncrest Peach Creamsicle
3/4 cup peeled and cut up peaches
2 oz vodka
1/2 oz St. Germaine elderflower liqueur (others would work, too)
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 oz half & half
1 cup ice
Whirl in the blender and just try to sip is slowly.
Gallette
This recipe is from Dio, the Chef at the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop
Learning Center. He made this Galette for the Wine Tasting dinner in July
for the One Farm at a Time Fundraiser. I have made this at least a dozen
times since-for some reason it is easy and it lends itself to any fruit
mix-today I am using peaches, plums and figs-last week I used peaches plums
and strawberries. It has not failed yet! What is great it doesn’t have to be
a perfect pie shell-just plop the edges over and the shape you get is the
shape you get-it still eats so good!
1 recipe pastry dough
Peaches 2 pounds-make sure to mix it up
3 Tablespoons sugar plus extra for dusting crust
½ teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Roll out the pastry dough into a 9x10inch circle. Transfer to a parchment
lined sheet pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and position rack in the lower
1/3 of the oven. IN a bowl combine the sugar cinnamon, salt and cornstarch
and then mix in your fruit. Let peaches sit for 15 minutes to allow juices
to come out and then remix before you place onto galette crust. Lay peaches
into the crust leaving 2 inch border around the edges. Fold the uncovered
edges over the peaches creating pleats as you go along. We curst with a bit
of water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is
golden brown and crisp-peaches should be tender as well. Remove form oven,
transfer to a cooling rack and cool 10 minutes, Cut using a sharp knife into
wedges and serve (with vanilla ice cream).