A Study in Peach

Last week, I stopped at Fresh Fields market and picked up some glorious peaches and nectarines.  There were multiple varieties so I picked up a few from each pile. Last year I learned how to grill peaches, which renders them tender and delicious.  I didn’t feel like firing up the grill just for dessert, so I decided to do some indoor peach cooking.


I used peaches and nectarines that were ripe and one that was pretty hard.  That was a bit of a mistake.  When you grill, you should use harder fruit, it needs to be firm to withstand the high heat.  But when sauteing, next time, I will use ripe fruit.  I added a few teaspoons of sugar to the cut fruit and melted butter in the pan.  At first I thought maybe the sugar was overdoing it, but the unripe one was pretty tart!

Meanwhile, for dinner I baked sweet potatoes and sauteed kale, also from Fresh Fields.  My lovely neighbor dropped off a pack of homemade Indian charkri for us that rounded out our meal!  I know they are supposed to be snacks, but they are made from chickpea flour, so I figured they had some protein in them.

I actually have a pack of the chickpea flour in my freezer that I bought to make my own chakri.  I made them once with assistance.  My neighbor has this special little teapot sort of thing that pours the dough into the frying pan, very similar to making funnel cake.  They are very crunchy and spicy and yummy.  These are like gold around our house.

Delicious bubbling fruit and butter, a match made in heaven. I cooked until the fruit was mostly softened and a nice sauce formed.

I served the peaches with vanilla ice cream in my grandmother’s dessert dishes.

During the summer, I like to keep dinners light and I’m trying my hardest to get the girls to eat more vegetables and whole foods.  They both ate their sweet potatoes, one ate some kale, the other shuddered in disgust when she tasted it.  I just keep serving it to them!  Of course, they gobbled up the warm fruit and ice cream.