White Peach & Fresh Ginger Jam

Ingredients:
8 cups finely diced white peaches
6 cups sugar
1/4 cup bourbon (optional)
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice*
1 6 oz box liquid pectin (2 packets)
2 inch chunk ginger, peeled

Directions:
Add the sugar and peaches to a large pot. Prep jars/lids for canning. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stab the ginger a few times with the tip of a knife. Add the lemon juice, bourbon and ginger. Boil for 15 minutes or until thickened. Carefully mash, using a potato masher, any remaining large chunks. Add the pectin (both packets!). Continue cooking at a low (rolling) boil for 5 minutes. Remove the ginger. Fill the jars. Wipe off the lip and sea Process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Yield: about



Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Or check out this online guide.



*I used bottled lemon juice instead of fresh because peaches, especially white peaches, are a low acid fruit and not every lemon has the same acid level. It is important to add an acid to low acid fruits so it is safe to water can.

My thoughts:

What is better than a fresh, in season peach? We went to a pick your own place and while Matt did most of the picking (peach fuzz makes my skin itch) we ended up with more than enough peaches to eat out of hand and to make some jam. Peaches, especially white peaches, are a low pectin, low acid fruit so even with the added pectin it is a softer jam and you need to make sure to add acid (lemon juice) to make it safe for water canning. But neither takes away from the wonderful flavor of this jam. It is as close to biting into a peach as you can come without actually eating the peach. The ginger adds a background note of spice that really accentuates the peachiness. I can't wait to have it on toast, swirled into yogurt or baked into pastries.

Red Quinoa Peach Porridge with White Tea Syrup

Ingredients:
2 peaches, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup Tazo White Cucumber tea (white tea with cucumber)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red quinoa
1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats


Directions:
Place the quinoa, peaches and water in a small saucepan. Cook for 30 minutes then add the oatmeal and milk. Cook until the oats are tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, bring the sugar and tea to a boil in a very small pan. Boil until it reduces to a syrup (about 30 minutes). Stir the quinoa mixture. Drizzle with syrup.

My thoughts:

Recently I was approached by Tazo to develop some new recipes using their tea. I received a big box of various teas to play around with and once a week for three weeks I will be sent a mystery ingredient to use in the recipe as well. Last week the ingredient was lavender and I made some yummy Oolong Cupcakes with Lavender Frosting. This week the ingredient is red quinoa. Might I admit something? I am not the biggest quinoa fan. I like the texture and the idea of quinoa but I don't love the flavor. Maybe I got burned out on it last year when I was developing recipes for the cookbook but I was a little disappointed that it was the mystery ingredient. But I rallied and decided to pair it with a seasonal ingredient: peaches. Cooked together the quinoa took on a pleasant peachy flavor and the oatmeal made it creamy. When topped with the tasty cucumber white tea syrup, it became a fresh tasting breakfast that had the texture benefits of quinoa but the flavor wasn't overpowering.

Peaches & Herb Panini

Ingredients:
2 peaches, peeled and sliced
4 oz soft goat cheese
5 springs worth of thyme leaves
1/2 baguette


Direction:
Cut the bread into sandwich sized portions. Slice each horizontally. Use a fork to mash the thyme into the cheese. If the cheese is very crumbly or cold, let it warm up slightly (closer to room temperature) and then mash. Spread on the top half of the crusty bread. Top the bottom half with a single layer of peaches.



Repeat for remaining ingredients. Close the sandwiches. Heat the panini press to medium and press until the cheese is soft and the sandwich is hot.

Yield: 2 big or 4 more modest sandwiches

My thoughts:

I like my panini press because it can make thin or thick sandwiches. As you can tell my tastes generally run towards the crusty bread, big flavored filling variety. I think it is because I am not really a sandwich person. If I am going to eat a sandwich, I want to eat a sandwich. As a child my mom would pack my lunch* and it rarely included a sandwich. I didn't like kiddy staples like peanut butter and jelly and loathed soggy bread so more often than not, it would be tuna salad and crackers (packed separately, natch) or pasta salad or vegetable crackers and cream cheese or a mixture of things like a deviled egg, raw celery (packed in water to keep it crisp!) and dip and some fruit. Rarely was it as something as plebeian as a sandwich and on the rare times it was, all of the ingredients were packed separately for assemble at lunch to insure no bread sogging. So it really wasn't until I was adult and quite possibly over the age of 25 I embraced the sandwich at all. Our local Italian deli has a wonderful sandwich that made me reconsider my no sandwich stance at least a bit. This sandwich is delicious because it makes the most of in season peaches by now overwhelming them with competing flavors. The goat cheese is mild and the thyme, while present, doesn't overpower, it just keeps the sandwich on the savory side rather than letting it drift into dessert territory.



*She loves packing lunches. I think she'd still pack mine today if I wasn't married and living in my own home. I am 99.9% sure she still packs my brother's lunch and he is 25 and in grad school.

Peach granita / Granita de p�che

 

1 kilo peaches / p�ches

1 lemon / citron

200 gm sugar / sucre

250 ml water / eau

Cut the peaches and put the pieces in a food processor.  Liquidise and add the juice and zest of a lemon and syrup made with the water and sugar (which has been allowed to cool).  Freeze.  Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving and mix with a fork.  Put into bowls and garnish with mint or basil leaves.

Couper les p�ches et m�langer les morceaux dans un mixeur.  Ajouter le jus et le zeste du citron et le sirop fait avec l�eau et le sucre qui a refroidi.  Mettre au congelateur.  Sortir du congelateur 15 minutes avant de servir et m�langer avec une fourchette.  Servir garnie des feuilles de menthe ou de basilique.

Peach Upside Down Cake (on the grill)

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced peaches
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, divided use
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup demerara sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat 7 tablespoons of butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat thoroughly. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the milk and dry ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be very fluffy. Use the remaining tablespoon of butter to coat the bottom and sides of a heavy duty 8 inch baking pan. Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the butter, top with peach slices.



Make sure the peaches are evenly distributed in the pan, then top with cake batter. Smooth the cake batter to all of the edges and make sure no peaches are peeking out.

Place a 8x8 square disposable heavy duty baking pan on the bottom of your charcoal grill and arrange the coals on either side. Pour water in the pan to the halfway point.




Place the cake tin on the center of the grate, over the disposable tin. This will allow your cake to cook evenly on indirect heat.



Close the lid but leave the vents open for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, then invert to serve.

My thoughts:

This is my last "My Grill Friday" post for the year! I wanted to make something a little unexpected for the last post and tossed around a lot of ideas before settling on cake. Once I decided on making a cake, an upside-down cake seemed the perfect choice because there would be no need for icing; it could be made entirely on the grill and without heating up the house.

The cake itself is very light and fluffy and the peaches are perfectly soft and caramelized. There isn't a smoky flavor at all, just the fresh sweetness of the peaches and the tender cake. It reminded me of the Baltimore classic peach cake where a vanilla-based cake is topped with peach wedges, only more caramelized and decadent.


*Note: While it may be tempting, I would not recommend cooking anything else on the grill at the same time as you are making this cake. Meat splatter issues aside, it cooks on a relatively low temperature that would be a mind-numbling slow way to cook raw meat and you would run the risk of cross contamination.

Ginger Peach Streusel Cake

Ingredients:

for the cake:

2 cups flour
2 cups sliced fresh peaches
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 drops ginger extract*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, at room temperature

for the streusel:
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Butter and flour or spray with cooking spray with flour 1 standard loaf pan or a 8 inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and ginger extract. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk and sour cream. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour until a thick dough forms. Carefully fold in sliced peaches. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together all of the streusel ingredients until a rough crumb forms. You can achieve this by using a fork, pulsing a food processor or briefly mixing with an electric mixer. Sprinkle streusel evenly over the raw cake. Bake about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Remove to a wire tack to cool. After about 5 minutes, release the cake from the pan and serve.


*I used the potent ginger extract from Supreme Spice. You could substitute fresh or ground ginger to taste.

My thoughts:

When I told my husband I was thinking about making a fruity coffee cake, his one request was that it had struesel. Who doesn't love streusel? My only cavaet in regards to streusel is that it can't contain an obscene amount of butter. I've seen recipes that call for nearly a cup of butter just in the topping! While this cake is really rich tasting it only uses 1/2 cup of butter (one stick, for my US readers) divided between the streusel and the cake.

Now it is a teensy bit early for peaches, but that's okay for this recipe. The long stint in the oven softens and sweetens them, so if you are like me and starved for some Summer fruit, go ahead and use those first peaches. I think the cake is better than it would have been if I went with my first impluse and used cherries.

If ginger isn't a classic pairing with peaches, it should be. The warming spice really accents the peaches' natural sweetness and keeps the cake from tasting overly sweet. I find that ground ginger I purchase at Asian markets has a stronger and more true to life flavor than the ground gingers I've purchased at the supermarket. It generally also cheaper, fresher and packaged in larger quanities so if you see it, it is worth picking up.

Summer Fruit Salad with Ginger Lime Syrup

Ingredients:

syrup:

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 inch knob fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
zest of one lime
juice of one lime


salad:
1 mango, cubed
3 peaches, sliced
3 kiwi, cubed
� cup blackberries
� cup blueberries*



Directions:
In a medium saucepan, heat water, zest, juice, ginger and sugar to a boil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved then boil, uncovered for about 20 minutes. It should reduce slightly and look �thick�. Strain out any large pieces of ginger or zest. Allow to cool completely then pour over fruit. Toss and serve.

*other fruit suggestions: strawberries, pineapple, papaya

My thoughts:

This is the perfect way to end a meal during the hottest weeks of the summer. The ginger-lime syrup is rather thin so it adds a spicy flavor to the fruit without leaving it weighted down or gloppy. A great improvement over the overly sweet fruit salads I have suffered in the past.

If you have leftover syrup, you could drizzle some over pound cake or even better, add it to bubbly water to make homemade ginger ale.