Whenever I see ugly peaches for sale at a steep price, I think of poaching them for a quick summertime sweet. It’s quick and easy old-fashioned cooking. If you're like me and used to long for the canned peaches that went into the fruit cocktails that our moms made in the 1970s, this is the adult version.
Super ripe peaches are relatively easy to peel with a peeler or even your fingers. I got these at our local farmer’s market last week. There were the “rejects” at an organic stand where the “best quality ones” were being sold for $3 per pound. My uglies were $1 per pound. I selected four, imagining that they’d fit into a small pot at home.
The peaches were freestone or semi-freestone, meaning that the pit pulled away easily from the flesh; such peaches are great for cutting up for pies and the like. You can use clingstone but it may be hard to halve and remove the pit, a step I take to hasten the poaching process. Most commercially sold peaches are freestone or semi-freestone.
Then, it was merely a matter of peeling, poaching and chilling. The try part is choosing a pot that will snugly fit the peaches. They’ll soften and shrink a bit during cooking so keep that in mind.
I then had poached peaches with a slight bite to tantalize my husband nightly after dinner. For peach Melba, a classic created by French chef Escoffier in the late 1890s, serve the poached peaches atop vanilla ice cream and drizzle with raspberry puree. The Melba referred to celebrated opera star Nellie Melba.
Feel free to vary the spicing. Instead of ginger, try maybe a single green cardamom pod, lightly smashed. Or maybe a cinnamon stick. Can it be any easier? No.
RECIPE
Poached Peaches with White Wine and Ginger Recipe
Yield: Serves 4 to 8, depending on your appetite for peaches
Ingredients
- 4 ripe medium peaches
- 3 slices ginger, each about ¼-inch thick, smashed lightly
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Peel the peaches with your fingers, a paring knife or vegetable peeler. If that doesn't work you can cut an "X" a the bottom and parboil them in a pot of simmering water to loosen the skin. Halve the peaches. Remove the pits and discard.
- Put the peaches in a pot, cut side down so that they all more or less fit in one layer.
- Add the ginger, sugar, white wine and water. There should be enough to just cover the fruit. Mix up and add more, if needed. Bring the pot to a simmer. Taste and add extra sugar, wine or water to create a delicately sweet flavor. Simmer gently for 8 to 12 minutes, until tender. Test by sticking a knife tip into a peach half.
- Remove from the heat, cool, uncovered. Serve or cover and refrigerate.
Thomas says
Hello,
i just tried your version with ginger. Since now, i never thought about trying a "asian-style" poire belle hélène.
For me it had an very interesting taste, sadly it was not compatible to my sisters tastes.
Personally, allthough this is not an original version, i sometimes add a small piece of vanilla pod (about 1/3) and a small stick of lemongras to the simmering wine. (based on four servings).
Of course you should allways have some chocolate ice-cream when making this :p
Thomas says
I should say of course, i use peaches and pears the same way. Whether i make poire belle hélène or peche melba.
Wine Gift Basket says
That would be lovely and I would try it today.
Andrea Nguyen says
Great idea of adding lemongrass and vanilla to the cooking process. Pears can definitely be used in the cooler months instead of peaches. I imagine you could use Asian pears too, though I've never poached them. Your comment/idea, Thomas, is now part of my mental to-do list!
Thanks for sharing.
Andrea Nguyen says
Try it out and let me know your thoughts.
florida seo says
Smart idea of including lemongrass and vanilla flavor to the food preparation process. Pears can definitely be used in the chilly several weeks instead of plums.
Johan the food and tea nerd says
Hello I'm a foodnerd who is unfortunatly gptten in a bad drug habit which I'm getting help to rehab away from, my dream is to start some sort of street kitchen or small restaurant with genuine foods from around the world specially SE Asia, specially the desserts which are completely unheard of in Sweden. Most Swedes only know swedified chinese dishes and a very limited number of popular thai dishes (lots of thais in sweden and swedes in thailand) like gaeng kiew wan (green sweet curry). But I want to show the more every day wonders and vegetable delights that have a lot in common with our own food culture even though people don't know it.
Also when I'm completely straightened out and showed I can handle my own life well I want to emigrate to Australia or the USA or Malaysia. Because I've been in those places considerable amount of time and i LOVE the multicultural atmosphere and I love the tolerance to weird people with ideas. In Sweden, weird people with ideas are hated and put down and made to hate themselves and told they will never do anything useful or even never have ajob in their whole life, in America they cherish individuality and creativity and even excetricity if it doesnt go too far. So I know where I like to be. I hope one day to go to LA or KL or Seattle or Melbourne and meet some interesting food nerds like yourself, and show my cooking skills to people to can appreciate it.
Like this recipe. My mormor (maternal grandma, my most beloved person in the world) makes a very similar dish like this but with old pears that aren't fine enough to eat raw in Sweden. Gingered pears. The more i research and taste and travel I notice that in basic, most very successful recipes have been invented many times over in different parts of the world. If our climate could grow peaches (it can now last 15 years due to global warming) then I'm sure we would have developed a tradition of doing the same thing to peaches, like you show.
Andrea Nguyen says
Thank you for sharing your story and insights from Sweden, Johan. Welcome!
Diane says
Ow wow, just saw this link for Afghan peach compote and thought of this post. Looks like a similar thing, and yummy...
http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/morabayeh-holou-peach-compote-in-the-afghan-manner/