Add to Favorites
Send to a Friend
PrintPeach - Culinary File
Nutritional values per 100 g
Calories: 52; Water: 89%; Carbohydrates: 11 g; Protein: 0.7 g..
Rich in Vitamins A, B and C, niacin, potassium, calcium, magnesium and selenium.
Buying peaches
Unlike other fruits, peaches will ripen little, if at all, on the kitchen counter, so it is necessary to buy them when perfectly ripe. Look for unbruised peaches with a nice scent, which yield to slight finger pressure. Their color is not a good indicator of ripeness even if it is crimson - this is a genetic phenomenon.
Storage
Can be kept in the refrigerator crisper, though cold kills their flavour.
Freezing: peel, pit and place the halves flat on a baking sheet. Freeze and pack into bags.
Cooking tips
Usually associated with desserts, peaches are also marvelous paired with duck, calves' liver and crab. Because of its velvety flesh, it purées well and can be made into sorbets, Bavarian creams, or ice cream.
- Choose the very sweet white-fleshed variety for fruit salads.
- Choose the larger yellow-fleshed variety for baking, roasting in butter, poaching or using in pies, since they stand up better to cooking.
- Choose bush peaches, which are less sweet, to accompany poultry or to poach in Bordeaux.
How do you peel a peach? Drop it into boiling water for 20 seconds, then into ice water for 5 seconds and peel.
Suggestions
- Duck breast roasted slowly on its skin served with roast peaches.
- Replace the apples in a strudel with peaches spiced with ginger.
- Poach pears in a verbena infusion.
- Scallop soup with peaches - light whitefish and leek stock, strips of scallops and poached peaches.
- Yogurt and peach flan - In a food processor combine peaches with plain yogurt, honey and gelatin.
The Worldwide Gourmet
Italy - Peach Charlotte - crush 1 kg peaches with 200 g sugar, 200 g crumbled macaroons and 2 beaten eggs. Line the bottom of a buttered mould with dry cake crumbs; pour the peach mixture on top and place in the oven for 45 minutes. Let cool and serve with peach coulis.
Sweet, juicy, and with a modest red blush, peaches are a summer favorite
by Chef Craig Shelton
"New Jersey white peaches are the best tasting peaches on the planet, " says Craig Shelton. Although not as big a producer of peaches as other states, New Jersey has a long history of peach-growing dating back to the early 1600's and for many growers, peach production is a family tradition. Chef Shelton buys his peaches from Mellick's farm, a few miles away in Tewksbury.
"There are traditional recipes like peach melba, but aromatic and buttery-textured peaches make a perfect complement to crisp and tangy salad greens, " he says. Peaches have an affinity with a range of spices and herbs, as demonstrated by Chef Shelton in his langoustine salad with salsify, green almonds and kumquats flavored with caraway seed, bay leaf, thyme and peach pectin.
"Peach pectin is made by poaching peaches in a sealed plastic bag in water at 280°C (140° F) for three to four hours, or until the peaches become jelly-like," he explains. He got the idea for this salad from the flavors he tasted in a Condrieu wine from the northern Rhone valley (made from viognier grapes). "The wine is so evocative of peach blossoms, acacia and tropical fruits like oranges and kumquats, I was inspired to apply that yin/yang combination to a salad," he says. To further enhance the aroma of the salad, he sprays it with rose water as it leaves the kitchen. It is served, of course, with Condrieu, from Andre Perret.
-
Recipes
-
Products
-
Entertaining
-
Chefs
-
Hints & Tips
-
Glossaries
