Thursday, August 8, 2013

PEACHES CARDINAL . . . . 3 Ingredients - 15 minutes & done.

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Peaches are in season!! Don't you just love walking into the grocery store & seeing that big, beautiful display of fresh peaches? And this time of year, you can usually count on them being soft, sweet & juicy!

Though in our back yard, we just happen to have a MIRACLE peach tree! A neighbor of ours, who we often deliver eggs to, works at a plant nursery. Once in a while she will pull in & give us some half dead plants they were going to throw away.

I don't know about you, but I take it as a challenge when I see that dried up African Violet on the rack at Lowe's, on sale for fifty cents! Like a lost puppy, I take it home & feed it & love it back to good health. So these little gifts from our neighbor are a huge treat for me. When two summers ago, she pulled in with a dead peach tree sticking out of her little Toyota, I was elated!

She had brought it home from the trash pile at work, planning to plant it herself, but then she forgot about it in her driveway for three weeks. Then my husband put it behind our garage - a no-man's-land, where all things unusable go to be forgotten about. So we forgot about it for a few weeks too! But, with never ending hope, in the fall we put it in the ground in our backyard & prayed. The next summer we were shocked to see it not only sprout leaves, then blossoms, but also fruit! And this summer is even better! The thing is so loaded with peaches we have to prop up the branches to hold the weight! And I loves me some fresh peaches, so here is a recipe that makes perfect use of them.

This recipe happens to be one of my son's favorites, & mine too! Not just because it's so yummers, but because it only takes three ingredients & can be whipped up in just a few minutes!


PEACHES CARDINAL
 

                                                                4 lg. peaches
                                            11 oz. raspberries
                                              2 tblsp. powdered sugar

(simple instructions in bold print)
(more detailed instructions in plain print)

1.) Blanch the peaches, peel & pit. Place the wedges into dessert glasses.
Drop the peaches (whole) into a pot of boiling water for 1 minute - this makes them a little softer & super easy to peel. If your peaches aren't so perfectly ripe, let them boil for about 10 minutes to soften them even more. Scoop them out & let them cool. Peel away the skin, cut them into wedges, removing the pit. As you cut them, let the wedges fall into some pretty serving glasses (4 martini glasses work great). At this stage, you can also can your peaches if you're overloaded with them: just simmer the wedges in water & sugar for about 20 minutes, place them in sterilized jars, covering them with the liquid, seal & boil in a water bath for 15 minutes.

2.) Puree the raspberries & sugar, strain out & discard the seeds & pour over the peaches.
I use a blender on puree & pour this through a mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Pour this over the peaches & you're DONE! Wham-bam-thank you ma'am!


I've seen lots of variations to this recipe & tried a few. You can also simmer the peaches in the raspberry sauce & serve warm over ice cream. Or simply drizzle a little cream over the cold dish as it's prepared above. Adding a sprig of mint is a simple addition that will add loads of flavor & scent.

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