Peaches

I heart peaches. Big, red-gold, the color of a late summer sunset, baseball-sized, drip-down-your-chin-and-on-to-your-shirt, sweet peaches. We can’t grow them in Cheyenne, so we don’t need to talk about planting them. I’ll just go straight to some of the many, many things you can do with fresh peaches.

Where do we get them? Utah. We’ve eaten peaches from all over the US of A, and nothing, nothing beats a Utah peach. When we lived in Maryland, people raved about their peaches. Bless their hearts, they meant well. But their peaches were a pale shadow of a Utah peach. And I know people here who think Colorado peaches are the real deal. I regret to say that they are not. I don’t know why, anymore than I know why God blessed the Beehive State to be the center of the universe for peaches. I just know that Utah peaches are the sweetest and juiciest of all the peaches.

So after we’ve eaten our fill of fresh peaches, we do several things with them. I freeze them for winter to use in our morning protein shakes. Just wash them, slice them and place them on a cookie sheet. Put them in the freezer for a few hours, then take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag. This method keeps them from clumping together in the freezer bag. Then, in the middle of winter, when the wind is howling and the snow is blowing around, I can have a little bit of sunshine in my breakfast smoothie.

We grill them. Slice them in half, remove the pit, and put them on a piece of foil on the grill. Serve with steaks and grilled zucchini. Or slice them in half, remove the pit, and put them on a piece of foil, sprinkle with brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon. Wrap the foil up and put them on the grill for about 15 minutes. Serve with crème fraiche or mascarpone cheese.

 There is always peach pie:

PEACH PIE

2/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour

1 teaspoon (scant) ground cardamom

Cinnamon, about a teaspoon or to taste

Nutmeg, about ½ a teaspoon or to taste

3 3/4 pounds firm but ripe unpeeled (yes! unpeeled!) peaches, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 slices (about 10 cups)

Pie crust for a 2-crust pie

You can make this in a pie plate, but I make it in a deep dish pan so I can eat more peaches than crust, and I don’t like a bottom crust because they can get soggy with a fruit pie. Slice the peaches into the pan and pile them a bit higher than the pan (they’ll cook down). Drizzle on the vanilla. Mix the flour, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg with the sugar. Sprinkle over the peaches.

Roll out the pie crust and put over the peaches. Cut slits in the crust.

Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, turn down the heat to 350° for another 20-30 minutes until the crust is golden brown. You can also brush the crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar before you bake it, but I don’t like to take away from the taste of the peaches.

I make peach salsa (see the salsa blog) – it’s another wonderful taste of summer. And peach cobbler. And peach shortcake, peach muffins, peach ice cream, and:

SPICED PEACH JAM (Food.com)

1 tsp. cinnamon

3 tbs. lemon juice

½ tsp. cardamom

½ tsp. nutmeg

3 c. sugar (I used 1 ½ c. sugar and 1 ½ c. honey)

2 ½ lbs. peaches, peeled and chopped (about 6 cups)

To peel peaches, drop the peaches in a pot of boiling water. Leave them for a minute or two, remove from the hot water, and drop them in ice cold water. The skins should slip off.

Place all ingredients in a heavy large pot; stir to combine. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Mash the peaches with a potato masher. Keep simmering, stirring frequently till slightly thickened. To test, put a spoonful on a small chilled plate. When the jam is set, it will not run on the plate. If you use honey, it will take longer to set. Keep cooking till the jam sets, testing every few minutes and stirring frequently.

In the meantime, sterilize some jelly jars and lids. When the jam is set, pour into sterilized jars, put on the sterilized lids. The jars can be refrigerated for up to 6 months, or you can process them in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Also, in the meantime, get some good bread, and make toast. When the jam is done, slather as much as you can fit on the toast. Savor every bite. And have lots and lots of peaches at the end of summer.