I haven’t been an adventurous eater my whole life. As a kid, I was picky. As an adolescent, while I expanded my pallet, I still liked things prepared fairly generically. This meant that things were only prepared as I was used to them being prepared: i.e., fruit was made in pies, smoothies, fruit salad, crumbles, and breakfast foods. I never considered cooking fruit to bring out flavors or change textures. These grilled peaches changed my mind.
Blossom’s Biff and I are getting a CSA this summer. Every week, Mountain Bounty Farms delivers us a large box of vegetables and a box of the most beautiful stone fruit you’ve ever seen. It’s all flavorful, beautifully colored, smells wonderful, and clearly perfectly ready to consume within minutes of our delivery. As such, especially this week (the Biff and the kids are out of town so I have the whole share to myself), I need to find creative ways to consume as much of this fruit as quickly as possible.
I also like to have in my back pocket, a few ways of making fruit and veggies that work for produce when it’s not at it’s best. When you’ve left it in the fridge or the fruit bowl for just a minute too long…. The flavors are still there, but it’s less than ideal. Best for the environment to consume (less waste), best for our bodies to eat (you’re still eating local, organic, earthly faire), but not quite perfect taste or texture-wise. Grilling is one such way to succeed with that.
There are two ways to enjoy these: one is as a side and one is as a dessert. Cooking these as a side with olive oil, and occasionally some garlic rounds out a meal’s flavor composition. Your taste buds will never get tired of one kind of taste because it’s carefully balanced out by another (i.e., salty and sweet). Add a thin slice of this Tri Tip, and you have yourself a small piece of California bruscetta that will make every area of your tongue sing.
But really, I’ll always think of fruit first and foremost as a dessert. So in the interest of sticking to my history, I had to feature a fruit dessert today. While it’s less adventurous, it’s a great way to stay healthy and still enjoy something sweet at the end of a meal. Enjoy the grilled fruit with or without ice cream for a decadent seasonal dessert that should really only be enjoyed in June, July or August, when the fruit is at the height of its season, and your CSA’s are heavy with produce that needs to be eaten by you and your family ASAP for health purposes for both you and the environment.
So Happy Summer, and HAPPY COOKING!
- 4 Peaches
- ½ Cup Olive Oil or Melted Butter
- Sweet Version, 1 teaspoon Honey dissolved in 1 Tablespoon Water
- Savory version, 1 minced Garlic Clove
- Cut peaches in half.
- You may want to put skewers through them to connect them. It makes it easier to control them on the grill.
- Paint the Peaches with either the Butter or Oil and a little bit of the Honey, or with the Oil or Butter with the minced Garlic in it with a pastry brush.
- Grill for approximately 5 minutes on the cut side. Flip.
- Grill on the skin side for approximately 3 minutes or until desired level of tenderness.
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