It's Stone-fruit Season
Ray McVinnie
Two of my earliest but slightly hazy childhood memories are of the Golden Queen peach tree in the backyard of the first house I remember, and eating white nectarines perched up in the branches of the nectarine tree. Even though we can get imported stone-fruit out of season at times during the year, nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries are connected with the special time of year that revolves around Christmas and summer. That stone-fruit has a most delicious taste, is integral to the whole experience.
When I think of why I enjoy it so much, images of sweet, sticky juice running down my chin and all over my fingers come to mind. This fruit is in a league of its own. I love the winey taste of berries and the scented, exotic flavours of tropical fruit, along with the yielding texture and sugary tartness of stone-fruit. It all adds up to the complete sensual fruit experience.
Stone-fruit is one of the delights of the cook’s year and here are a few ideas for enjoying it.
- Chop up a selection of your favourite stone-fruit (peel the peaches if you are using them) and add some of that other stone-fruit - fresh dates. Put everything into a bowl and liberally sprinkle with sugar. Cover with white wine and refrigerate overnight. Eat the next day with whipped cream, mascarpone or Greek yoghurt.
- Purée plums, peeled peaches, apricots, nectarines or cherries with sugar to taste and freeze, stirring occasionally until frozen but slushy. Serve in iced glasses as a granita at the end of a meal on a hot day.
- Halve and stone your favourite stone-fruit and grill or barbecue until well browned and hot (they do not need to be soft), toss them in brown sugar and serve with cream.
- Make a stone-fruit centred dessert platter: on a big platter pile plums, peaches, apricots, cherries, fresh dates, amaretti biscuits, chocolate truffles, Lebanese halva, roasted Brazils and almonds. Put it down in the middle of the table, open the sweet wine and let everyone help themselves.
- Because ripe stone-fruit is soft and doesn’t need cooking, it is excellent for things such as trifles. Make a peach trifle with savoiardi biscuits (sponge fingers) as the base, plenty of sliced, peeled peaches, a good slosh of amaretto liqueur, mascarpone or custard next and whipped cream on top.
- A perfect goats’ cheese served with a bowl of ripe apricots that have been warmed by the sun is a meal all by itself or a delicious end to a special lunch.
- Bake whole, dark-fleshed plums with bruised cardamom pods, sugar and red wine in a hot oven until the plums are just beginning to collapse. Serve hot with real vanilla ice-cream.
- There is nothing more simple and delicious than Elizabeth David’s sugared nectarines which are simply perfectly ripe nectarines sliced, tossed in caster sugar with a squeeze of lemon juice and served immediately. Exquisite!
- A big wedge of oozing Brie or Camembert and a plate of sweet, dark-fleshed plums to finish a special meal.
- Apricots have an affinity with vanilla and one of the best ways of getting these two great ingredients together is to bake ripe apricots in a little water with vanilla sugar or sugar and a vanilla bean. Do not even think of using artificial vanilla essence.
- Buy one of those gigantic fluffy pavlovas (or make one) and cover it with whipped cream and then pile on masses of sliced stone-fruit. Dust the top with a blizzard of icing sugar and serve.
- Fill a sponge cake with pitted cherries, a good sprinkle of sugar and mascarpone. Top with icing made from icing sugar and cherry brandy. Serve wedges for afternoon tea with cups of China tea.
- Thickish slices of well-buttered sourdough bread piled with sliced stone-fruit, sprinkled with sugar and baked as much as possible without burning in a hot oven are a deluxe brunch item. Serve with Greek yoghurt.
- Make small parcels of butter-brushed filo pastry filled with sliced stone-fruit. Bake in a hot 
|
|
