33 NECTARINES AND PEACHES
The scenario of a table and fridge full of sweet smelling slowly softening fruit may happen again. In case it does, here are ideas for what to do.
Grilled Peach Salad
Use the best fruit for this. The fruit that is still firm until gently squeezed and then it gives slightly. Make a salad.
Inspired by the salad on Roost. Halve 3 nectarines with their skin on. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the cut halves and then use some tongs to flip them and get the skin nice and oily too. Salt, a little generously. Grill at medium-high heat on a griddle or grill, cut side down first. Wait 4-5 minutes before flipping. You want deep brown grill marks on both sides, but don't leave them on any longer than 10-12 minutes total. Set aside to cool. While the nectarines grill, shave a hardish sharp cheese that has that a bit of saltiness and crystalline denseness to it (I used an italian truffle cheese, Roost uses Manchego, I think pecorino romano would work as well or parmesean). After fruit has cooled a little, plate starting with arugula, then fruit, then truffle salt or oil if you have it, salt and pepper again, then cheese. Instead of arugula, you could also use basil.
Admire colors and then enjoy, making sure to get a little of everything on your fork for each bite.
Frozen fruit
Just sticking fruit in a freezer bag does not work because the fruit gets freezer burn. The internet says the fruit must be stored in sugar water and that zip lock double zip bags are the best thing for this job. We'll see how the fruit is when it's ready to be used - topping for ice cream or pancakes, salsas for pork chops or fish, spicy salsa for chips, smoothies, maybe even a cobbler.
Start a large pot of water boiling. Dissolve about 1.5 cups of sugar in 6 cups of water in a small pot. Heat only until sugar is dissolved. Cool or speed up the process by adding ice cubes.
When water is boiling, prepare an ice bath. Boil 5-6 fruit for about a minute, move to ice bath, drop in another 5-6 fruit. While that is cooking, remove skins of the fruit in the ice bath and set aside (I did this on a large cutting board). Repeat until all fruit have skins off. Now, have a discard bowl nearby and cut off bruised parts, halve, and remove pits from the fruit. Rinse hands.
Place a 1 quart sized double zip lock bag upright in a 3 cup pyrex. Use one hand to hold bag open and another to move the fruit to the bag. When bag is about 3/4 full, set aside (the bags will stand up on their own if you place them down properly) and get a new bag. When all the fruit is in bags, wash hands. Now, with a bag of fruit in the large pyrex, open top and pour in enough of the sugar water to cover, and seal. Repeat on all the bags, label, and freeze.
Peach and Nectarine Bread
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. A similar concept to banana bread, but with soft, starting to get mushy peaches and nectarines. These fruit probably will require a bit of cutting to get rid of brown spots and bruised bits. After all that, roughly chop fruit and keep going until you have 2 cups. I had about 1.5 cups peaches and an overflowing 0.5 cups of nectarine. In a large bowl, cream 1 stick of butter (I took out my butter way ahead of time so it was soft) and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar (adjust to your fruit, my peaches were not very sweet but the nectarines were). Stir in 2 eggs, 1 at a time and then 1 teaspoon of vanilla. In smaller bowl, mix together 1.5 cups of flour, 1 tsp of baking power, 1 tps of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and a bit of cinnamon. Stir together with a fork. Mix dry ingredients into the wet stuff in 3 parts. This is easier with a large spatula and will be stiff when done. Mix in fruit. Pour into a buttered loaf pan, put on a baking sheet (it overflowed), and cook until a knife comes out clean. This will be at least 45 minutes, and probably longer.
Eat with a glass of milk and enjoy bites of juicy fruit buried in sweet, buttery cake.
