Fresh peaches are a sure sign of summer

Tag: frozen diced peach

I always considered eating a perfect peach one of the joys of summer. Indeed, as a child I got a bit nervous when I saw my mother getting ready to bake peach pies. Even though they were delicious, I wanted to be sure that more of the peaches remained to be enjoyed in their pristine raw state.

To my palate, the peach blintzes of my childhood in Washington, D.C., were tastier than pies, as the peaches cooked more briefly and kept more of their natural flavor. Later, in cooking school in France, I learned to make crepe fillings from peaches sauteed briefly in butter and sugar. The buttery, sweet flavor acquired by the fruit seemed a fair trade-off for the softening of the fruit’s texture. In Paris I also discovered French peach pies, or tarts, made without baking the fruit; the baked crust was filled with a pudding-like vanilla pastry cream, and then topped with lightly poached peaches. After making several of these, I found out that when I had very ripe, luscious peaches I didn’t have to cook the fruit at all, as long as I planned to eat the pie promptly. This way, I could have my peach pie and eat my peaches fresh, too!

I began to love cooked peaches after tasting a peach dessert at Michel Guerard, the three-star Michelin restaurant in southwest France. It was an exquisite vanilla-syrup-poached white peach set on a bed of red wine granita made with the illustrious Saint Emilion red wine from the Bordeaux region. Even without any butter or cream, this dessert was sensational!

We had to enjoy our peaches and nectarines quickly when I was growing up, as the season was much shorter than it is now (today it can extend through mid-October). Luckily, this year the nectarines and peaches in my garden ripened early. After picking more than 20 pounds of white and yellow nectarines, with my peaches still waiting to ripen, I can see the merit of turning some into pie filling, and others into vanilla-poached peaches and peach sauce.