Choosy slide skin#
Choosy slide full#

Remember that reserved cooking water? Pour it back in the pot along with the honey, sugar and a big pinch of salt. Sprinkle a scant teaspoon of lavender into each liter sized jar (or 1/2 tsp lavender per 500 ml jar). Pack the peach slices into your jars fairly tightly, but without pushing the fruit down and crushing it, until it comes up to 1/2″ from the top lip of the jar. I like to use a mixture of 500 ml and 1L containers, but the choice is yours. Slice each fruit into 8-10 wedges.Ĭlean and sterilize your glass jars. Use a short and sharp paring knife to split the peach in half and remove the pit.

Choosy slide skin#

If the skin is still on there tight as a tick, and the peach feels less like a baby’s butt and more like the statue of David’s butt, feel free to use a vegetable peeler. “Should”, mind you, is not the same thing as “will”. When the peaches are fully cooled, slide the edge of a spoon or a dull butter knife (not serrated) under the skin at one of the edges and gently pull it away. Reserve six (6) cups of the liquid and pour off the rest.

The water that the peaches were cooked in is likely a dusky gold color. Do the peaches in batches and keep the heat steady and high to prevent the water temperature from dropping.Īs soon as the peaches are blanched, remove them immediately from the boiling water and place into an ice water bath to stop the cooking and further loosen the skins. Carefully drop about 6-8 peaches, depending on size, into the water and boil for 60 – 90 seconds. With a light hand, score an “X” into the fuzzy bottom of each peach and continue running your knife up the side of the fruit until the peach is scored (but not cut) into quarters.

Choosy slide full#

The dried lavender from Michael’s that seems like a great idea for potpourri will not be as delicious as it smells.įill a large pot to about 2/3 full of water and bring it to a rapid, rolling boil over high heat. ** Be sure to buy food grade lavender from a specialty store or spice mart. Fruit that are not freestone may be delicious, but you’ll be so frustrated trying to carve them apart without tearing the flesh (and your hair out, eventually) that it just isn’t worth the hassle. Also, you really want “freestone” peaches, which means that the pit is easy to pop out when the peaches are halved. They should be ripe and sweetly fragrant, but still firm to the touch. * Choose fresh peaches that have a firm skin without any bruises or blemishes.

7 lb (3.5 kg) fresh ripe peaches, about 30 *.

Is there anything better than a dessert that simultaneously teases and teleports? I thought not. The sweet comfort of these peaches is as good as opening a jar of pure sunshine in the middle of February, and feeling yourself whisked away to a grassy field in Dijon. It is worth the time it takes to can your own preserves in the summer and fall, knowing that you’ll enjoy the bounty all year long.

These peaches are a tip of the beret to provincial France, where lavender often infuses orchard sweet fruits with a sophisticated herbal flair. The syrup would be poured over top, one non-partisan spoonful at a time, as the secondary treat that we would slurp with abandon and an absolute absence of dignity and grace.Īll that enthusiasm for Del Monte canned fruit, right? Just imagine how much better peaches taste when they’re picked at their prime, sweetened with honey and canned with love. If you don’t believe me, then clearly you didn’t grow up with older brothers that had to be watched with hawk-like scrutiny when it came to all things sugar. From an open tin can, the plump peach halves would be meted out with Euclidean precision so that each of the bowls was identical to the gram. It may be a little bit past the prime peach season, but here at Choosy Beggars we’re a little bit behind in our posting, and it simply wouldn’t have been fair to ease into fall without first sharing this recipe with you.Ĭanned peaches in a simple sugar syrup were a dessert treat for my family when I was growing up. The markets are now brimming with harvest cabbage, apples and squash, while the last few small and picked over berries roll between crates to wrinkle and dry. In the throes of a gray and rainy September, it seems like summer came and went so quickly that we barely have time to grieve.