SOME WAYS WITH PEACHES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 660, 29 February 1952, Page 22

SOME WAYS WITH PEACHES

HOUGH all peaches are not suitable for eating "as is," few fruits are really more delicious. Tempting desserts may be made with the smaller and harder kinds. And don’t forget spiced peaches and jam, as well as chutney, so useful in sandwiches and savouries, and with cold meat, cheese dishes and curry. Peach Rice Pudding Peel, halve and stone the peaches. Place in baking dish, with cavities uppermost. Fill cavities with chopped nuts, sprinkle with cinnamon or grated nutmeg. Make rice custard with cup of cooked rice, 4% cup of sugar, 2 eggs and a large cup of milk, and pour custard over peaches. Bake about half an hour, and serve with cream, Peach Upside Down Cake In this Californian dessert use either peach halves or slices-canned, stewed or raw, if ripe enough. In piedish or pyrex melt % cup of butter. Spread 3% cup of brown sugar over butter, and on that spread 2 to 244% cups drained prepared peaches. Batter: One-third cup of butter, 34 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 12 teaspoon vanilla, 142 cups of sifted flour, 2% teaspoons baking powder, 2 cup of fresh milk. Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then sifted flour and milk~-alternately. Pour batter over peaches, bake about 45 minutes or until cake shrinks from side of pan. Remove from oven and turn out on to serving platter. Cut in wedges, serve hot with cream. Gingerbread recipe may be used instead of plain cake. Peach Flan Slice peaches and stew them gently till tender with honey or sugar and (not too much) water-say, in a covered casserole, with a squeeze of lemon juice. All fruits are delightful done like this, excellent for eating with or without cream, as breakfast fruit, or as dessert. Do a big quantity and use some of it for this flan. Make up a packet of jelly (either peach or pineapple), using half water and half peach syrup. Let the sliced peaches soak in the jelly. Have ready cooked a deep pastry shell, cold. Fill this with peach slices, pour over as much jelly as it will hold, and leave to set. Very nice with almond flavoured custard or cream. Peach Shamrock Salad This is a typical American salad mixture of sweet and savoury. In each salad-plate make a shamrock of three large, crisp, cup-shaped lettuce leaves. In one put a large spoonful of chopped crayfish seasoned with a slight grating of onion and mixed with your favourite mayonnaise, and on this put a peachhalf, cut-side up, filled with a dab of mayonnaise. In the second lettuce cup put a big spoonful of cottage cheese, top it with a peach-half filled with a little raspberry jam. Stick salted almonds into the cottage cheese. In the

third lettuce cup arrange grapefruit or Orange sections in a ring around a peach-half, and fill the peach with grated cheese. Garnish the whole plate with olives, Simple Peach Salad Peel the peaches by putting them into boiling water for about a minute, then plunging them into cold water. \ The skins should slip off easily. Cut the peaches in halves, and put each half into a cup-shaped lettuce leaf, filling the stone cavity with a spoonful of cream cheese, piled high. Top with a walnut-half and a stoned prune, put a big dab of thick mayonnaise each side, and surround with thin slices of cucumber. Pickled Spiced Peaches These may be eaten with cold ham or any tinned meat. One pint of vinegar (white vinegar may be used), 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 14% cups of sugar, a few cloves. Boil for 10 minutes. Add the halved and stoned peaches, and boil till tender, Lift into hot jars, boil the syrup again, and pour over. Add a few cloves to each jar, and seal airtight. Peach and Tomato Chutney Four pounds peaches, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 lb. tomatoes, ¥2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 Ib. apples, 2 tablespoons peppercorns, 2 lb. onions, 1 teaspoon cloves, 2 lb. brown sugar, 1 large bottle vinegar. Tie peppercorns and cloves in small bag. Peel fruit and cut up small Boil all together about 2 hours, or till well pulped. This is not a hot chutney, $0 more cayenne may be added to taste. Peach Jam Three pounds peaches, 3 pints of water, 5 lb, sugar, juice of a lemon and one tablespoon of butter. Cut up peaches and boil in water till soft. Add sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Boil very hard, stirring frequently, about 45 minutes, till golden in colour, and will set, but don’t let it get too stiff. These proportions of fruit and water may be used for plums, apricots and nectarines, Another Peach Jam Three-quarters of a pound of sugar to 1 Ib. of fruit. Peel and slice the peaches, put in large enamel basin, add half the sugar, and leave all night. Next morning boil till peaches are tender, and add rest of the sugar. Boil rapidly till jam will set when tested. If very dry to start, add 4% cup of water or juice of a lemon-or both, Peach Whip. . Cook peaches and mash to a pulp. Tinned peaches can be used. Put through a sieve. Beat very stiffly 2 egg whites. Add 2. tables s sugar and beat till stiff again. Then add 2 more tablespoons sugar and 1 cupful of peach pulp. Beat with egg whisk till smooth and fluffy. Serve in individual glasses-long-stemmed ones look nice. Put whipped cream on top, and serve with ginger wafers.