The First Bite is the Sweetest

Bit into my first peach yesterday since last year – a definite early offering but being in the south it was just a few weeks sooner than anticipated, and it is never too soon to leave a dental impression on one of summer’s succulent sensations.

Having been in the land of Dixie for over a year now, I have sampled the peaches from three southern states. My apologies to the Peach State but your neighbor to just the north delivers a superior experience. I have found that South Carolina’s crop has produced the juiciest, sweetest and most fragrant of them all. Only when I was in the south of France, in early July, have I had peaches that were more intoxicating – releasing a siren’s scent that could not be ignored and bursting with a nectar that dare not be wasted that I licked every inch of its trail down my forearm.  For reasons unknown I have never experienced that concentration of juice in a domestic variety but the smell and sweetest has been revisited.

Peaches are one of those fruits along with plums, apricots, cantaloupe, and most berries that I will never eat if they come further than a half-day’s drive from where I am, and if they are bought in on refrigerated vehicles forget about it. These summer fruits need their full time on the branch to ripen and created those flavors that sends me into olfactory and taste nirvana. And, once exposed to the chill of refrigeration they muster a mere fraction of their true potency. This may seem extremely militant but when I have waited an entire year to bite into a summer miracle I want to get completely transfixed by its voodoo.

Southern Peach Cake – yields 10-inch cake

1-pound sliced peaches

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1-cup sugar

4 eggs

1/2-cup sweetened condensed milk

1-tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8-teaspoon salt

Buttered and flour a 10-inch cake pan.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a standing mixer mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

In another bowl beat the eggs, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla together to combine.

In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Then on a low speed add the flour to the butter mixture. Once the flour has been added to the butter pour in the egg mixture, and mix to well.

Place the sliced peaches on the bottom of the cake pan, and pour over the batter. Bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before un-molding. 

Summer Fruit

Today it was announced that some sliced apples are being recalled due to the possibility of listeria contamination that were distributed to some fast food chains. Now, of course this is but another reason to stop eating at these kinds of food outlets but apples in summer? Yes, I know there are varieties of apples that ripen in the summer, like the Lodi, but these are sour apples. It takes the cooling of autumn to bring in the crisp, crunch of a Jonathan or Fuji. This the season of the peach, plum, blueberry, watermelon and cantaloupe if that is not enough of a selection try a raspberry, fig, blackberry or apricot. Almost every region in this nation has some fruit, weighted with maturation and full of sweet, juicy fabulousness wanting for you to bite in.

And, most fruits that we eat require no cooking, and a few asked just to be peeled then seeded. The vines in my garden are chockfull of watermelons and cantaloupe swollen by water and heat. This my second year growing both of these, and really my first year having planned to have cantaloupe. You see, last year I had a volunteer that relieved its self mid-summer and how could I say no to it. I figured it most be of strong seed stock to have pushed through the tilling, and weeding (perhaps not so diligently on my part) to make it to maturity that I saved the seeds for one. I have had half cantaloupe almost every morning for the past two weeks; gave some way to eager hands and even cubed some for a place in the chest freezer.

I still have a couple of watermelons in the garden and a couple sitting on the dining room table, and I am a waiting, finger crossed, for my blackberries. I will eventually get to apples but that is not for at least another month, and at that time I will be willing to slice my own. 

Cantaloupe Salad – yields 6 servings

½ cantaloupe – seeds discarded, and peeled

½-pound cucumber (approx. 2) - peeled

1-red bell pepper

1-yellow bell pepper

4-ounces ricotta salata cheese

1 small red Thai chili – minced

1/3-cup mint leaves – chopped

¼-cup Thai basil leaves – chopped

1/3-cup fresh lime juice (from approx. 1 large lime)

2-tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Dice the cantaloupe, cucumber and bell peppers into ½-inch squares, and place in a large work bowl.

Cut the ricotta salata into ¼-inch cubes and add to the cantaloupe. Mix in the Thai chili, mint, basil, lime juice, olive oil and black pepper into the cantaloupe to thoroughly to distribute.

Refrigerate for an hour before serving.