Pratically Perfect Peach Crumble

Dutch Oven Detour - Practically Perfect Peach Crumble
(adapted from Martha Stewart's Peach Crumble)

Last weekend we headed to the Valley just in time to catch the end of the peach season here in Nova Scotia.  It was our first visit to the Dempsey’sCorner Orchards in Aylesford – a U-Pick paradise.  In addition to the perfectly ripe peaches – you can pick your own pears, plums, corn, grapes, pumpkins…and even sunflowers!  We left with a bounty of beautiful tree-ripe peaches (lots of peach preserves in our future!) and a few new friends, including these adorable little fellas. 

Petah's Pineapple Peach Salsa

Pineapple Peach Salsa - Dutch Oven Detour (recipes that should have been in the Dutch Oven)

 So for years now, Peter has been obsessed with Pineapple Peach Salsa – found only at Target (or Tar-jay as it’s known to its biggest fans).  Target sure hit the bullseye with this one!  It takes everything that is great about regular salsa – fresh tomatoes, a little burn from jalapeños and then BAM!  - They hit ya with the taste bud tingling sweetness of peaches and pineapple.  A flavor sensation - a party in your mouth – fruit and vegetables unite in celebration of salsa lovers around the world!

On shopping excursions to the US of A, Peter regularly stocks up; it’s not uncommon to come home with a half dozen jars of this liquid gold (ok – a dozen, but who’s counting!).  He also enlists the help of many other willing cross border shoppers to keep his pantry stocked.  With Target’s impending arrival in Canada – one can only hope that they will carry what is surely on its way to becoming known as the best salsa evah – and likely world salsa domination.  In the meantime however, we’ve come up with our own version made with all locally sourced ingredients – except for the pineapples of course (if anyone has Nova Scotia grown pineapples, surely let us know!   - Don’t call me Shirley! (HaHa!  Airplane fans unite!).  We digress…

Here’s how we did it…

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped tomatoes (peeled and seeded – see tip below)

2 cups chopped peaches (peeled – again, see tip below)

2 cups chopped pineapple (see tip below already!  Just kidding, we have no tip for this one)

1 red pepper finely chopped

1 cup chopped red onion

3-4 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped (we’re wimps so only used three and definitely removed all seeds!)

Juice of one lemon

¼ cup white balsamic vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup tomato sauce

¼ Cilantro (optional)

Directions:

TIP!!!  Blanch your tomatoes and peaches to easily remove the skins.  Boil a big ol’pot of water; throw your tomatoes and peaches in (not all at the same time silly) for 30 to 60 seconds (until skin begins to wrinkle).  Remove and immediately place in ice bath.  Skins should be easily removed (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – when it doesn’t; expletives are permitted - but oh when it does…well, it can only truly be described as a foodie “A-ha moment – eat your heart out Oprah – when you know better you do better – beam us all up to the mother ship” kinda moment!).  Like turkey bacon changed Oprah’s life – blanching your tomatoes and peaches will change yours!

 Place all your prepared ingredients in a large pot and boil gently bently for 5 minutes.

Ladle into sterilized jars and process for 15 minutes (250 ml jars) or 20 minutes (500 ml jars).

Yields approximately six 500 ml jars.

Miss Peachberry Pie!

Fruit Pie (Peach & Blueberry) – Pies & Pastries, Pg. 196 – Lois J. Himmelman (Mrs. Thomas)

Here she is Boyzzzzzzzzz….Here she is Girlzzzzzz…..It’s PeachBerry Pieeeee!!!

Well, what better way to showcase two fabulous in-season Nova Scotia fruits, than with a DO fruit pie, mash-up style - peaches and blueberries in one sensational dessert.

The mash-up doesn’t end with the ingredients: Oh, no! It gets better…we used our favorite Julia Child’s no-fail easy as pie crust (find recipe here), and collaborated with Mr. Tyler Florence, Mizzzzz Martha Stewart, and tried to incorporate as much of the ambiguous “fruit pie” recipe from the DO as possible. Okay – the least you could have done is told us HOW MUCH FRUIT TO PUT IN IT!!!! We always feel guilty not doing the DO recipe straight up, verbatim, to help understand the essence of the historic Nova Scotia recipes, and then if we feel adventurous and time permitting, go a second round with a more current comparison and see what provides the grooviest outcome (in our humble opinion of course). But in this case, the recipe was very vague and we felt it not a blasphemy to the coveted book to go free-style on the inaugural testing.

Being a couple of fussy Gen X self proclaimed foodies, and trying very hard to jump on the natural, local, organic, sustainable bandwagon, the whole concept of translucent fish-egg cavier-like pearlescent balls, known to the rest of the world as tapioca, to use as a thickener…is well….icky. And, more scientifically, the tapioca seemed more appropriate for a straight up blueberry pie – by us inviting peaches to the party, we felt it justified to side with the professionals and go with corn starch as a thickener.

Tyler Florence’s recipe called for 2 lbs skinned and sliced peaches, and a pint of blueberries. Martha’s fruit pies called for 8 cups peaches or 5 cups blueberries…so for our mash up, we would like to introduce to the world, the one, the only, the Toast of Mayfair, second cousin, twice removed of Strawberry Shortcake, Miss PeachBerry Pie!

Peach & Blueberry Pie:

12 medium sized peaches and 2-ish cups Blueberries (enter tip….parboiled for 1 min or so and ice bath for easy pealin’)
½ lemon’s juice
½ cup sugar (tyler called for ¼ cup…our peaches were slightly under ripe so we added more)...
1 ½ tbsp corn starch
Tyler adds bit of butter – we forgot, so dollopped minis inside the lattice holes





Lattice work compliments of Mz. Martha, see instructions here.

Brush pastry with egg wash, place pie on cookie sheet, and back at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes.