Peach Melba

With peaches finally being in season and readily available at every other fruit vendor, how am I to just ignore their glorious existence? How do I just walk by and not indulge in that peachy whiff? How do I not mentally squeal at the gorgeous colour and think of the million things I can make of this fruit?

Walking away? Boss, that is absolutely unpossible.

If you think it IS possible, then I’m sorry but I don’t think we can be friends but I guess we can kinda sorta be friends, maybe.

As always, I refer to the Kitchen Goddess who inspired it all. Nigella Lawson’s Peach Melba is an absolute winner, in every sense of the word. It is quick to dish up, heavenly to eat and you’ll always ask for seconds.

Best part? Ladies, you’ll never feel guilty asking the seconds. Its just so darn light and soul satisfying at the same time. There is just something about fruit based desserts.

A Peach Melba was one of the first food updates I had made on my blog. Two years later, this peach deliciousness still manages to win my heart all over again.

Peach Melba

Serves : 3 people.
Difficulty : Easy Peasy
Preparation Time : 2 minutes.
Cook Time : 10-12 minutes.

Ingredients

For the Peaches

• 3 Peaches
• 1 cup of Water
• 1 cup of Sugar
• 1/2 a Vanilla Pod (Optional)

For the Strawberry/Raspberry Sauce

• 1/2 cup of Strawberries/Raspberries.
• 2 tbsp of Sugar

For the Peaches

In a saucepan, pour in the water and the sugar. Slice half a vanilla pod and throw it in.

Set it on a medium heat.

Now, take out the glorious fruit. Admire its beauty.

Once the peaches has been successfully admired, cut the peaches into halves.

If the peaches are softish and it is possible for you to pluck the seed out. Mine were, so I did.

If not, you can let the seed be. That will easily come out once the fruit has been poached.

Within these 2 -3 minutes, the water will start furiously boiling.

Bring the heat down to low, and plonk the peaches (skin and all) into the sugar syrup.

Now we do nothing but let the sugar vanilla syrup mingle with the peaches on low heat.

For the Strawberry Sauce

At this point, we can start working on the sauce. I had strawberries stashed in the freezer, so I used them.

This sauce is as simple as, drop the berries and the sugar into a processor.

Blitz for a minute. And you’re done.

If you prefer to be restaurant-esque, pass this smooth sauce through a sieve to get rid of any tiny seeds which remain. But I frankly am lazy don’t see the need.

Getting back to the peaches, after a few minutes. Insert a knife into the peach to ensure if its been poached nicely. Once it is seems soft enough, turn off the heat and take the saucepan out. This should roughly be around 10 minutes, but it can vary according to your peaches.

Let the peaches cool in the syrup itself.

Once it is cooled down, spoon out the peaches.

You’ll notice that the skin will easily peel off with a slight tug. So will the seed, if you hadn’t de-seeded it earlier.

If you notice intently, the skin lends some of its additional colour to the peach itself.

Toss the peaches back into the sugar vanilla syrup.

For Assembly (Or something like it)

When you want to serve, spoon out a peach half or two into a bowl.
A scoop of vanilla Ice Cream accompanies it and drizzle over the sweet but tangy strawberry sauce over it.

Excuse the molten ice cream. The humid weather in Mumbai is never kind to Ice Cream.

But don’t let that distract you from the brilliance of the simplicity and taste of this creation.

Nellie Melba, we shall always be indebted to you. For many reasons than one.

But mostly for inspiring this elegant dessert to be.

Please don’t deny yourself of this peach beauty. Get fruit poaching and eating. GO!