It was Marcella Hazan who gave me the idea, many years ago, in Marcella's Italian Kitchen, to grill fruit on the cooling fire.
"On picnics, after we were done with barbecuing fish or meat and vegetables, it seemed a shame to let the coals' last heat expire unused, so I would drop whatever fruit we had on the grill. Good as it was - and I don't think it can get any better - I accepted it as the fire's parting gift without thinking of it as a deliberate approach to preparing fruit."
I often look sadly at the beautiful warm coals after I have cooked on the fire, and feel sorry that I haven't any apricots or peaches ready for the hot grill. But this is also a dish easy to prepare on the stove, and that's what I did for our supper, searing these peaches in my cast iron pan, after oiling it lightly with olive oil.
"On picnics, after we were done with barbecuing fish or meat and vegetables, it seemed a shame to let the coals' last heat expire unused, so I would drop whatever fruit we had on the grill. Good as it was - and I don't think it can get any better - I accepted it as the fire's parting gift without thinking of it as a deliberate approach to preparing fruit."
I often look sadly at the beautiful warm coals after I have cooked on the fire, and feel sorry that I haven't any apricots or peaches ready for the hot grill. But this is also a dish easy to prepare on the stove, and that's what I did for our supper, searing these peaches in my cast iron pan, after oiling it lightly with olive oil.
A store nearby, on 125th Street, has been selling small peaches, ripe and perfumed, from a box. It is too early for local peaches and the cashiers can't tell me where they come from. But they are very good. Here, they are topped with the sweet, fresh serviceberries I picked the other day. We ate them with vanilla icecream.
The rest of the berries are being turned into a syrup, a compôte and perhaps a small pie (recipe in 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life, June chapter, of course), for our upstairs neighbor, Wolfgang, who requested one for his June birthday (one of their many names is Juneberries).
The rest of the berries are being turned into a syrup, a compôte and perhaps a small pie (recipe in 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life, June chapter, of course), for our upstairs neighbor, Wolfgang, who requested one for his June birthday (one of their many names is Juneberries).
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Beautiful! I so am curious about service berries -- I had a service berry tree planted in my back garden last fall and this is my first summer with it and its fruit. Wondering how you utilize the fruit beyond this (lovely) example. Where do you gather your fruit? Can they be cooked down on a low flame with sugar to create a jam? Thinking I must race to figure these things out before the birds eat all of the bounty!
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