Peaches and Other Juicy Fruits

Book excerpt: Peaches. Plums. Nectarines. Apricots. They're summer's sweethearts. Eating them fresh off the tree, still warm from the sun, is one of the high points of the year. Now, award-winning cookbook author Olwen Woodier offers stone fruit lovers 150 enticing ways to savor these sweet and tangy flavors of summer. You'll find wonderful recipes for baking these fruits in crisps, cobblers, pies, and tarts. And peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots pair up beautifully with ice cream and sherbet, or can be whipped up into frosty shakes and smoothies. But there are many other ways to bring the taste of summer to your table. For example, the flavors burst when the fruits are grilled, sautéed, or roasted. Plums are perfect with pork tenderloin. Nectarines are a natural with roasted chicken. Apricots are a perfect complement to turkey breast. There are also recipes for grilled salmon with nectarine and avocado and halibut with peaches. When you have a taste for something with an extra zing, Woodier suggests the tarter varieties of plums--damsons, greengages, beach plums, and some varieties of Italian plums. Because the flavor of these plums is more assertive, they can withstand stronger seasonings such as cloves and cardamom, cinnamon and ginger. Or for a real culinary treat, poach these plums in a fruity red wine. Summer fruits work beautifully in sauces and salsas. A nectarine chili sauce or a plum garlic sauce makes a terrific dip or a tasty sauce to brush on grilled meat. And when you're looking for something more exciting to dip tortilla chips into, try peach-plum salsa. Enhancing this luscious cookbook are fascinating sidebars. Woodier tells stories from the history and folklore of stone fruits: for example, did you know that apricots were first cultivated 3000 years ago near the Great Wall of China? You'll find information about rare varieties such as donut peaches, the smallest and sweetest peaches of all, as well as new specialty hybrid fruits such as apriums, an apricot-plum hybrid with the downy yellow skin and yellow-orange flesh of an apricot and the tangy flavor of a plum. Packed with food-lore, nutritional information, and 150 imaginative, innovative, and succulent recipes, Peaches and Other Juicy Fruits is a cookbook you won't let out of your hands all year long.