Tag: peaches

Firecracker Salmon with Peach and Avocado Salsa

Travelling this week, so this posting is a little late! Our hostess had some salmon in the freezer and some nice fresh peaches. Surprisingly she also had avocados which we always have on hand in Mexico. Both the salmon and the salmon were awesome! Pinterest never fails me…We served this with some sauteed Brussel sprouts to round out the meal. We chose to grill the salmon, but the directions for making it in the oven are included.

Firecracker Salmon with Peach and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

For the salmon:

  • 1 ½ pounds salmon
  • 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tablespoon honey
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

For the peach salsa:

  • 1 avocado, diced
  • 1 peach, diced
  • 3 tablespoons finely diced red onion
  • 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
  • 2 tablespoons finely diced cilantro
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Make your salmon marinade: In a small bowl whisk together avocado oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey, garlic, crushed red pepper, and ginger.

2. Add your salmon to a large bowl skin side up (so that the salmon sits in the sauce) and pour marinade over the top. Cover and place salmon in the fridge for no more than 1 hour.

3. While your salmon is marinating, make your peach salsa. Add avocado, peach, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper to a medium sized bowl and mix until well-combined. Refrigerate.

4. Once ready to bake salmon, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place salmon on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and place marinated salmon skin side down. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until salmon easily flakes with fork.

5. Top salmon with peach avocado salsa and serve with brown rice, black rice quinoa, or extra veggies for a fullmeal. Serves 4

Directions for grilling the salmon: Preheat a gas grill over medium-high heat. I would also lightly brush both sides of the salmon (including the skin) with a bit of olive oil to prevent sticking. Be sure to also generous oil your grill.

Place salmon skin side down first on grill, close grill lid and grill about 6-8 minutes. Carefully flip salmon and cook 6-8 more minutes or until cooked well. Salmon is tricky, but it’s best to undercook rather than overcook your filets. The salmon was perfectly cooked at 6 minutes per side on medium heat.

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Vegan Watermelon Pizza

Just bring a dessert..don’t you just hate that comment from a hostess? Just kidding, but that was the invite last week where we were meeting up with our dear vegan friend and a few others for cocktails and drinks. What to bring? Uhm…we had a watermelon.  We use Pinterest… Do we have any berries and coconut? Do we have peaches or mangoes? This sounds perfect…and it was so good we have made it twice since!!!

Vegan Watermelon Pizza Dessert

• 1 watermelon (we used the round seedless ones)
• 1 peach or mango
• Cherries (about 10) (you could skip these if you don’t have any fresh ones)
• Fresh mint
• Toasted coconut
• Sauce:
• 5 strawberries or a combination of berries
• Squeeze of fresh lime juice
• Couple of mint leaves

raspberry sambucca or possible coconut rum?
Instructions
1. To make the sauce, place the strawberries or mixed berries, a squeeze of lime juice, and some mint into a blender. Puree until smooth. Taste and adjust flavors accordingly.
2. For the watermelon pizza, slice your watermelon in half (not lengthwise!) Cut out 2 1-inch thick “wheels” from the watermelon. Lay the watermelon circles down and cut into pizza slices. Spread desired amount of sauce onto the “pizza.” Arrange your toppings onto the watermelon and serve.

Since we had no peaches, we used some frozen mango slices we had, along with some frozen sliced strawberries. The second time around we used fresh raspberries. Oh yeah…one more thing. The second time around we used a few drops of raspberry sambucca in the sauce….great for an adult party!

Peach Cranberry Chutney

AND…we are back in our new house after five weeks in the north. Finally got the computer up and running!Had the opportunity to sample my nephew’s chutney while in Canada. It was awesome served with pork tenderloin! Thanks David!

 

Peach Cranberry Chutney (David Rogers)

9 cups chopped peaches
4 cups brown sugar
4 cups white vinegar
4 cups chopped red or white onions
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
2 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
3 tbsp. mustard seed (coarsely ground if possible)
3 tsp. cinnamon
2-1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2-1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fenugreek seed
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. cayenne (more if you like it hot) I doubled the cayenne

Combine all ingredients in a large heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a full boil.
Reduce heat to a moderate boil and cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency.
Stir often to prevent scorching.
Should take 40 minutes or so.
Ladle into hot Mason jars, leaving 1/2 an inch of head space and seal.
Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
Remove and let stand until the lids pop down.
Check seals after 24 hours and refrigerate any unsealed jars.

Enjoy

 

Berry Cobbler

Looking back over the recipes I have posted, I notice there are very few desserts….probably because we try not to eat many desserts unless we are at a party or going to one! This one would make a great Memorial Day dessert or save it for July 1st or the 4th of July. The colors work well with French vanilla ice cream! It so simple even the kids can make it…

Berry Cobbler * (see below)

Ingredients
Two 12-oz bags frozen mixed berries/peaches
1 box white or yellow cake mix
¼ cup melted butter
Approximately 1 can of diet 7-up or other clear soda (355 ml)- drizzle all over cake mix.
(might need more than 1 can of soda to avoid dry spots)

Instructions
Place frozen fruit in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Add dry cake mix over the top. Drizzle ¼ cup melted butter over the cake mix. Pour soda slowly over cake mix. DO NOT stir the cake mix and the soda – this will give you a ‘crust’. If you stir the two, you will have a cake like topping.

Bake 350 for 45-50 min or longer until berries are cooked.

* If berries are not your thing, experiment with other fruits such as rhubarb, mango cubes, melon, etc. I am thinking about strawberry and rhubarb? Uhm… wonder what would happen with strawberry and banana and drizzling the finished cake with chocolate syrup aka…banana split???

 

Easy Peach Cobbler

Recipe-hiking on the Internet, Larry came across this great and easy cobbler. In three weeks, he has made it twice for guests. Check out the original site for more great recipes – www.justapinch.com

Great for kids baking!!!

Easy Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:

2 lbs of frozen peaches (or any fruit of choice…we liked mixed berries)

1 box of Betty Crocker yellow cake mix

1 10 oz. can of Diet 7-up or SPRITE

Preparation:

Spread the frozen fruit of choice in the bottom of a 9 x 13 Pyrex pan which has been sprayed with Pam.

Sprinkle dry cake mix over the fruit.

Pour 7-Up or Sprite over the mix … GENTLY!

Cover with foil and bake 20  minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove foil and bake another 40 minutes. Let cool.

Serve with whipping cream or ice cream.

VARIATIONS: Chocolate cake mix, frozen cherries and Cherry Coke…

Curried Fruit Sauce for Easter Ham

I know I just posted that chicken recipe, but with this being Easter, it brought back memories of this great dish that Gloria made as a side to the ham. The recipe came from an old magazine called “Taste of Home”. You can vary the fruits. I sometimes have used apricots in place of the pears. And then sometimes I leave out the cherries entirely. Choose your favorite fruits. Why not add some fresh figs?

Curried Fruit Sauce for Ham

  • Prep: 20 min. Bake: 30 min.
  • Yield: 20 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, cubed
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons curry powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 can (20 ounces) pineapple tidbits, drained I substituted fresh mango!
  • 1 can (15 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained
  • 1 can (8-1/2 ounces) sliced peaches, drained and chopped
  • 1 can (8-1/2 ounces) sliced pears, drained and chopped
  • 12 maraschino cherries, halved

Directions

  • In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the brown sugar, curry powder and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. In a lightly greased 2-qt. baking dish, combine the fruit; mix well. Pour sauce over the mixed fruit. Bake, uncovered, at 300° for 30 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 5 cups.

Peach and Mango Clafoutis (Cla…foo…ti)

They tell me that clafoutis was one of Julia Child’s favorite dessert recipes! This being the month in which she was born, how appropriate to post this recipe, modified from her original which used cherries complete with pits! I had already made this once before, but good ole Larry decided to modify it using mangoes and peaches. Hate to say but it turned out great…LOL. This being the season for peaches, why not give it a try?

Baked Peach Clafoutis – a la Julia Child

Photo Courtesy of Celeste Ward

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk

1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
3 ripe peaches with skins on and sliced or 2 peaches and 1 mango…
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cardamom
powdered sugar

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a blender blend the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cardamom, salt and flour. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of the batter in a buttered 7 or 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish. Place in the oven until a film of batter sets in the pan (about 2-3 minutes).

Remove from the heat and spread the peaches over the batter. Sprinkle on the 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour. The clafoutis is done when puffed and brown and a knife plunged in the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm.

Of course, don’t forget the French vanilla ice cream!!!!

Peach, Prosciutto and Fresh Basil Pizza with Goat Cheese

This one is for all of our Southern Ontario friends who are  now seeing some peaches fresh from the trees. Yeah, it is a day early, but why not go buy those peaches and have it for dinner tonight? LOL

Peach, Prosciutto and Fresh Basil Pizza with Goat Cheese

Ingredients

1 Pizza Crust [see note below]

½ ‘roll’ (part of a log) of goat cheese crumbled as much as possible

(The original recipe called for fresh, sliceable Mozzarella, but we LOVED the goat cheese)

3-4 Slightly Under Ripe Peaches

Fresh Basil (and a bit of rosemary if you like it)

6-8 Slices of Prosciutto shredded

3/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar (if you are making the reduction) OR store bought Balsamic glaze for drizzling

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (or as high as your oven will go).
  2. If making your own dough, follow that recipe first.
  3. Pour your balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Once it starts to boil reduce to medium and let simmer until it has reduced to about 1/4 cup. (We can buy Balsamic Glaze here so you can skip the step of reducing the balsamic)
  4. While the balsamic is reducing, roll out your pizza dough onto your pizza pan or stone.
  5. Crumble the goat cheese OR slice up your mozzarella, peaches and basil. Your mozzarella should be about 1/4 inch thick and your peaches should be thinly sliced. You can leave the peel on if you like for color.
  6. Top pizza with goat cheese or the fresh sliced mozzarella, being careful not to overlap.
  7. Layer peaches on top of the cheese in an circle – starting from the outside crust and moving inward.
  8. Put your pizza in the oven for 6 minutes.
  9. Remove pizza from oven and drop roughly shredded prosciutto over the pizza. Drizzle the balsamic reduction over the pizza along with the basil and rosemary and return to the oven.
  10. Cook pizza for another 6-10 minutes depending on your crust.  Check on it frequently!!!

NOTE: Here at Costco we are able to buy packages of a really nice flatbread instead of using the pizza dough. We tried Burger Ones from SuperStore/Zehrs/Longos but they were not as good nor were tortillas).