ROBERT ST. JOHN: It's peach season

Peach season is here. Peaches are my favorite fruit. Period. End of story. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, and blackberries fall into my top five. But there is a large delta between number one and the rest. Peaches, and especially Chilton County Alabama peaches, rule the fruit world at my house.

Chilton County peaches are coming in right now. We get a weekly shipment and my wife peels all of them and puts them in a bowl in the refrigerator where they will last a couple of days. It’s not that they wouldn’t last longer than a couple of days, it’s that I eat all of them in just a couple of days.

We place them in the bowl and sprinkle a little sugar on them. Not too much. I don’t want to macerate them, and if they’ve been purchased correctly there will be enough natural sweetness straight off the tree.

Fresh peaches are the food that inspires poets. They almost make our brutally hot summers worth living through. If anyone ever asks me about why I love the south, fresh peaches are listed early in the conversation.

I love fresh peaches so much I thought we would take a departure from my normal focus in this column, and do something I haven’t done in the 24 years I have been writing this weekly dispatch— use less essay and more recipes. Peaches are so special to me; I don’t want to just leave you with one recipe to cover the entire summer. Instead, here are several that you can use over the next several weeks during the height of peach season.

Enjoy.

 

Peach BBQ Sauce

2 tsp bacon fat (or canola oil)

1/4 cup onion, small dice

2 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced

2 tsp jalapeno, small dice

1 1/2 cup fresh peach, peeled diced ( frozen may be substituted)

2 tsp tomato paste

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup chicken stock or broth

1/4 cup orange juice

2 TBL rice wine vinegar

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire

1/2 cinnamon stick

1/8 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp chili powder

1 tsp kosher

1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

1/4 tsp dry thyme, or 1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

Preheat oven to 300.

In a 2-quart oven-proof sauce pot, heat the bacon fat over low heat. Cook onions 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, ginger, jalapeno and peaches. Increase the heat to medium and cook 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes more. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover the sauce and place in the preheated oven.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the cover and bake for 30 more minutes.

The sauce may be made days in advance, and best when a day or two old.

Yield: 2 1/2 cups

Blueberry-Peach Shortcake 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbl sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 Tbl baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), diced

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup heavy cream, chilled

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash

1/4 cup sugar

4-5 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced (about 3 cups)

1 Tbl fresh lemon juice

1 pint blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift the flour, 2 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend in the butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs, heavy cream, sour cream and vanilla extract and quickly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will be sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Flour your hands and pat the dough out 3/4-inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough.

Cut biscuits with a 2 3/4-inch cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are fully baked. Let cool on a wire rack.

While the biscuits are baking, combine the 1/4 cup of sugar with the sliced peaches and lemon juice. Refrigerate until needed.

Split each shortcake in half crosswise and place the bottom half on a plate. Place a small amount of the peach mixture atop each biscuit bottom. Place one scoop of ice cream on the peaches and spoon the remaining peaches over the ice cream. Place the biscuit top over the filled bottom half and sprinkle each shortcake with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh blueberries, serve immediately.

Yield 6-8 servings

Miniature Fried Peach Pies

A true Southern dessert staple. These work well with apples, too.

Sweet Pie Dough:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1 /2 Tbl granulated sugar

1 /8 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 1 /2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbl ice water

Filling:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 /2 pound frozen peaches, thawed, or 1 cups fresh peaches, small diced

3 Tbl granulated sugar

1 /4 cup peach jam or preserves

Pinch of ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp corn starch

1 Tbl peach schnapps

1 Tbl sugar

1 /2 tsp cinnamon

Vegetable oil for deep frying

To prepare the pie dough, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt for three minutes on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour and water and beat for 15 seconds. Turn off the machine, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat again for 10 seconds.

Scoop up dough with your hands and form into a one-inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Melt butter over medium-high heat in a sauté pan. Sauté peaches and sugar until sugar is dissolved, approximately two minutes. Add the preserves, cayenne, and cinnamon; cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in the schnapps and stir into hot peach mixture. Remove from heat and cool.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a 16 x 11-inch rectangle about 1 /8-inch thick. Cut out 3 1 /2-inch circles and place two teaspoons of filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold the circles in half and pinch the edges together. Refrigerate pies for 30 minutes before frying.

Heat 2 1/2 inches of vegetable oil to 350-degrees in a heavy four-quart saucepan. Fry pies 4 or 6 at a time until golden brown, 1 1/2 -2 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels.

Keep warm in a 200-degree oven until all pies are fried. Serve immediately.

Yield: 24-26