And we're back!!! Thank goodness, I was going crazy without my biweekly dosage of Giada's wonderful recipes. Tonight, I made Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese which was my second dessert out of Everyday Italian. Thanks to our well-stocked and...I guess furnished?...kitchen, it went off without a hitch.
There is no supplementary picture to accompany this recipe in the cookbook, so ever since seeing it in there, I had a specific idea of what I thought it was supposed to look like. I've mentioned before that I sometimes look the recipes up on foodnetwork.com in order to see how long it takes to make the recipe, and that is what I did today. The recipe on there did come with a picture, and it was completely different from my idea. I had this picture of peaches topped with the cheese just open on a plate. The real recipe puts the peaches in glasses of wine. Needless to say, I decided these would be peaches with my own spin and stuck to my original idea.
To start, you mix some sugar with some lemon juice and set it aside. You're also supposed to add brandy to the mixture, but seeing as I live on a dry campus and am not legally able to consume alcohol myself, this just wasn't going to happen. I didn't think it would really take anything away from the recipe anyway.
Next, I had to fire up the grill! Mr. Foreman's innovation came in handy once again and this time, I even remembered to position to drip tray beneath the slanted grill (of course, this time time there were maybe two drops in the entire tray by the time I was finished). As the grill heated, I had to pit and quarter my peach. Sounds easy, right? Oh no, of course not. I cut the peach all the way around to the pit and then desperately tried to rip the two halves apart. After much effort and my hands being thoroughly covered in juice, I decided to cut it in half again to finish the quarters. It was just as difficult to pull apart. I then decided to try to maneuver the knife against the pit and sort of pry each piece off of it. This was actually successful, though bits of peach were still left on the pit. I'm sure Giada doesn't do it perfectly either. Or maybe she does. It really doesn't matter, these are peaches done my way.
After the peach ordeal I sprayed the grill with some EVOO spray (whoever thought to make this spray is a fat-free genius. I save so much by spraying food and cooking surfaces lightly with this rather than tossing it or covering it in oil). I then placed each peach quarter on the grill. Since it is slanted to "grill" the fat off of food (yes, it is the "lean, mean, fat grillin' machine"), the peaches slid right to the edge of the grill. This didn't bother me since they were secure and not falling off. The peaches are supposed to be cooked for about five minutes or until they're heated through and just brown. Well, mine weren't getting quite warm enough for me, so I decided that they needed to be in the center of the grill where most of the heat probably was. This took some skill with my tongs in order to place the peach quarters just right so they wouldn't slid down to the bottom. I was able to do this, but then was scared to even breathe for fear of the slightest change in atmosphere making them fall.
I unplugged the grill when the peaches were just brown and nice and warm, then transferred them to a small plate. The recipe tells you to put them in the bowl with the sugar and lemon juice mixture, but I drizzled that on top of the peaches instead. I should also mention that I did use some of the wine necessary for the recipe, cooking wine that is. I put it in the sugar lemon mixture just to get the full taste of the recipe, but not enough to get drunk off my peaches. I then let the peaches sit and absorb the mixture.
While this was happening, I combined the mascarpone cheese with some vanilla extract. I've seen this cheese used numerous times on Food Network, but had never tried it and had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. Well, it is an extremely mild cheese that has the slightest hint of that tell tale cheese taste. It takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it and gives it that nice, creamy texture. The vanilla cheese that I created was money.
I then dolloped some of the cheese onto each peach quarter and sprinkled some cinnamon on top (my own personal touch, not Giada's). I absolutely LOVE any type of grilled or roasted fruit so the peaches were great. The cheese was really good with it and was the perfect accent since the natural flavors of the grilled peaches still stood out. I'm guessing that this would be even better if I had used a REAL grill, but not only is one not available to me, but it was far too cold out today to be grilling (unless you were tailgating at a Bills game like my family probably was without me today. It's fine. I'm over it).
So I have officially gone through each chapter of the cookbook TWICE now and feel I'm really starting to improve my cooking! I'm picking up tips and tricks each time I try a new recipe and have made some delicious creations. I had Shrimp Scampi while out to dinner the other night (since I am an official shrimp eater now) and I think mine was actually better! I thought moments like that only happened when I tried things while out that my mom made better. I start back at Chapter One again on Thursday with some White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. Delish!
P.S. Happy One Year Anniversary Steph & Doug!
Love your comments. Sounds good once again.
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