Peach Melba

A surprising and timely trip down memory lane, even though
neither of us tried the recipe before..........

 Per Tricia ~

I casually mentioned to my older son, who is headed to his first year of

 college in a few days, that the "Dorie Food" would be Peach Melba. He

 said he thought he had tried this dish before and instantly the light 

bulb went off for me. Indeed he had. In the Tuileries Garden in Paris on

 the Fourth of July, 2007.  We actually joked about this because our 

family does not make routine  trips to Europe with the

 kids - as much as we would love to. We were very lucky that year

 and my husband had his one (and only) business trip to France. 

Luckily, Nana and Grandpa decided to take a Paris vacation at the 

same time so we all played during the day and caught up with my husband

 at night. We were enjoying the Tuileries that morning and particularly, one 

of those huge trampolines that gets set up for fairs. Louvre nearby, Angelina

 Tearoom across the street - my boys had eyes only for that trampoline. 

(Nana with the boys, below.....)

Until the skies opened and the ride closed.....

 

We took cover with Nana in one of those little enclosed restaurant/dessert

 places that you find in the larger Paris parks. Tough times require dessert...

My older son decided  his choice dessert would be  something he never tried 

before - Peach Melba.  When the dish arrived it was  HUGE !

He loved every bite. 

My younger  son (who also leaves home for Italy next week) 

 followed in his mother's footsteps and enjoyed Creme Brulee....

which thanks to Dorie ....we now also enjoy at home.

 (same view only one hour later....with time well spent on desserts)

So that was the Paris side of our trip down memory lane.  I decided to

 take a more local approach for the vanilla ice cream and go to a wonderful

 local manufacturer - Nelson's Ice Cream of Royersford, PA.  I am not sure 

whether Nana found this place first or we did, but over the years we have

 visited their little retail store in our neighboring town on many 

a hot summer afternoon. 

 

http://www.nelsonsicecream.net/index.html

On this particular hot summer afternoon, I found the store closed.

  I decided to just try the attached factory (when in Rome......) simply
 hoping for advice on the nearest retail store - but they sold me some

 vanilla. What a treat and what an experience - I ended up seeing much more 

of the small factory and business office then I ever would have imagined.  

Added to the farm fresh peaches from down the road and the dish with 

Paris origins ended up having quite a local flavor.

And while all of these memories made this a very special dish indeed, 

the recipe and  flavors will stand on their own for anyone preparing it.  

My guys all adored it and this will certainly become a new summer favorite.  

And a great send off dish.....

Per Nana~

This was such a fun recipe, and following Dorie's suggestions

 for serving, really turns it into an elegant dessert.

A few days ago we drove to the farm stand for our supply of fresh corn, 

 tomatoes, and fresh peaches. I bought a tray of peaches and using

 Dorie's instructions for poaching, I poached all the peaches.

 I actually tripled her instructions for the sugar and water portion,

 left out the verbena leaves, and used pure vanilla extract.

I used Creme de Cassis from Nuits Saint Georges in the Burgundy

 section of France that we had purchased on one of our trips.  

One thing I did differently than Dorie was to separate the peaches before

 adding them to the syrup.  It is an extremely messy job and I think

 it would have been a disaster had it sat in the syrup.

The peaches turned out so tasty, and we loved them.

The next day I prepared the rest of the peach melba using the raspberry

 sauce, ice cream and topping it with whipped cream. 

A perfect dessert for a summer evening.