I’m in love with white peaches and mangoes and it’s a horrible thing. Neither grow here. The white peaches don’t even come from Ontario, I don’t think. I’m pretty sure they’re from California. The problem is I went to Italy a few summers ago and discovered what a peach could taste like. The outside would be hard and you wouldn’t think it was ripe, but then you’d bite into it and it would squirt everywhere and the syrupy, tangy, sweet insides would dribble down your chin so you had to eat it over the sink and never in front of company. It’s a different variety of peach there, so when I came back and all the peaches I tasted were either starchy or bland, I settled on the next best thing – white peaches. They’re incredibly sweet and while they don’t have the tang and punch of the Italian nectarines and pesche bianche, they’re very, very good.
So I bought approximately 4 pounds of the best ones I found at Jean Talon Market. I tasted them from about four different stands before purchasing. They all tasted a little different, though they probably came from the same place. I ate a quarter fresh (the best way to enjoy them), and then sliced and froze a quarter (bad way since it turns out the sweetness fades through freezing somehow), and I made the rest into either peach chutney or just canned them in syrup with a Quebec dessert wine (a Mistral from the Cep d’Argent winery outside Magog in the Eastern Townships) thrown in for good, sugary measure.
Here’s the chutney. How do you use a chutney? The sweet-and-sour combo of vinegar, sugar, and rich spices are great on top of fish, pork, or poultry. Preferably poultry in this case. Or on the side of an Indian meal as you would use a mango chutney. Or to scoop up with naan or other flatbread. Or to eat with a spoon. Or on pancakes or waffles or anything else that needs syrup, but when you want a little bit of acid. It’s the artificial way of adding that sweet-and-sour tang I desired. It worked, but, alas, it’s no fresh peach from Italy.
Ingredients (Makes 4 half-pint, 250mL jars):
4 cups peeled, chopped, firm but rip peaches
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon (grate cinnamon sticks, or grind it in a coffee grinder. Same could be done with the cloves and allspice. Grind them separately, though, to measure the ground spices afterward accurately)
1/4 red pepper
Directions: As you often do with tomatoes for sauce, add the peaches to boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, until the skins start to break, then remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice (or really cold) water. When cool enough to handle, slip the peaches out of their skins, pit them, and chop them roughly into 1/2″ pieces or smaller. They don’t have to be beautiful since the sauce gets blended later, but they should be about the same size so that they cook evenly and break down at the same rate.
Put all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, for one hour. If you burn the bottom of the pot a little don’t scrape the burned bits in. Instead pour all the non-burned ingredients into a new pot and keep going. No turning back.
Wash and sterilize the four 250mL jars (sterilize a 5th just to be safe) and rims, and wash the lids (to be softened in hot water later) with hot soapy water.
Transfer the contents of the pot to a blender (in batches, if necessary) or food processor (or use an immersion blender – the stick blender you place directly into the pot). Blend until smooth, or leave a little chunky if you prefer. Then return the chutney to the pot and bring back to a boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Don’t let it burn now! You’ve come so far!
Soften the lids in almost simmering water for 5 minutes.
Pour the hot sauce into the hot, sterilized jars until they’re filled to 1/4 inch from the rim. Use a wooden chopstick or long heatproof, non-metal object to remove any air bubbles from the jars. Wipe the rims with a damp, clean paper towel, place the lids on top, then the metal ring bands and tighten until finger-tip tight.
Place in a hot water canner (large canning pot full of hot, almost boiling water that you probably just used to sterilize the jars in the first place), bring the water back to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.
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