Okay ... one last post on fruit, and it's off to a new topic, I promise!
By Expat Chef
Seems like I am always eating, or about to eat when I write these posts. Or, maybe I just eat a lot, so the odds are in my stomach’s favor. Probably so. I am eating the last of the “Balsamic Peach and Blueberry Compote,” a rather tasty combination of fresh berries, peaches and 20-year-old balsamic vinegar that likely aged another 10 years in the cabinet. Oh, and a dash of pepper. You can find the recipe on epicurious,com sans the odd clumps of “stuff” from the bottom of the vinegar bottle. I added blackberries because I like them.
The unfortunate thing is that the real ice cream (from a local dairy) is gone. My husband went to the store to replace it during a moment where he felt fat and guilty. (Yes, he is being a girl). So now, I have to eat this lovely compote over some fat-free, sugar-free excuse for a frozen treat.
Treat? Try torture. I know Splenda is not grown locally. In fact, I am pretty sure it is not even grown. It does, however, bring to top of mind and taste bud how precious flavor is and how spoiled I have become. Once you go local, you don’t go back.
Case in point, the fuzzy experiment from depths of my refrigerator’s produce bin. No, not that kind of experiment, this one actually SHOULD be fuzzy. I am talking about peaches. A couple weeks before the farmer’s market opened for the season — alas ours closes over winter — I could not wait for my summer fruit fix. I bought some peaches at the organic market. They were hard, and yet rubbery in texture and completely, absolutely, without one iota of peachiness. I abandoned them into the bottom of the drawer.
As time passed, and peaches came into season, I have continued to buy more at the local farmer’s market. Like weekly. The first were not yet ripe, with just a blush of the flavor to come. The next were pure heaven, and so juicy I had to eat them hunched over the sink, soaked up the arms and devouring them like a starving animal. Nirvana, I tell you. But then I let one get by me, and it aged beyond ripe. The final piece to the peachy puzzle is another batch of perfection procured just days ago.
So, my fridge contained these specimens:
- Store-bought, never ripe, hard like rocks
- Store-bought, never ripe, left to age slowly in the cold
- Ripe perfection, criminally left to ferment in its own necter
- Ripe perfection
- Ripe perfection stewed with berries and clumps of what should have been good vinegar
The experiment results were as follows:
- Not worth breaking a tooth over, so this is why store bought tastes like crap
- Mealy, mushy, would pass for ripe in the store and still contains absolutely not a bit of peach flavor, or flavor in general
- This tasted much like another experiment in early college
called “amateur hour by the shot.” Yes, none other than the sickly
sweet, fermented nightmare known as Peach Schnapps. Right up there with
Cold Duck, Mickey’s Wide Mouths, wine coolers and screw-cap Boone’s
Farm. Bad flashback.
- See above description of me hunched over the sink, (insert moan of great pleasure).
- See number 4., but insert bad aftertaste of Splenda and about fifty other ingredients I cannot pronounce, may my body forgive me.
The moral is Steingarten's treatise on ripeness is very accurate; ripeness is only truly attained on the stem (or vine or branch). It is a precious and narrow window of taste perfection that must be enjoyed and devoured immediately. It cannot be bought at the store. And, once you have it, you can never, never go back. Nor will you want to.
Just as an aside, was watching Food Network, and saw commercials in the local spots for the big chain grocery here. The ad were centered on all the local produce offered and how the store was supporting family farms … the tag line: “Buy Fresh. Buy Local.” This would never happen without consumer demand, for buying local to be the hot new trend. We have an impact, we’re making changes, now let’s make that “trend” a lasting value!
You can find the Expatriate Chef hanging out in her kitchen, reading corn and tomato recipes and getting ready for the weekend.
