Poached Peaches Or Apricots Lemongrass Recipes

VANILLA-POACHED APRICOTS WITH ZABAGLIONE

Steps:

• Poach apricots:
• Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into a 2-quart saucepan, then add pod, water, sugar, zest, and salt. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over high heat, then boil 1 minute.
• Carefully add apricots, then reduce heat and poach at a bare simmer, turning over once, until fruit is tender but still holds its shape and skins are still intact, 2 to 6 minutes. Transfer apricots and syrup to a large shallow bowl and cool to room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Make zabaglione:
• Beat together yolks, sugar, and wine in a deep 4-quart metal bowl with a handheld electric mixer at medium speed or whisk vigorously until combined well.
• Set bowl over a 4-quart pot of barely simmering water and beat mixture until tripled in volume, 5 to 6 minutes.
• To serve:
• Spoon 2 or 3 apricot halves into each of 6 glasses and top with zabaglione. Serve immediately.

FRUIT PLATTER WITH WHIPPED RICOTTA

Steps:

• Poached Peaches: Combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, gently stirring occasionally, until fruit is just tender, 5 to 10 minutes, depending on ripeness. Transfer peaches to a heatproof container with a slotted spoon; strain syrup over top. Let cool completely. Peaches in syrup can be refrigerated, covered, up to 1 week. (Makes about 2 cups.)
• Whipped Ricotta: Puree ricotta, vanilla, and maple syrup in a food processor or blender until creamy. Mixture can be refrigerated, covered, up to 5 days. (Makes 2 cups.)
• Fruit Platter: Arrange all fresh fruits on a platter. Serve with poached peaches, whipped ricotta, and digestive biscuits.

BRANDIED POACHED PEACHES

Steps:

• Bring sugar, orange juice, water, zest, and vanilla bean to a boil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add peaches, stem ends up. Cover pan and reduce heat, then poach peaches at a bare simmer 8 minutes. Turn peaches over and continue to poach, covered, until tender, 7 to 8 minutes more.
• Transfer peaches with a slotted spoon to a bowl or shallow dish to cool, reserving poaching liquid in saucepan. Lift out vanilla bean pod and scrape seeds into poaching liquid, then boil liquid until reduced to about 1 cup, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour syrup through a sieve into a small bowl or glass measure and cool. Stir in brandy (to taste).
• Peel peaches and serve whole with syrup.

PERFECT POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Place the vin santo, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, and zests in a large, shallow saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and scoop out the seeds from the bottom with an apple corer or melon baller. Lay half the pears on their sides in the poaching liquid and simmer for 20 minutes, carefully turning the pears once with a spoon. Remove with a slotted spoon. Poach the remaining pears in the same liquid. Snip off the hard stems from the figs with scissors. Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and the first batch of poached pears and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes, until the pears and the dried fruit are all tender.
• Chill the pears, dried fruit, zests, and poaching liquid. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean before serving if you like.

DRIED FRUIT POACHED IN PORT

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to very low and cover. Cook for about 30 minutes, at which point most of the port will have been absorbed.
• If the fruit is tender, it's done. If not, add 1/2 cup water, bring to a boil again, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes. Repeat once more if necessary.
• Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon, then strain the liquid to remove the spices. Serve a portion of the fruit warm, cold, or at room temperature with a spoonful or two of its juice.
• Substitute almost any sweet or neutral liquid for the port: water, oloroso sherry, red wine (add a tablespoon of sugar), sweet white wine, orange juice, and so on.
• If you prefer less-than-sweet results, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end of cooking.
• Vary the spices. Try a tiny grating of nutmeg in place of the allspice, peppercorns, and star anise, for example. Some coriander seeds are also nice.
• Since the preparation of this dish is absolutely foolproof, the challenge (and most of the fun) lies entirely in the shopping, especially since there is an incredible variety of dried fruits available, much of it of superhigh quality. In the course of fine-tuning this recipe, I tried not only the obvious prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, and pears, but also cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and even banana. I tend toward the traditional but really enjoyed the tartness that dried pineapple added to the mixture and encourage you to experiment and find the mix of fruits that suits you best.

POACHED PEACHES IN VANILLA SYRUP

Steps:

• To peel the peaches, plunge them into boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. remove and remove peel; cut peaches in half
• Bring water, sugar, vanilla and lemon slices to a boil. Add the peaches and simmer until tender. Remove the vanilla bean from the syrup and reduce the syrup by a third.
• Pit the peaches and cut them in quarters. Set them in a bowl, add the grapes and cranberries and pour hot vanilla syrup over them; chill until ready to eat. Eat as is chilled or as a topping for frozen yogurt or pound cake