It’s Time To Cook Those Things You Put Up

Summer fruits and veggies bring some winter sunshine

Recently, I was looking in my freezer for something, and I came upon a shelf full of frozen fruit. I prepped it at the height of last summer’s fruit season, but I forgot about it in the run up to the holidays.

I found peaches, rhubarb, tart cherries and sweet cherries, strawberries, blueberries and apples. There were also whole frozen tomatoes, some peppers and onions.

I felt like I’d received a gift. As you may know, Michigan abounds with gorgeous produce. The southwestern side of the state is known as the Fruit Belt, with some of its wares heading off to high profile restaurants in Chicago.

But we have fruit everywhere - even the parking lot of my apartment building had apple trees.

I decided I’d better start using up this bounty. The first thing I made from the fruit I put up was a peach crisp (the recipe is at the end of this post).

The peach slices had stuck together, due to their juiciness. So, I let them thaw a little bit before I assembled the crisp. The nice thing is that a little peach juice enhances the flavor of all the ingredients in a way you would not get with water.

I am thinking of ideas for the other fruit. I’ll reserve the strawberries and blueberries for protein smoothies. The cherries seem ideal for a clafoutis or I might make a pavlova and pile them on top in some kind of sauce.

Rhubarb is one of my favorites, and it’s among the earliest fruits to appear here. We should have it in our farmers market in May. I have made that ruby colored custard tart that you constantly see in the New York Times social media posts. It’s time consuming, though, so I am thinking about a rhubarb galette.

You might wonder about the whole tomatoes. I normally like to slow roast them fresh and make tomato sauce, but I had so many last summer that I ran out of time. I will pop them in the oven sometime soon, and break them down after. Messy, but they still taste good.

Any ideas you’d like to share for using my fruit supply? I’d love to get your suggestions.

Micki’s Peach Crisp

Filling

2-3 cups of sliced peaches (if frozen, let them thaw about halfway)

2 tbs cornstarch

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger (optional)

1 tbs lemon juice

Sugar, if desired

Topping

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown or maple sugar

4 tbs butter (half a small stick), softened

Preheat the oven to 375F/gas mark six.

Place the peach slices in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle them with lemon juice, then add the dry ingredients. Mix until the peaches are well covered. The cornstarch should dissolve. Taste and add sugar if you want it sweeter. Place the mixture in a baking dish.

In another bowl, place the dry ingredients for the topping. Separately, soften the butter at room temperature or in short bursts in the microwave. You want it to still have a little structure. Add to the bowl. Mix the topping ingredients together so that they look like granola - a few clumps are fine.

Place the topping on the peaches, making sure to cover them as much as possible. Bake about 45 minutes. The peaches should be bubbling and the topping should show some color. Let the crisp cool down to warm before serving.

I eat this with plain or vanilla Greek yogurt. Of course, you can have it with ice cream or whipped cream.