Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for cooking with peaches | Summer time foods and drinks

If you luck out with a peach that’s rosy, unblemished and ripe, sink your tooth into it and revel in its chic sweetness instantly, with none adornment. There may be little you’ll be able to add to an ideal peach to enhance its unrestrained juiciness, aromatic fragrance and luscious flesh, however peachy perfection within the UK is a rarity, as a result of imported fruit is mostly picked earlier than it’s ripe, to forestall bruising. For these pesky peaches that refuse to melt, apply warmth: griddling, poaching or roasting will assist eke out their pure honeyed sweetness and aroma.

Grilled peach and feta fattoush (pictured high)

It is a reworked basic salad that makes use of stale bread for frugal sustenance. Bolstered by the addition of heat, griddled peaches and salty feta, it feels particularly luscious.

Prep 20 min
Prepare dinner 5 min
Serves 4-6

About 250ml rapeseed oil, for frying
2 Lebanese day-old flatbreads or pitta, lower into shards
3 white peaches, stoned and lower into wedges
Sea salt and black pepper
100ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tbsp for drizzling (I like Zaytoun’s unfiltered one)
300g grape tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Lebanese cucumbers, chopped
1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1 small bunch mint leaves, picked and coarsely chopped
8 radishes, thinly sliced
200g feta
1 tbsp sumac
2 tbsp lemon juice

Put the rapeseed oil in a big saucepan on a medium warmth and, when it’s sizzling, add half the bread and fry for 15-20 seconds, till golden. Drain on absorbent paper, and repeat with the remaining bread.

Get a griddle pan extremely popular. Season the peaches and drizzle with a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil, then grill on each side till charred and striped, and put aside to chill a little bit.

Combine the grilled peaches in a big bowl with the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint and radishes. Coarsely break up the shards of bread, crumble the feta and toss each with the salad elements. Sprinkle over the sumac, season to style, then gown with the remaining extra-virgin olive oil and the lemon juice. Combine gently to mix and serve instantly.

Aromatic hen and peach pilaf with cashews

The wedding of candy peaches and juicy hen thighs is a aromatic revelation.

Prep 10 min
Prepare dinner 40 min
Serves 6

2 tbsp ghee
800g skinless and boneless hen thighs, lower into bite-sized chunks
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced into crescents
100g cashews
1 cinnamon quill, damaged up
1 tbsp honey
3 peaches, stoned and quartered
1 tsp every floor ginger, coriander and cumin
300g basmati rice
Sea salt, to style
750ml sizzling hen inventory
1 large pinch saffron threads soaked in 60ml heat milk

To serve
1 handful crisp shallots
1 handful finely chopped coriander

Soften a tablespoon of the ghee in a casserole pan on a medium-high warmth, then brown the hen items throughout. Switch the hen to a plate, then put the onions within the pan and fry on a low warmth till caramelised. Add the cashews and cinnamon, and prepare dinner, stirring, till toasted, then switch every thing to a plate.

Add one other tablespoon of ghee and the honey to the pan, allow them to bubble for a minute, then rigorously add the peaches and prepare dinner for about three minutes, turning midway, till caramelised and softened however nonetheless holding their form. Take away from the pan and put aside.

Tip the hen and the onions combine again into the pan, stir within the floor ginger, coriander and cumin, and fry for about two minutes, till aromatic. Scatter within the rice, season and toast for about two minutes, till it begins to stay to the underside of the pan, then pour within the sizzling inventory, cowl the pan, flip the warmth down low and simmer for 10 minutes, till the rice has absorbed the inventory. Take away the pan from the warmth, return the peaches to it, cowl once more and depart the rice to steam for an extra three or 4 minutes.

To serve, drizzle the saffron milk excessive, so among the rice is stained and a few nonetheless white, and scatter over the shallots and coriander.