Welsh Rarebit, Steak Diane, Pavlova and Peach Melba. All recipes we’ve heard of and maybe some of us can describe. Last week, the Around My French Table/French Friday’s with Dorie group made Peach Melba. I was thinking of something crunchy. Perhaps in the Melba toast family. What is it you ask?
Think about the best peach you’re ever tasted, with fresh raspberry sauce, over ice cream… with just a touch of liqueur. Yes, that’s it.
Fresh peaches are poached in simple syrup with vanilla bean, then cooled and chilled. While the peaches are chilling, the berries are pureed and combined with just a bit of the syrup. It’s that easy.
Once the sauce and peaches are ready, spoon over vanilla cream and add some sliced almonds. The scent of the vanilla is amazing. I used St. Germain, and elderflower liqueur rather than the Chambord that was suggested in the recipe. I don’t think you can go wrong with either. As summer transitions into fall, this is the perfect summer comfort food. I hope you’ll try it, and enjoy the sweetness of this classic.
The photos themselves are mouthwateringly good! Everything looks summery, but cool.
Thanks so much for starting your blog. I really enjoy it!
Kafryn
Loverly! The pictures are so beautiful and I’m so glad I tried this one too! Reading the recipe name I had no idea what it was either and was also thinking of a crunchy cookie of some sort. Mmmmm St. Germain. Sooooooo yummy. I ended up using amaretto because I didn’t have Chambord or creme de cassis and it still tasted pretty darn good!
I adored this one! The sound of elderflower liqueur in this is tempting. I have an unopened bottle on the shelf, so I’ll have to remember your idea for next time. Do you have any idea whether melba toast is also named for the same opera singer? Maybe she had to diet in between indulging in the sundaes?
Hi! Look what I found! You’re right! “It was indeed named after the Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba, as was the peach Melba. They were both the creation of Auguste Escoffier, the French chef, in the 1890s when he was the head chef at The Savoy Hotel, London. The toast may well have been a private joke between them. Dame Nellie was a well built, junoesque lady, in the manner of the sopranos of the day, and also possessed of a degree of humour; it is said that Escoffier deliberately had toast sliced in half in response to her enquiry about diet! In his memoirs he described how the peach dish was invented impromptu for her when she returned hungry one evening . What its relation to her toast or her diet was, if any, he did not, I think, tell.”
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/DisplayAnswers.go?question_id=8458&category_id=5
Aug 15 03, 2:16 AM