TARRAGON & THYME

Whilst I have been out of circulation I have been playing quite a bit in the kitchen. I have always had a problem with peaches skinning them successfully, it has always terrified me, because sometimes the skins come off and sometimes they don't. Last weekend I skinned about 40 peaches and made two very large jars of whole peaches in spiced vinegars; both flavourings slightly different and the sauce at least with both of them is extremely scrummy. Skinning Peaches Now back to the skinning. I have found the most successful way for me is to have a pan of boiling water on the stove and dunking each peach individually in the bubbling hot water ( I seem to have a thing about hubble bubbling at the moment! I then immediatly plunge the hot peach into a big bowl of cold iced water and start straight away with removing the skin. If it does not budge bung it back into the hot water again and repeat process. Sometimes I have to assist with a small sharp knife, but this isn't very often. ...

I managed to snap a bargain with some peaches from the market on Friday - I was in two minds as to whether to bring them home or not as I have the terrors over peeling peaches as it always tends to go wrong for me. But this time I seem to have had a minor success apart from one which was a tad difficult. The recipe states: 1.5kg(3lb 3oz ) peaches 2 large onions 6 garlic cloves 3 small dried red chillies 5 cm (2 inch) piece fresh root ginger 500g (1lb 20z) mixed dried fruit 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) cider vinegar 675g (1 1/2 lb) light muscovado sugar Well I pattypanned it - as didn't have some of the ingredients to hand so I have improvised I used 4 garlic cloves 1 long red chilli (I don't like things too hot) Instead of Mixed fruit I used golden sultanas Had no cider vinegar so I used white wine vinegar And I used white sugar So far at the end of cooking it tastes promising and I don't normally say that aboutchutneys but give it a month or so. Surprisingly it has gone very da...