Friday, September 14, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie and Walking Away: Wine-Poached Peach, Burrata and Prosciutto Salad


This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is actually Spice-Poached Apples or Pears, described by Dorie as one of the "most comforting and simplest French family sweets." Dorie likes to serve the fruit and its syrup with rice pudding or French toast, but it is usually served with nothing more than crème fraîche, heavy cream or plain yogurt.

Although I would have welcomed a little sweetness and comfort in my life with open arms, someone's stubborness, pride, ego and/or fears continue to stand in the way of great make-up sex working through this together.  So, my life has been turned upside down, like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head. It's been hard to work, sleep, eat (great diet), and listen to country music.  Geez, those country music lyrics really pierce the heart and open the floodgates...

Since cooking dinner for myself hasn't been too appealing, I've been drowning my sorrows at the local bars making the rounds to a few local spots for light dinners. I do like dining at the bar rather than sitting at a table by myself, especially at the local restaurants where I know many of the chefs and people who work there. The tourists are gone, we have our island back, and the restaurants are quiet and relaxing. Last Friday I met Alex, Chez Loma's new chef, and enjoyed his Steak Frites. On Tuesday, I stopped in at Leroy's Kitchen, stuck my head in the kitchen window to say hello to Chef Gregory, and sat at the bar with a glass of wine and his poached peach, burrata and prosciutto salad. I probably wouldn't have participated in this week's FFwD recipe, but for Greg's inspiration to adapt Dorie's recipe into his wonderful salad.


Rather than poaching apples or pears in water, honey, sugar, orange and lemon juice and zest, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla, and making a dessert out of them, I poached peach halves in chardonnay, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla. Once the peaches cooled, I nestled slices of fresh mozzarella (use burrata if you can find it) up against the wine and spice poached peach slices, wrapped them in prosciutto, and placed two or three of those tasty bundles on a bed of baby arugula lightly tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. I also crisped up a little chopped prosciutto and scattered it about. 



Chez Loma Steak Frites

Take it away, Keith


***

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

these look great! I haven't made mine yet, but I love melon wrapped in prosciutto, so I can only imagine how great spice poached peaches wrapped in prosciutto could be! Great job!

Paula @ Vintage Kitchen said...

This is a wonderful salad, the mixture of fruit and cheese is just perfect! And I agree with the burrata suggestion, it´s the best.

Bob Younger said...

:-(

Cher Rockwell said...

Your salad is lovely. Whether it be for one or a ton.

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time. Life sucks that way, sometimes, doesn't it? Even though it just shouldn't ever have to.

Diane Balch said...

Sorry to hear you had a lousy week too. I would have definitely enjoyed this dish more if I wrapped prosciutto around it. (Italian comfort food to me.) You salad is divine.

Diane Balch said...

Sorry to hear you had a bad week too. I would have definitely enjoyed this dish more if I wrapped it in prosciutto. (Italian comfort food.) Your salad is divine.

Teresa said...

Your salad sounds wonderful - a perfect sunny September dish. I know it's little solace during a rough time, but I think your instincts to take yourself out for good food is exactly right.

Anonymous said...

What a romantic little meal ... Carmen here. I'm still holding out that this is just "year 11" and all will be well in the end. Walk. Eat. Take care of your health. xo

Trevor Sis Boom said...

Fantastic! I love the idea of matching these peaches up with the burrata and prosciutto! You win.

Ei said...

Prosciutto and burata make anything better. Well, any meal. Life is a different story. Hope things look up for you soon!

Geri Saucier said...

Beautiful presentation. I love the use of burrata and prosciutto. Thanks for sharing.

marilyn said...

I hope your beautiful salad help fill a void, more than just your tummy, at least for a while. Very creative spin on the week's FFwD recipe!

Julia said...

Beautiful salad! Sounds like you have a fun group - French Fridays with Dorie. Maybe I'll join?

Mary Hirsch said...

Probably a step or two back, taking some deep breaths and Life will get back on track, one way or another or another, would be in order now. (You notice I did not say "make lemonade out of lemons" or "glass 1/2 full", blah blah, blah. The best thing about your past week may be your salad - what a great take on Dorie's poached fruit. Trevor's right, you win.

tricia s. said...

Considering what a rough time you have been having I am all ghe more impressed with how you knocked your Dorie rendition out of the park. I fear that I would have had even more servings of my syrupy sweet dessert over ice cream if I were in your shoes so keep up the healthy disposition:)