Peach Pecan Upside Down Cake

This past Labor Day weekend ended up being a stay at home event for me and the family. We had some hopes of a weekend getaway, but never got our act together on planning. Regardless, the weather was pretty crummy and I was recovering from a head cold so it was probably for the best that we didn't stray from the house much. Despite these downers, my wife saw this as an opportunity to tackle a list of treats she had been looking for time to bake, and when she told me that a peach upside down cake was part of the plan, I knew that I'd be writing about it here. 

One of the great things about upside down cakes are that they make is so easy to create a beautiful looking cake without having to mess around with icing. Of course, you won't find upside down cakes highlighting a wedding, but they certainly make for a great ending to a family dinner. Personally, I'd take a slice of this over a fancy layer cake any day!

Spicy Pork with Peach Sauce and Braised Cabbage

The farm has been quite generous with peaches over the last few weeks, with recent shares containing 8 peaches every time. This has presented a bit of a challenge in that the peaches are not yet ripe when I get them, and inevitably they will all ripen at the same time resulting in a bit of a scramble for us to get them all used before they start going bad. Not that I'm really complaining about having to eat lots of nice ripe peaches, but it got me thinking that it would be good to have a few ways to use unripe peaches as well.

Since the unripe peach are quite firm, they don't fall apart as easily during cooking and I wanted to take full advantage of this by using them in two of the three components in this dish. The main protein, pork is often paired with fruit, apples probably being the most common. I've never tried pork with peach, but there are plenty of pork/peach recipes on the web, so it appears I've been missing out.

After sifting through a few recipes, I decided to go for a sweet/spicy combination by using a spicy rub on the pork and then serving it with a sweet peach sauce. Since the unripe peaches are rather tart, I'll add some sugar to the sauce to give it a bit of sweetness, but not too much. The second way I used the peaches was to combine them with red cabbage (left from a couple shares ago) and onion and then braise the whole lot with vinegar until it reaches its happy place. Pork, peach sauce, braised cabbage...this is going to be good!

Peach and Blueberry Galette

A galette is a French term that describes a round, flat pastry that is typically rustic and somewhat free form in its design. For me, the I would translate to simply mean "easy pie". One crust, no pie plate and no fussy filling, just fresh fruit and a bit of sugar. My wife makes galettes more often than regular pies for this reason that its a lot less work and just as delicious. Galettes are great as desserts, but can just as easily be made from savory ingredients as well. Sauteed vegetables, meats, cheeses, egg or just about anything else you can think of could likely work as a galette filling, and I gurantee that this will not be the last time you see a galette on this blog. This time of year however, when the peaches are fresh and sweet, its a no-brainer to use them for the filling. All credit for this recipe and the work to make it goes to my wife. Thanks sweetie!

Share Contents Used
Peaches
Blueberries

Pie Crust
2.5 cups flour
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup chilled butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup of ice water

Filling
6-7 peaches
2 tbs sugar
1/4 cup blueberries

Preparation

To make the crust, place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and mix to combine.  Add the butter and process until the mixture forms into a coarse crumb texture. With the machine running, slowly pour 1/4 cup of water into the feed tube until the dough just holds together when you pinch it between your fingers. Add more water if necessary to achieve this. Try to minimize the processing time to no more than 30 seconds if possible. Dump the dough out onto your counter and divide in half. Form each pile into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour before using. Once properly chilled, take one disk out of the fridge (freeze the other for another day) and place it on a floured work surface. Gently roll out the disk to a 12-14 inch circle. Don't worry about making it super even and neat, just as long as you have a solid base to place the filling and enough extra edge to fold over. Place the rolled out dough on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

To make the filling, peel the peaches then remove the pit and slice into thin segments. You should end up with at around 4 cups of peach slices. Place in a bowl and toss with the sugar, you can use more or less to your taste based on the sweetness of the peaches.

Leaving around a 2 inch edge, arrange the peach slices on the crust, overlapping them in a circular pattern until the it is filled to the middle. Alternately, if this look isn't important to you, just dump the slices in the middle and spread them out evenly, leaving 2 inches of dough around the edge. Fold the edge up and over the filling, working your way around and folding the crust over itself until it looks something like you see above. Keep in mind that this is suppose to be a rough, rustic look so don't make yourself crazy trying to make it even. Just be sure that the entire edge is covered to prevent leaks during baking. Finally, scatter the blueberries over top of the filling. Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let cool completely before serving.