Baked or Barbecued Peaches

It is really beginning to feel like Autumn, Steve stacked wood all weekend and the mornings and evenings have that indescribable autumn smell. However yesterday afternoon on my Patio it was 30 degrees, warm in anyone's estimation. San Froilan the Patronal festival in Lugo starts on Thursday and by tradition that is when we check our woodpile, sweep our chimneys, close our windows and prepare for cold weather. This is because, also by tradition, that is when the rain starts.

I thought that in anticipation of this colder weather, I would give you the last summer recipe of the year. This recipe works well on the barbecue or in the oven. I would advise using a cake tin on the BBQ rather than the tart plate I have used in the photos

You will need good ripe peaches to start with (Nectarines would also work).

Cut them in half and remove the stones.

This will leave you with a hollow bit where the stone was, you can make this hollow a little deeper with a teaspoon if you want it to look neat and tidy.
Into each hollow place one heaped teaspoon of butter, one heaped teaspoon of brown sugar (any that you have in your cupboard) and one tablespoon of liquor I use amoretto or an almond flavour liquor, but I think orange would work as well. The liquor will overflow a bit but that ok. Now add three tablespoons of water to the bottom of the dish NOT over the peaches.

Place on the barbecue away from direct heat and loosely covered with foil ( remove the foil after 30 mins). Or in the oven uncovered at about 180 C and cook for about an hour but check regularly after 40 minutes. All juice at the bottom of the dish should be syrupy and bubbly. The peaches should be soft but still holding their shape and brown on top.

Don't remove them before the edges are all caramelly dark brown. They should smell divine at this point.

Eat them hot with cream or ice cream. One of my Airbnb guests declared that this was the best dessert she had ever tasted.

On the grounds that it so simple to make it is one of the best desserts to serve to guests meaning that we all win.
On a final note don't make it without the sugar, it will work, it will be nice, it will give you a million points in the healthy eating conversation which you will be honour bound to have, but you will be missing the deliciousness and maybe even the point.  Either only eat one peach half or skip the ice cream, Yogurt even fat and sugar-free yoghurt taste fantastic with it. But don't omit the sugar.

Figs and things.

Not long after we came out here my brother and sister in law broke the normal family rule of only buying presents for children at Christmas. They gave me a baby fig tree and Steve their spare chain saw, despite the fact that we were flying back out here by Ryan air. I was a bit dubious about both gifts, terrified that the chain saw would kill us and that I would kill the fig tree if we could get them to Spain at all.
Steve flew back first as I was staying in the UK to sort out some family matters. The chainsaw was in his suitcase in the hold despite being questioned in front of all the other passengers he was allowed to fly. The fig tree came with me and remarkably suffered only only one broken branch.
The chainsaw despite my doubts proved to be one of the most useful presents we ever had and we still use it despite having brought a another more powerful machine since.
This year the fig tree produced its first harvest of beautiful black figs.

To celebrate I am including my favourite fig recipe.

For two people you need four black figs,four rashers of streaky bacon, half a small log of goats cheese and four slices of country bread.
For the dressing you need honey, mustard and sherry vinegar.


Squash the bread into an oven proof dish and sprinkle with olive oil.
Cut the stalks from the figs and then cut through them to about hhalf way to the base.
Put a thick slice of goats cheese into each slit and then wrap the fig in streaky bacon. Stand 1 fig upright on each slice of bread.

Whisk together a teaspoon of honey with a teaspoon of mustard and two teaspoons of sherry vinegar and drizzle over the figs.

Place in a hot oven until the bacon is cooked and crispy. Serve the fig on the bread with a small green salad.