Grilled Peaches and Fresh Goat Cheese as a stacked salad is a bit challenging. At least to me, it is. I don’t mean it’s challenging to love. Summer peaches are a marvel. Make grilled peaches the center of a summer salad and the only challenge the eaters in your life will face is stopping at just one stack.
No, for me the challenge in this salad comes in presentation.
As a cook, I’m big on presentation. Fabulous food sloppily presented seems half-baked to me. That’s not saying I don’t love a casual presentation. Family-style lasagna. Bread fresh from the oven torn into chunks. Meticulously made cocktails spilling over the sides of the glass. I love this sort of casualness– as long as it’s thoughtfully casual. I’m not saying I’ll succumb to the burlap napkins or rusty forks that some food stylists prefer, but thumb your way through most cookbooks these days and you will see page after page of thoughtfully presented food. All of it is so casual I’d be tempted to put my elbows on the table.
Grilled Peaches
So as summer comes to an end I have grilled peaches in a thoughtfully casual summer salad. We can’t let summer slip away without enjoying the last of ripe, juicy peaches. The combination of fruit and slightly licorice-tasting fennel is a winner. The creamy goat cheese ties all the elements together.
The challenge comes when stacking. Work carefully and quickly, the warm peaches are intended to melt the goat cheese. This can quickly cause your stack to tumble from thoughtfully casual to deliciously sloppy.
Of course, you could serve this salad deliciously sloppy– of course, you could. But I couldn’t (I just couldn’t). GREG
Ingredients
- 1 fennel bulb (with some fronds attached)
- 1 bunch watercress (stems trimmed and leaves rinsed and dried)
- canola oil (as needed for grill grates)
- 4–5 ripe but firm peaches
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup sherry vinegar
- 1 clove garlic (peeled and lightly crushed)
- 2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon fennel seeds (toasted and lightly crushed)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)
- 8–12 slice fresh young goat cheese (about ⅓‑inch thick each)
Directions
Remove the fronds and stalks from the fennel bulb. Set them aside to use as garnish if you like. Peel off and discard the tough outer layer then cut the bulb in half lengthwise and cut out the cores. Use a mandoline or a very sharp knife to shave or slice the fennel as thinly as possible. Transfer to a large bowl and toss with the watercress.
When ready to serve preheat a grill to medium-high. Carefully oil the grates using an old thick clean towel. Cut peaches into ½‑inch-thick rounds. Cut inward from sides, cutting 2–3 slices off of each side just until you reach the pit. You’ll need at least 12 to 16 uniform slices so keep slicing until you are confident that you have what you need for the stacks. There will be leftover peach flesh at the top and bottom of each pit, consider that a treat for the cook!
In a medium bowl whisk together olive oil, vinegar, crushed garlic clove, brown sugar, fennel seeds, sea salt, and plenty of black pepper. Add the peach slices and mix well to coat the fruit on all sides. Let the slices sit in the marinade 3 or 4 minutes then use tongs to move them to the heated grill. Don’t throw away the marinade; you’ll need it when serving. Grill the peach slices until they soften and nice grill marks appear.
Divide fennel/watercress mixture evenly onto 4 plates. Working quickly while the peaches are still warm, create a stack of 3 or 4 alternating layers of the larger grilled peach rounds and the goat cheese slices on each plate. Remove and discard the crushed garlic clove from the reserved marinade and drizzle some onto each stack. Garnish with fennel fronds if you like. Serve immediately.
Back I the day when wanting to marry another man was a loathsome offence that the majority of people seemed thrilled and eager to punish, a guy had to be careful about how he dressed. Looking amazing had to appear incidental. If it looked purposeful or deliberate, you had better have a girlfriend on whom it could be blamed, lest you find yourself in some deep shit. I’m happy to have left that world behind. But in terms of food presentation, I have to admit to feeling much that way. Good tasting food needs to look good; that’s an inescapable fact. I just need to come away with the conclusion that it’s primary purpose is to be eaten, rather than looked at. What I always appreciate about your food, Greg, is that it looks beautiful, but even more so it looks delicious.
I do remember those days. Unfortunately for me, no amount of “thoughtfully casual” dressing could save me from taunts! Something always gave me away. GREG
All the ingredients are my favourite! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
You need to publish another book on dinner parties and food styling (maybe two). Both have always been a challenge for me, especially artful food styling, but for you, it just comes naturally.
Yeah, this would be a little too tedious for me to try and do. I’m not very patient! But I love the ingredients and flavors and textures, and it could always be an unconstructed salad? Or would that be constructed? Whatever. Love this.
Thoughtfully causal is fine with me. Thanks for the recipe, I love all the ingredients.
Fabulously stacked even if it is thoughtfully casual.
Is this kind of like casually elegant? Peaches have been so good this year!
Were still in spring here, Greg. So I’m stashing this away until the stone fruit season begins in earnest later on down the track.…… A trip to the south-west is a distinct possibility.….orchards aplenty!
Loving your posts here in The Lands Down Under. It’s great to get your news and views on both food and life in general from a different. perspective.
I’m here in the West at the moment and we are in one of the few states that is in “hard lockdown”. We have been in this ’ ”bubble” since the pandemic first started.…… Can’t cross the border and international entry is prohibited for the most part. It’s understandable. There is so much unique flora and fauna to protect and our coastline is massive.….…. Yet we have everything.….…So we can’t complain, really.….
Hope things are easing a bit more for you guys and you are able to access provisions and such more readily. .….. Needs must.…we learn to adapt and improvise. It makes for some amazing creativity. .….. Happy eating and experimenting. 🙂 Caz
Things are easing (a bit) or at least it seems that way! Thanks GREG
Thoughtfully casual but seriously good. And a very polished recipe. Thanks!
Thoughtfully full of flavor, too.
We adore grilled peaches, in fact, I just bout a nice little package of Ontario peaches that we grilled and froze for those endless, dreary winter days. Will definitely put this on my list for our next patio dinner party.