A Soup for James (Cold Peach Soup)

Peaches are just about ready to come in Pennsylvania.  The better ones are available at farmer’s markets.  You should test the peaches before you buy.  They should look and smell like late summer.  Are they warm or cold?  Peaches that have been refrigerated are more likely to have traveled far, maybe from the Carolinas or further south.  If the peaches are warm, it is likely that they have been picked and rushed directly to you.  Secondly, feel the fruit.  As you lift them they should feel heavy in your hand, filled with juice, not mealy.  Lastly, gently with your thumb, press down on the top of the peach.  It should yield slightly and not be firm to the touch.  If it is still hard, put it back.  You want a tree-ripened peach.  If your thumb punches through, it is probably either just perfect or over ripe.  Either way, you have bought that particular fruit.  Don’t try to sneak it back on the table.  You’ll be sticking the farmer, since no one else will want to buy a peach with your thumb print

Make cobbler.  Fannie Farmer has a great recipe.  Make pie using Julia Child’s crust.  A simple tart, made with impeccably fresh peaches and glazed with apricot jelly is just one of those things that let us all know we are loved.  Eat them up, because peaches don’t get any better in the fall.   

The first time I got a compliment from Chef Jean Pierre Petite at the Café Royal in Philly was for a peach soup I made in August of 1984.  Normally, he spit out the food that I cooked and cursed about how much money I was wasting, how much time he would have to spend to fix my stupid mistakes, how my palate was made of tin…you get the picture.  This time was different.  He actually liked my cooking and put it on the daily menu.  Here is the recipe.

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Cold Peach Soup (serves 8)

4 pounds fresh peaches, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

2 cups dry white wine

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

the juice of 1 lemon

4 tsp. fresh mint, chopped

Combine the wine, water and sugar in a medium saucepan.  Bring it to a boil, simmer for five minutes, then remove the liquid from the heat and cool completely.

In a large nonreactive soup pot, mix the peaches, buttermilk and lemon juice.  With a hand blender or food mill, puree the fruit.  Slowly stir in the wine syrup, mixing until it comes to a thick soup consistency.  Taste for sweetness.  You may want to add more sugar, but if the peaches were perfectly ripe that will be unnecessary.  Chill the soup for one hour.

Serve the Cold Peach Soup in chilled bowls garnished with chopped mint.  This recipe also works well with melons and many other soft fruits that puree smoothly. 

The cooks used to add vodka to the leftover peach soup and drink it down.  I can’t endorse that kind of bad behavior.