Peaches & Port for Desert!

This recipe goes back to our days in Brunei, when my two sons – the heir & the spare — were in boarding school in a town called Kooralbyn off Brisbane. I used to get them to buy me magazines, when they came for holidays. The cookery ones were purchased with much enthusiasm as they got to taste the stuff but the Cosmo’s were  bought with much grumbling and moaning, as they got teased by their mates. Still I did get both!

Finally found one of my photos of this desert. This dish was the pièce de résistance at the end of a party. I used to switch off the lights, pour the warmed brandy over and light it before bringing it to the table. The little blue flames dancing on top of a fluted pretty dish with the peaches lying in the deep red port sauce was always a hit. I am afraid you have to imagine the flames as I haven’t got a photo with them.

Drunken peaches. Photo copyright Chulie de Silva

To keep your taste buds flowing here is the photo from my ageing cookery scrapbook with fold marks, I’ve tried to iron out

Peaches in port servedwith fresh cream.

So, to cut the katha and get down to what you need:

825 gm can peach halves  — drained  (juice not used)

½ cup port

½ cup red current jelly ( here I replace with rasberry jam)

½ cup or a bit less sugar

¼ tspn cinnamon or a cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon lemon juice ( I used lime here)

¼ cup brandy

Making it is dead easy. Note: I keep a separate saucepan for sweet dishes, so other spicy tastes don’t spoil the flavours.

Combine port, jelly/jam, sugar, cinnamon, lemon/lime juice  in a pan and stir over medium heat till sugar dissolves.  Bring to boil, add drained peach halves. Reduce heat simmer 5 minutes.

At this point I transfer the peaches into a pyrex dish and set it aside. Before serving do a quick heat up in the micro. Switch off lights, add brandy set a flame and bring to the table.

Serve with fresh cream or a rich gorgeous vanilla ice cream.

At the end of the day, lie down put your feet up and treat yourself to a glass of port!

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Text & Photographs@ Chulie de Silva