Come August, many drivers zipping along Interstate 70 as it threads Colorado’s high country bypass the chic enclaves of Vail and Beaver Creek and beeline it to a small town in Mesa County.
They are pursuing gold in those hills — specifically, the peaches grown by farmers in and around Palisade. The community boasts a microclimate that produces superb peaches, and while folks in Georgia will brag otherwise, Coloradans know the location of the real sweet spot.
So do a growing number of other Americans. Colorado is the country’s seventh-largest peach producer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the fruit is shipped nationally. (About 14,000 tons annually, depending on seasonal factors such as early frosts and temperatures.)
About 75 percent of those peaches come from Palisade and Mesa County, and folks there celebrate.
This year’s Palisade Peach Festival will be held Aug. 14-17 in the town’s Riverbend Park. About 14,000 people showed up in 2013. (You can read more about the peach fest at visitgrandjunction.com.)
Many attendees will return home with boxes of peaches, seeking new ways to use the bounty.
While taking a bite of a ripe peach is a glorious thing, cooks also appreciate the fruit’s versatility. It works in everything from cobblers to cocktails, soups to salsas and salads. The fruit rewards simplicity, too. While a peach pie is glorious, so is a chargrilled peach half loaded with vanilla ice cream.
We asked some top Mile High chefs to offer recipes using Colorado peaches.
Chef Jennifer Jasinski, a transplanted Californian who helms four restaurants with business partner Beth Gruitch ( Rioja, Bistro Vendôme, Euclid Hall, Stoic & Genuine), is a big fan of the fruit.
“In the 10 years I have lived in Colorado, especially being from Santa Barbara, I have come to appreciate the local products that make Colorado so special, and peaches in August are one of them,” she says.
Here are some recipes showcasing our homegrown fruit’s versatility.
William Porter: 303-954-1877, wporter@denverpost.com or twitter.com/williamporterdp
Chilled Tomato Soup with Peaches
This is a combo dish created by Paul Reilly, executive chef of Beast + Bottle in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood. The soup rings a salad of Palisade peaches, cucumber and red onion. Serves 4.
Ingredients
SOUP
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, smashed
4 large tomatoes, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 sprigs thyme
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped tarragon
½ cup water
PEACH SALAD
1 Palisade peach, sliced in small wedges
½ red onion, sliced thin
1 Persian cucumber, sliced in ¼-inch rounds
8 heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Tarragon leaves for garnish
Extra virgin olive oil for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss onion, garlic and tomato with salt, thyme and olive oil on cookie sheet and roast until tomato edges are charred, approximately 25 minutes. Remove from heat, add tarragon and water and purée until smooth. Strain through a colander into a large bowl and chill.
For salad: Toss together all ingredients. Divide the salad mix into the middle of four serving bowls. Pour cold soup around salad, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.
Colorado Peaches with Cabrales and Ham
Jennifer Jasinski is the Denver dining scene’s queen bee, helming four restaurants with business partner Beth Gruitch. The flavors of Rioja, her Spain-inspired restaurant, are found in this dish.
A note on ingredients: Cabrales cheese is a tangy, bold Spanish blue. Valdeon is also a Spanish bleu cheese, but it’s not as creamy or bold as Cabrales.
In keeping with the Spanish flavors, Pedro Ximénez makes a Spanish sherry that is an intensely sweet, dark dessert wine. Fortified wines of this type are called “PX” sherries. Serves 6-12.
Ingredients
1 sourdough baguette
10 ounces Cabrales cheese (preferred) or Valdeon cheese (8 ounces for the crostini, 2 ounces to garnish)
1 cup pure olive oil
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, cleaned and no stems
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
6 ripe Colorado peaches
½ pound organic arugula
Pedro Ximénez 1979 sherry (preferred) or any vintage PX sherry, to taste
6 paper-thin slices serrano ham or prosciutto
Directions
Cut the baguette on the bias into 12 pieces K inch thick and about 5 inches long. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor, add 8 ounces of the Cabrales cheese and K cup of the olive oil. Blend until smooth.
Dip each piece of bread into the cheese mix and then place on a tray covered with parchment paper. Bake in the 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes. You want the bread to be crispy on the outside but still a bit soft in the center.
Strip the rosemary off of the stems and place the leaves in a blender with the parsley leaves and the remaining K cup olive oil; blend until a beautiful green rosemary oil is made. Season the oil to taste with salt and pepper and place it in a small container until it is time to serve.
Preheat grill to high heat. For the peaches, there are two ways you can prepare them.
If you like the skin, you can cut the peach in half, remove the pit and then brush the peach with a tiny bit of olive oil. Grill the peach over high just to make nice grill marks and warm the peach through.
If you don’t like the skin, quickly blanch the skin off the peach by scoring the end of the peach with an “X” and then placing it in a pot of boiling water for about 10 seconds; immediately plunge it into ice water to cool the peach. This should release the skin and you can easily peel off the skin. Finish grilling as above.
In a bowl, toss the arugula with the rosemary oil and a bit of the sherry wine; season with salt and pepper. Place a slice of ham along the bottom of each salad plate. Mound the arugula in the center of the plate and then place 2 warm crostini over the salad. Crumble a bit more cheese on the salad. Place 1 or 2 peach halves on the plate and then drizzle with more rosemary oil and sherry wine.
Rocky Mountain Peach Rickey
Randy Layman, bar manager at Ace, created this drink. “I like using the Leopold Bros. Rocky Mountain Peach Liqueur in cocktails because it’s similar to canning or pickling fresh Palisade peaches; you get to use them all year long,” he says. “The gin and sparkling wine keep it refreshing and bright, perfect for these hot summer months.”
Ingredients
1½ ounces London Dry Gin
¾ ounce Leopold Bros. Rocky Mountain Peach Liqueur
½ ounce fresh lime juice
4 ounces sparkling wine, such as cava or prosecco
1 Palisade peach
Directions
Add gin, peach liqueur and lime juice to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a tall Collins glass over fresh ice. Top with sparkling wine and garnish with a lime wheel and Palisade peach slices.
Grilled Palisade Peach Salad
Aniedra Nichols, chef at Elway’s Cherry Creek, created this savory salad. Serves 2-4.
Ingredients
5 wedges ripe Palisade peach
1½ ounces thin-sliced prosciutto ham
3 ounces burrata cheese
1 tablespoon Marcona almonds, chopped
¾ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 cups arugula
½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Wrap a thin slice of prosciutto around the peach wedge. Season lightly with oil, salt and pepper and grill until slightly crispy, 2 minutes per side.
Cut the burrata cheese (a creamy fresh cheese similar to mozzarella) into 1-ounce pieces. Toss the arugula with salt and olive oil. Place the arugula on the plate with the grilled peaches and burrata layered around the salad.
Sprinkle the marcona almonds on top, and drizzle the entire salad with the balsamic vinegar. (If you’re feeling ambitious, heat a ½ cup of balsamic vinegar in a non-reactive pot until reduced by half, or when the glaze can coat the back of a spoon. Drizzle on the salad.
Vanilla,Peach and Cherry Preserves
Elise Wiggins, executive chef at Panzano in downtown Denver’s Hotel Monaco, concocted this recipe that draws on two favorite Centennial State fruits. Makes 5 half-pints.
Ingredients
10 to 15 small to medium Palisade peaches or your favorite
1 cup of whole pitted fresh Colorado cherries or your favorite
1 vanilla bean
¼ cup bottled lemon juice
4 tablespoons low-sugar pectin
1½ cups sugar
Directions
Peel and pit the peaches. (You can use a serrated peeler to remove the skin, or blanch them.)
To blanch for peeling, mark an X at the bottom of each peach with a knife. Drop a few peaches into boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds until the skin starts to loosen. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer the blanched peaches to a large bowl of ice water. When they are cool enough to handle, simply slip off the skin by peeling back the X flaps with your fingers.
Finely chop the peeled and pitted peaches. You should end up with about 6 cups of fruit.
Split a vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape out all the seeds and reserve.
Combine the chopped peaches, cherries, vanilla seeds, scraped vanilla bean (just in case you missed any seeds), and lemon juice in a large pot over high or medium-high heat. Stir in the pectin, and bring to a full boil.
Boil the mixture vigorously for several minutes, stirring constantly, until the peaches, cherries and vanilla are well blended, and the fruit reaches a thick, jammy consistency.
Stir in the sugar, return to a full boil, and boil for another minute. The mixture should be bubbly and boiling to a point where it cannot be stirred down.
Remove the pot from heat and discard the vanilla bean. Stir to make sure the fruit is well distributed.
Ladle the preserves into hot, clean jars, seal with rings and lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (adjust time for altitude if needed).
