Dear friends,
Do you really want to cook in this weather? I don’t, which is why I made a microwave peach crisp on Saturday. The kitchen remained cool and I had a nice dessert to go with the spicy lacquered Chinese-y pork ribs I smoked on the Weber.
I wish I could share the ribs recipe because the sauce was spectacular. I didn’t write down amounts, though. But I did keep track of how I made the peach crisp, and especially the streusel topping. Finding the right ingredients and amounts for a crumbly topping isn’t easy when you’re dealing with a microwave. Almost everything you put on fruit in a microwave softens and sinks. The usual flour-oats-butter-sugar mixture not only sinks, it becomes unpleasantly doughy.
I solved the problem by STARTING with crunchy stuff — chopped almonds and crushed vanilla wafers. I added uncooked oats and bound it all with melted butter. Then I waited until the peach mixture was half cooked to add the topping. Voila — a fruit crisp with a topping that stays on top and that actually is crisp.
You can make this with The Peach Truck peaches everyone is rushing to buy (thanks to saturation ads, trucked-in peaches are the pumpkin spice latte of 2020), or wait for juicy Ohio peaches that will be ready later this month. I’m waiting, although I bought a few supermarket peaches for a trial run of this recipe. It’s so easy to make you could do both. Now tell me, what are you doing with all those peach-truck peaches?
MICROWAVE PEACH CRISP
Topping:
5 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup quick or old-fashioned (not instant) oats
1/4 cup coarsely crushed almonds
1/2 cup crushed (not pulverized) vanilla wafer cookies
Pinch of salt
Filling:
5 cups peeled and sliced peaches
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar to taste
3 tbsp. flour
Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt on high power in a microwave. Place about 1/3 cup whole almonds in a quart-size plastic bag. Close and crush (I used a smooth meat pounder) until almonds are in coarse pieces. Measure out 1/4 cup. Place oats and almonds in bowl with melted butter and stir. Place a big handful of cookies in the same bag and crush. Measure out 1/2 cup and stir into topping mixture with salt and set aside.
Peel peaches with a sharp vegetable peeler and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place in a medium-size bowl with sugar and flour and stir well, using less sugar for very sweet peaches. Pour into a shallow, buttered 1-quart microwave-safe dish or a buttered deep glass pie pan.
Microwave on high power for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and scatter topping over peaches. Return to oven and microwave 4 to 6 minutes longer, until peaches are bubbly and soft. Let stand at least 2 minutes before serving. May be served warm or cold. Top with whipped cream if desired.
TIDBITS
This may be old news to you, but I just found out West Point Market’s Killer Brownies are available at Pandora’s Cupcakes on Brookwall Drive near Regal Theater in the Montrose area of Copley Township.
Th legendary Akron treats have been renamed “West Point Market’s Original Triple Layer Brownie,” according to Rick Vernon, who owned West Point and supplies the brownies. They are available in a rotating array of flavors including original (caramel), raspberry, no nut, peanut butter, blondie, Bourbon pecan and cherry amaretto.
The brownies are a steep $5 each, but they’re huge. They aren’t available at the Pandora’s location in Tallmadge, so Eastsiders will have to drive across town to get their fix.
GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Roasted bell peppers with lemon-herb ricotta; steamed asparagus; Sonoran shrimp ceviche; open-face sandwich with ham, melted feta, pesto and arugula; baked tofu with peanut sauce over arugula and coconut-lime rice; jalapeno popper chicken, sautéed green beans and corn; sautéed chicken breasts with herbs over arugula; microwave peach crisp; smoked ribs with a Sichuan barbecue sauce, chopped salad; avocado toast and scrambled eggs with ketchup on toast.
What I ate from restaurants:
Pepperoni pizza from DiCarlo’s Pizza on Portage Trail in Akron. The small chain originated in the Ohio Valley and its pizza tastes like the pizza of my childhood in East Liverpool — ultra-creamy mozzarella and salty, high-quality pepperoni on crisp-crusted squares with a kick-butt tomato sauce. It isn’t Orlando’s, my hometown fave, but it’s close.
THE MAILBAG
From Kathy:
In response to your request for websites, have your readers try myfridgefood.com. I love reading what you eat and cook every week.
Dear Kathy:
This is what Mary D. was searching for, although the pop-up ads on the site are beyond annoying and the selection of recipes I was shown (after I punched in ingredients) was kind of calorie-intensive.
From Sandy H.:
After reading your latest newsletter, in response to Mary D.’s question about findIng recipes by way of the ingredients you have, Weight Watchers offers this feature in its app. You may need to be a member to use it.
Dear Sandy:
The basic Weight Watchers app is $3.99 a month. Add-ons can push the cost to $10. That’s less expensive than the traditional program but still may not be worth for those interested only in the recipe-finder function.
From Susan R.:
When it comes to looking for recipes with specific ingredients, I use EatYourBooks.com.
I do have a membership and have entered most of my cookbook collection, and find I’m using my cookbooks a lot more. They also index magazines, blogs, and newspaper columnists such as Diana Henry and Nigel Slater.
Dear Susan:
Thanks for steering us to this interesting site. Users type in a list of the cookbooks they own and an index of recipes is automatically created. Recipes may then be searched by ingredient, ethnicity, etc. The site also allows you to search food magazines and blogs to which you subscribe. A limited free membership allows you to search five of your cookbooks and magazines. A premium membership with unlimited searches is $3 a month or $30 a year.
From Sandy D.:
In response to Mary D. asking about websites to search by ingredients, I’ve long been a fan of allrecipes.com and they have a recipe by ingredient feature on the website.
Dear Sandy:
Alas, there are no recipes that include pickles, chicken and garlic, the ingredients I typed into the search engine. I didn’t leave disappointed, though, because the site kindly showed me recipes for stuffed chicken breast, Mexican quinoa and zucchini noodle shrimp scampi. What the latter two have to do with my ingredients is a mystery. The search function is easy to use, though, and has a handy feature that allows you specify ingredients you DON’T want. For example, yes to beef, red wine and onions, hold the squirrel.
See Jane Cook 