Macerated Stone Fruit Food

MACERATED STONE FRUIT

Steps:

• Mix fruit, almonds, pine nuts, orange juice, water, cinnamon, rosewater and anise liquor or 2 or 3 star anise, if using.
• Cover and stir every few hours for 12 to 24 hours. Serve when fruit is tender.

MACERATED FRUIT

Steps:

• Combine your ingredients of choice in a medium bowl and toss together until the fruit is evenly coated. For inspiration, try some of my favorite fruit, herb and spice combinations, such as Peach and Ginger, Blackberry and Mint, Cherry and Cinnamon and Strawberry and Vanilla.
• Cover the bowl with reusable or regular plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours, stirring about halfway through and gently pressing the fruit with a rubber spatula until the liquid completely covers the fruit.
• After the 24 hours, strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve, gently pressing on the fruit with a rubber spatula to extract as much juice as possible. Reserve both the fruit and the liquid. Discard any other solids, such as herb sprigs, whole spices or aromatics.
• Serving suggestions for the macerated fruit: Serve immediately on top of yogurt with granola, or desserts, such as grilled pound cake or ice cream. You can also muddle the fruit into cocktails or add it to sangria. The fruit can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 or 4 days or frozen for up to 6 months. Thaw before serving.
• The macerated liquid can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week or frozen in an ice cube tray. Once frozen, cover with reusable or regular plastic wrap and freeze for up to 6 months. You can use a small offset spatula to help remove individual cubes from the tray, then thaw the macerated liquid as needed.
• Serving suggestions for the macerated liquid:
• Homemade soda: For 1 serving, pour 1/4 cup macerated liquid in a tall glass filled with ice, top with 12 ounces sparkling water and serve.
• Fruit shrub: For the shrub base, combine 1 part macerated liquid with 1 part apple cider vinegar (for example, 1/2 cup of each). Mix to evenly combine. For 1 serving, pour 1/4 cup of the shrub base into a tall glass filled with ice, top with 12 ounces sparkling water and serve.
• Fruit vinaigrette: Turn your shrub base (see above) into a vinaigrette. Whisk 1 part shrub base with 1 part neutral oil (such as canola, grapeseed or vegetable oil; for example, 1/4 cup of each) in a bowl until emulsified. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
• Fruit syrup: Bring the macerated liquid to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until reduced by half and thickened to the consistency of maple syrup-it should coat the back of a spoon without running off very quickly. Let the syrup cool completely, then serve over ice cream, pancakes, oatmeal, or yogurt and granola. The syrup also makes for a great gift when poured into a jar. It can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

STONE FRUIT CAPRESE

Steps:

• Pit the stone fruit and cut into irregular pieces. Transfer to a serving platter, then sprinkle with the lemon juice, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt. Toss with your hands, then let sit until juices pool on the platter, 5 to 10 minutes. Taste and adjust sugar, salt and lemon juice until the fruit tastes perky and bright - like the greatest stone fruit you've eaten.
• Tear the mozzarella into bite-size pieces and nestle it among the fruit. Tuck in the herb leaves. Drizzle the platter with olive oil. If the cheese looks dry, add a little more oil. Sprinkle with a few grinds of black pepper and a pinch of flaky salt, and serve.

SWEET POTENTIAL

Steps:

• Once you've peeled, sliced, diced, and weighed the fruit (see note), toss it with an equal weight of sugar, plus the lemon or lime slices, in a Dutch oven. Cover and let macerate overnight. I keep this on the counter because I don't have room in the fridge for something that big and the fruit doesn't mind room temperature for a spell.
• The next day you'll see a syrup has formed around the fruit. There may still be pockets of sugar that have not fully dissolved and that's totally fine. Transfer the Dutch oven to the stove and bring it up to a simmer over medium heat. I always stir it a bit in the beginning to prevent any sugar from burning, but I've never come close to ruining this and I ruin a lot of stuff, so don't fret.
• Once it's at a strong simmer, cover, lower the heat slightly, and cook for 15 minutes, or up to 1 hour.
• For fruits like strawberries, blackberries, figs, and watermelon flesh, 15 minutes may be all the time you need. For these you want the fruit to shrink a bit and the syrup to take on the pale color of the fruit suspended in it. The preserves don't get better the longer you cook them, so don't be a hero and simmer until the syrup thickens. If you do, your preserves will be sticky and unmanageable once they cool. Let the preserves sit at room temperature at least an hour before you refrigerate them. The cooling process is important as it allows fruits like strawberries and watermelon the chance to plump up with syrup and appear less shriveled.
• For apples, pears, citrus, and watermelon rinds, you'll need to cook them a bit longer until some of the fruit becomes translucent. This can take up to an hour, so you'll need to keep an eye on the syrup to make sure it doesn't begin to darken into caramel. Just as with the other fruits, you want this syrup to be pale and thin, so adjust it with water as needed. If it seems as if the syrup begins to reduce in volume, add a cup or so of water to ward off thick, difficult-to-work with preserves. Once about a third of the preserves have taken on that clear veneer, turn the heat off and let them cool in the syrup. As they cool, most of the remaining fruit should also wane translucent.
• Transfer the fruit and syrup into jars, and there you have it. Preserved fruit floating in syrup equals Sweet Potential that will keep in your fridge for basically forever. But this is a book and I can't really claim that, so make the most of your Sweet Potential within 3 months.